CBSO’s shifting policy on the use of phones
OrchestrasThe orchestra management has now modified its stance on phone use to this:
‘We are very happy for you to take photographs and short video clips at our concerts. … We suggest that you take pictures and videos during applause breaks.’
It also maintains that the whole fuss was invented by the media, particularly by slippedisc.com.
Really?
This is what audience members were handed in April:
They can wriggle, but they can’t deny.
Such a shame for the orchestra that their new CEO is focused on anything but the music. If you love music you don’t need phones.
She would get a lot more respect if she had listened to feedback and apologised instead of continuing this.
Why is she telling subscribers ‘we are not encouraging filming at our concerts’? This leaflet and their current policy says the opposite.
Incredible, isn’t it? Months later and the policy is still an embarrassment. Not to mention the apparent lies.
Must be a tough, upsetting time for those playing in the orchestra. I feel sorry for them.
If all of the anti-phone commenters on the site could see beyond their narrow, pre-2005 world, they’d realize that videos and photos will help spread the gospel of classical music – thereby helping to ensure the survival of the art form they claim to love so much. It’s a form of guerrilla marketing for the orchestra, and it works.
Nonsense
No place for phones, or slurping in a classical music concert.
She is destroying the good name of the CBSO.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSceptics/comments/1deu0xx/_/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
I’m a young black woman who loves music, classical and not classical.
Don’t use the words ‘gospel’ and ‘guerrilla’ to appeal to me.
Don’t say I need things dumbed down.
I don’t want ‘special treatment’ when I go to a concert, as if I am less clever than other people.
George and Emma: stop trying to be heroes whose job is to rescue black people.
You’re clearly insinuating things that had nothing to do with my original comment. Sad that you’re so attached to this preposterous anti-phone viewpoint that you’d take your argument in that direction (if indeed you even are who you claim to be, and I have my doubts).
The thing is the glow of screens is really distracting and disturbing. I’m an easily distracted person. Would never go to a classical concert where phones are allowed throughout.
The concert platform is the workplace for museums and you want them to be photographed at work, despite the fact that their intense concentration will be affected.
Would you be equally willing for a surgeon to be photographed or filmed while operating on you?
Sorry, workplace for musicians. Predictive text.
Preposterous anti-phone sentiment? These people aren’t listening to the concert, they’re taking pictures. Maybe we should let them make coffee or mix drinks in their seats too.
Photos helping spread the gospel of classical music…..
No chance!!!!
They can do it on their own time. Not mine.
Absolute nonsense. Evidence?
Her actions recently have been so disrespectful to her orchestra and audience in so many ways.
Imagine being in the orchestra and being told your concerts would be improved with phones and drinks.
And: your music-making is exclusionary and even racist.
Emma sent this to subscribers and donors before booking opened for the new season:
‘Over the past couple of weeks, there has been a lot of discussion in the media about our policy around the use of phones, and this has understandably caused concerns for some of you. Whilst much of our position has either been misrepresented or misreported, we are of course listening to, and reflecting on, the feedback, which we take very seriously. To put your mind at ease, we are not encouraging filming at our concerts.’
Was she lying? Can they get refunds if their concerts are ruined?
More of my concerts have been ruined by middle aged people chatting away than by kids on their phones, but sure, let’s pretend phones are the spawn of the devil for the sake of it. That includes, by the way, my visit to Glyndebourne this year, where there was not a phone in sight but several couples chatting merrily throughout the Ouverture to Carmen.
Sorry to hear this, the behaviour is selfish and upsetting for those nearby and also disrespectful to players.
Drinks are another problem that distracts and disrespects. Yet Emma does this openly on the balcony.
It’s interesting how I the quote you post she seems to be suggesting the “concerns” caused are because of the discussion about it, rather than the policy itself…… typical management distancing when something they’ve introduced goes wrong….. it’s almost as if the problems were entirely predictable…..
Emma said a priority this year is that the orchestra develops an ‘anti-racist approach to work’.
Isn’t it more racist to believe that black people will only buy tickets if concerts are dumbed down?
Incredibly offensive to all sides from Emma
As a young black woman, hearing this from Emma is really upsetting.
Is she under the impression that previously CBSO happily went about with a racist approach to work?
Did they?
That’s the new mode of thinking, yes. People in the past were so offensive and inappropriate, but we, we are good and just and true.
So the policy today asks people to take videos and merely ‘suggests’ not to do this when the orchestra plays?
I’m not sure whether this management is incompetent or disgraceful.
Both!
Such a shame for this wonderful orchestra.
I hope they know that this criticism of Emma and her management is not the same as criticism of them as musicians.
They deserve better than what they have been forced to deal with.
For someone with years of experience in theatre, it’s shocking how badly this is being handled.
The CBSO is a brilliant orchestra but Emma is causing an incredible amount of upset and damage.
You wouldn’t ask someone who can’t add up to be your accountant.
You wouldn’t ask someone who can’t read to be your lawyer.
You wouldn’t ask someone who can’t drive to drive you to the airport.
So why is Emma in this role? It is well-known she has zero knowledge of music before accepring this role.
The CBSO audience is loyal and passionate, but she is pushing them away even more by patronising them and believing that she knows best.
You can’t expect an orchestra to do well under someone who is not passionate about music. If you respect serious music, there’s no place for phones and drinks that distract the whole hall. I’ve seen her drink in concerts and of course it detracted from the orchestra’s incredible playing. She shouldn’t speak down to me and say I need to be distracted to enjoy a concert.
If she doesn’t want to prioritise her paying audience, she should show some respect and resign.
Why is she so determined to force things through that are so unpopular?
Her ‘immersive’ concert with lights and films was slated and many asked for refunds. You’d think she’d have listened and learnt.
If you push away those who are giving their money to support to the orchestra you have a huge problem. Stenning’s priorities are clearly in the wrong place.
They’re not necessarily unpopular. Just unpopular among the echo chamber on SD (if indeed this is more than one commenter writing under multiple aliases).
How is that modifying the stance? Photos and short video clips are permitted, it is suggested that they are taken during applause breaks. At a concert in April, attenders were invited to submit short video clips for use in the season trailer.
The issue is certainly controversial, but a lot of nastily confrontational (and misleadind) propaganda against the CBSO management has been stirred up in the media, and SD has played its part.
Why then did she tell subscribers ‘we are not encouraging filming at our concerts’?
Did she tell them a different story to encourage them to buy tickets and support her position.
I’m sorry but it’s inexcusable.
This won’t change a thing. Appalling decision making.
Saying this again;
The problem is clear.
1. Emma is alienating her audience. She tells them they will enjoy their concerts more if they are filled with films, lights, drinks, everything other than MUSIC. Bumping up ticket prices to pay for her new gimmicks.
2. She is not getting a new audience to replace what the audience she is losing.
She is making a laughing stock of the CBSO players by criticising concerts as boring and encouraging everything that distracts from their playing.
We (donors and subscribers) are sharing our feedback and we get patronising messages and policies back. It is the talk of our concerts when we go.
My husband and I want to keep donating but if Emma stays another year we will stop. We are not having Emma sit there with her fingers in her ears throwing more of our money away.
It says so much about someone who blames other people for her mistakes instead of taking responsibility herself.
Don’t you just love the use of middle-class indirect English-English – we suggest? Don’t they mean: We request!
What ever has happened to: Due to the overwhelming response from the paying public, we are sorry but we have changed our decision on the use of mobile phones and mp3 recorders during a classical concert in line woth other venues of classical music, and so that everyone can enjoy the concert in the moment, the use of phones in a performance will not allowed from(date) unless it is during the applause breaks or at the end of the concert.
Is it so difficult? And yet they get thousands for sitting on committees making duff decisions! No regards for the actual performers either.
It’s as if she’s trying to destroy the orchestra through her mismanagement.
Why has the phone policy not changed? Why is she still telling people to use phones and only ‘suggesting’ not to disrupt the music? This is weak and a slap in the face of hard working musicians.
It’s not as if Emma doesn’t have time or can’t make an effort. Look at the new policy she recently launched after her management was flooded with feedback and complaints. If she can prioritise this for herself, she can prioritise some basic respect for her orchestra during concerts:
‘CBSO Respectful Behaviour Policy
These are the kind of behaviours we consider to be unreasonable or unacceptable:
Verbal abuse or aggression either in person, over the phone, via email or through any other digital platform (including derogatory or discriminatory remarks, shouting and rudeness).
Excessive letters, calls, emails or contact via social media.
Unreasonable demands (such as expecting a solution or answer immediately or taking up so much time that it impacts our ability to provide our services to other customers).
We reserve the right to cancel tickets and/or stop someone attending or engaging with future CBSO events.’
The language in this policy is scary. At this rate she’ll be sending letters to people who raise valid concerns.
Well, she did have strong links with the Arts Council of England and their draconian regime of silencing valid complaints.
Send her a short one sentence reply “get thyself hence in short jerky movements”……….I think she will get the gist!
I cancelled my subscription for this reason. I can’t spend so much money on concerts that get ruined because the CEO is telling people to distract others with phones. Likewise for her videos and lighting that she said would improve my favourite Beethoven symphony.
In The People’s Republic of Birmingham, criticism is unacceptable. You had been cautioned not long ago:
“This criticism of our staff is unacceptable. Under our Respectful Behaviour Policy we have the right to deny individuals’ access to future concerts if such behaviour continues. The CBSO is a place of joy and your criticism of CBSO management affects the mental and physical safety of our orchestra.”
Mental health issue indeed.
Yes. No one is criticising any member of the CBSO staff other than Emma herself. All this negative publicity is entirely the fault of Emma and her ill thought out, idiotic ideas.
Be careful, Tim, or she might send you another letter and give you the ban!
How dare she!?
Thank you Slipped Disc for sharing this.
She sent me a letter last month before I booked my subscription saying clearly: we do not encourage phones.
How dare she mislead me just before asking me to support her orchestra!?
I have donated for the past few years but no longer. I am not giving my money to a liar.
I wonder what she’d say if you ask for your money back? You’d have a good case if you gave it under deception.
How many SUBSCRIPTIONS has this [person] renewed or sold for 2024-25 ???
Selling season is April to mid-July.
Not many? Fire her !!!
And please, Norman, don’t show that [redacted] face any more than absolutely necessary.
Well, when subscription booking opened she sent a letter to subscribers with the lie that she is not encouraging phone use. See the other comments and previous articles on here!
Why is she too weak to say ‘phones should not be used when the orchestra is performing’?
Because that would be elitist and retrograde.
I once heard an admirable senior member of a leadership team say to someone else: “You know what? I was the bloody idiot, not you.” Leadership people nowadays seem unable to say that. These so-called leaders are laughable – and they detract from the great orchestra that is the CBSO. I feel for the players, many of whom must be bemused at the very least – certainly utterly sick of all this nonsense, which could easily have been dealt with by in a flash after the Bostridge debacle. But no. Mulishness reigns.
I think this formulation has been in place for a while. The problem is that it’s still ambiguous – whether deliberately so or not. No-one’s under any obligation to respond to a ‘suggestion’, rather than a requirement or even a request. So if you take a picture in mid-performance, presumably the implication is that no-one will mind very much. Whereas if you complain about something, there is a danger you will be banned (see other stories). I would love everyone to move on from all this, but, in context the wording is still worrying – confirming the suspicion that the CEO dislikes long-term, committed music lovers supporters, and DOES like people who dip their toes into the classical water from time to time as part of an overall ‘entertainment’ experience. BUT – the orchestra, its conductor and their hall remain fantastic in spite of it all.
Which concert? How often were these slips handed out? If all they were after was content that they could use in a single promotional video for the season launch (which is what this appears to imply) and these slips were handed out at one or two carefully pre-chosen concerts (and I have seen absolutely no evidence of anything else) for that purpose, then to suggest that this was a permanent organisation-wide change of policy, has indeed been deeply misleading.
Meanwhile the national media has reported on “signs at Symphony Hall” encouraging phone use in concerts; soloists being confronted with “a sea of screens” and, brilliantly, a concert at the the (non-existent) “Birmingham City Hall”. All demonstrably false. There has been indignation about drinks in concerts – standard practice for some years now at many major UK venues including the Barbican, the RST and the Bristol Beacon. Sold-out concerts have been ignored; carefully-framed photos of the reduced audiences for world premieres of challenging contemporary repertoire have been presented as typical.
There are certainly valid questions to be asked about Ms Stenning’s tenure in Birmingham but these are not those. There’s an air of a pile-on about the whole thing. It’s not been a glorious episode in UK classical music journalism.
The CBSO is one of the great UK orchestras, and should be enforcing the highest standards of audience behaviour, NOT participating a race to the bottom. For a venue to tolerate “drinks in concerts” as “standard practice” is a damning indictment of culture degenerating into rampart commercialism at every turn. (As for the Barbican, it is a classic example of how a once decent venue has fallen into rack and ruin, NOT an example to emulate… my concert-going centre of gravity shifted from the Barbican to the Wigmore Hall during the mid- to late-2010s for a reason!)
Concert halls aren’t prisons.
Many halls allow drinks in. Nothing new here, nothing to see. The Barbican is great. Enjoy your recitals-by-rote at the Wigmore. Don’t worry, if your memory is fading, the same artists playing the same programmes will repeat itself next year there.
Concert halls are there to celebrate music.
It says so much about you that you think a concert hall without a drink is a prison…
The phone policy was introduced at the CBSO before Emma’s tenure even began. Although the communication of it hasn’t been consistent recently (which is a fumble from the CBSO), this is not an “Emma policy” at all. It’s a fact which has been almost totally omitted from the conversation.
Is there any proof of this? Emma said herself she wanted to change it because she believed it would encourage more young people and non-white people to come(!). There was a recent interview picked up by multiple newspapers.
Regardless of who instigated the lax attitude to telephones, the way forward is abundantly clear and worthy of a campaign… ban them completely, since they are an unacceptable and unnecessary distraction (even in so-called “silent” or “aeroplane” mode).
The buck still stops with the CEO…. After Bostridge, she dug heels in. See the vast history of all this.
When will Emma start supporting the orchestra instead of fighting us and focusing on things that nobody is asking for?
We don’t need phones and drinks to improve our playing, we don’t need to be called racist and take anti-racism training, and we don’t need to play Beethoven symphonies along to films and lights.
What on earth are you banging on about now Norman
Oh thank god – when there was nothing about the CBSO yesterday I thought time had stopped.
If I may take a (naive?) first-glance approach, I would say that the original invitation to make a 15 second video makes a tacet assumption that nobody would be insensitive or stupid enough to make their video while music-making was actually taking place. My next thought would be: that’s a really stupid invitation to give your audience, not only in its omission of boundaries: as they say, “What could possibly go wrong?”!
So you don’t consider a 15 second clip a short video. This literally is something that Slipped Disc has whipped up over nothing and this article proves it. I’m convinced the CEO got the job over Lebrecht’s mate or something as he seems to have an absurd vendetta against him.
It’s clearly not over nothing considering the great proportion of the audience and musicians in Birmingham she has upset.
Ian Bostridge recently stopped a concert due to Emma’s phones.
Yeah it’s sad isn’t it, I’m not sure all these ridiculous comments aren’t just from a few individuals “in disguise”.
They all have a certain tone to them somehow. No point correcting them as they have no interest in the truth.
On one hand, Emma is refusing to ask people to respect the orchestra and not spoil the concert experience for other people by being glued to a phone. In fact, she has suggested the opposite.
On the other hand, Emma is sending letters to devoted subscribers threatening to ban them from future concerts if they criticise her leadership.
Sad for everyone involved.
When will the new CEO realise that these gimmicks are hurting the orchestra?
CBSO has big financial problems. Why push away the people who are buying tickets each week?
Shameless that she blames other people and tries to cover up what happened.
Did she ask the orchestra before she made any of these decisions?
Emma inherited an incredible orchestra and legacy.
Why does she focus on everything except amazing music?
Because if you you don’t now how to market the music, you turn the audience into the product and try to sell a state-of-being rather than an artistic experience. It’s not unheard-of these days for orchestral managements to include people who are OK-ish at selling other things or managing people, but don’t know much or care enough about the core product they’re employed to serve — the music. So the business of ‘being relevant’ which is a great cause in itself, devolves into a business of being relevant in a dumbed-down, lowest-common-denominator kind of way. Music education has been widely cut, and this is where those decisions, through various channels, inevitably land us.
Why then did I get a letter from the CEO on 14 May saying ‘we are not encouraging filming at our concerts’? It looks like she is saying different things to different people.
Grow a backbone and say “no phones and drinks that distract people from enjoying incredible music”.
The CEO should show some respect to players, composers and listeners!
Symphony Hall is there for world-class music. If she wants videos, drinks and light effects then she should go to a nightclub. Not force it on people who do not want it.
How can they make such a mess of things? So much for Emma’s ‘Season of Joy’…
What makes her think that a load of phones glowing up a dark concert hall is a good idea?
The CBSO needs to sort this out quickly before it gets even worse.
Everything the new CEO touches is out of place for an orchestra that wants to be on the world stage.
She constantly speaks about ‘joy’. I went to book tickets last week and this was how they described the season:
“2024-25: A Season Of Joy
Turn up the joy!
Find your own moments of joy in our 2024-25 season.
Join us for spirit lifting, roof raising, toe tapping musical experiences.
Find your happy place as our epic orchestra and Music Director Kazuki Yamada take to the stage and fill our city, streets and hearts with passion, energy and joy.
Whether you’re looking to fill an afternoon, an evening or even make a weekend of it, it’s time for you to take your seat, forget the world for a while and fill up with our most joyful season yet.”
I closed the website and will book more concerts in Manchester and Liverpool instead. I don’t want to pay hundreds for the tickets and travel to happy place Bham for a toe tapping Mahler 9 full of phones, drinks and food. A shame the orchestra is in this position.
This has to be a joke, surely? If Stenning is using this language for a season launch then someone should have stopped her.
Grumpy, non-joyful composers like Shostakovich, Bruckner, and Schoenberg will not hereafter be programmed.
Look at any orchestral season launch and guaranteed you will see similar prose. Absolutely nothing to see here. Total grasping.
Not true.
‘A very warm welcome to the Halle’s 2024-25 Manchester season, an historic an significant moment even by this great orchestra’s standards. … Musically, this season could be considered one of the Halle’s most ambitious yet. … We look forward to seeing you during this exciting and historic season.’
This is worlds apart from Stenning’s ‘toe tapping season of joy’. But not surprising when Stenning doesn’t give a sh*t about serious music.
Well done…just because the music is hundreds of years old, does not mean the attitude should be…
I wonder what Taylor Swift or Beyoncé would do???…oh yea!…people attend their events by the 10000+
PS…classical music is not a religion…it is entertainment!
If you don’t respect music, don’t go to concerts and spoil it for people who do.
I wish Emma the best but she should have listened more to the musicians and audience her decisions affect. What we see now is inevitable when she ignores the people who matter the most.
Many loyal people at Symphomy Hall have written to Emma to voice their concerns. Every one I know has been ignored or dismissed.
We just can’t understand why she is doing as much as she can to downplay the MUSIC of the CBSO. After 1 year she has made the atmosphere miserable. I dread to think how much further it goes.
If you hire someone with zero experience in music, don’t be surprised when music is no longer valued.
She made her contempt for her regular audience clear a few weeks ago, as reported by The Times. Surprising that the Ian Bostridge incident made her argue this even more strongly instead of re-considering.
“For me innovation is the key and that is sometimes something that gets a bit stuck within the classical world. There is not another business where innovation is not absolutely celebrated, prized and championed.”
“We have to be honest and recognise that the brilliant audience that most regularly joins us at Symphony Hall represents only part of this incredibly diverse musical city.”
Wow. What a way to belittle the part of the city that pays each year to support you.
Yes, at the concert on the 6th this was the instruction. But as it was not adhered to, surely it would be better to admit defeat and just ban phones. This would mirror the decision to ban phones in school.
And the beer? Never mind the distraction to the music, what about the distraction to the beer supping? The gentleman next to me sipped surreptitiously then placed his beer on the floor. Can you just see his tortured mind as he imagined kicking the beer over during a particularly exciting bit of the Sibelius. (What a wonderful timpanist. )
‘We suggest that you take pictures and videos during applause breaks.’ Oh, really? So it’s only a suggestion, and you can take it or leave it. Not much moderation in her stance, but it does show that public reaction is beginning to impinge on her.
‘This whole thing was invented by the media, particularly slipped.disc.com’? Well, I guess that the media were also to blame for inventing the Profumo scandal, the Dr Shipman scandal, the Post Office scandal, the Bad Blood Transfusions scandal and the Watergate scandal. Thank goodness for freedom of the press, and if SD was partly responsible for publicising this story, then good for NL. I hope he will be the first to report this foolish CEO’s resignation, and I hope he will be delighted to be blamed for this too!
I went to a concert last weekend in a church close to the Albert Hall. After the performance began, a man sitting next to me held his mobile phone aloft over his head and started filming the concert. Fortunately, this lasted only about half a minute. Then, a woman in the front row did the same. Fortunately, again, after a couple of minutes, a man sitting behind her tapped her on the shoulder and motioned her to stop, which she did. Both of these events were extremely irritating.
On her being hired for the job, Emma Stenning is reported on the CBSO website to have said ‘I owe my love of classical music to the musicians, artists and educators who brought the repertoire to me in new and accessible ways, and held my hand as I discovered each piece for the first time. Those magical experiences left me with the abiding passion that I might work to help others on the same life-enriching journey of musical discovery’.
That says it all – the only missing word is ‘diversity’. I guess we shall soon see usherettes weaving through the audience selling magic mushrooms to make the audience’s immersive experience more truly meaningful.
We have been visiting the Town Hall later the Symphony Hall for more than 40 years. Emma Stenning has declared war against us. We are no longer welcome. All the cheaper seats gone, her telling people to use phones and playing silly films. So we have booked nothing for next year. Heartbreaking.
Dreadful woman who ignores any opinion that doesn’t fit her agenda. She doesn’t have a clue.
Emma ‘black people need phones so they don’t get bored’ Stenning
Far more racist than the orchestra she’s sending to anti-racism training!
Now the anti-Stenning lobby is making up quotations. How low will these people go?
In my experience, there are plenty of white people who get twitchy if they are deprived if their phones for more than five minutes. What makes you think the policy is aimed only at black people?
We already know Emma Stenning is a liar: she is on record saying Bostridge was told about her ‘use your phone during concerts’ policy, when he said himself that was not true.
Now another example: telling people here to use phones, while to patrons she is claiming she is not encouraging phone use.
Despicable!
It will 100% have been in the contract. Which either he didn’t read or his agent didn’t see fit to mention.
(Not that I agree with phones in concerts, but it won’t be the case at all that it won’t have been included.)
Hard to believe this when Stenning can’t even give a clear answer across her policies, vision statements and letters to subscribers.
How long is this platform going to continue moaning about this non issue?
Exhausting isn’t it.
I can’t even bring myself to correct all the nonsense comments – because they only hear what they want to hear. The 16 posts about the CBSO this year have proven that. Very sad.
I guess until Emma stops upsetting music lovers in Birmingham. Do you think it’s ok people there are being threatened with bans if they raise concerns? One man got a letter from Emma because he complained he found a noisy photographer distracting during a concert.
Winchester Cathedral also blames the media for stirring things up. Recent sermons have mentioned the ills of social media. You are obviously doing a great job Norman! Keep up the pressure!
You aren’t the only one whose worried norman. It’s been a never ending series of vision work shops ever since she arrived and she’s done absolutely nothing to deal with the utter financial catastrophe we are facing after birmingham city council has gone bankrupt with a huge chunk of our funding up in smoke. Emma doesn’t appear to understand music or anything about us and she’s only interested in getting Tom Morris to turn us into a theatre spectacular. Most players were willing to give her the benefit of the doubt to start out but confidence is draining fast.
Hear hear!
I expect we will see a variety of approaches to this issue from organisations as they try to find a workable solution. The interesting thing will be to follow the outcomes to individual strictures and see how they go down with audiences, performers, and organisers.
btw: Have they outlawed me bringing a drone to get aerial shots?
Exactly our problem with her – dishonest and patronising. Lying by saying this and then giving a different story to subscribers. She thinks we’re stupid.
Did she turn up for tonight’s concert or did she skip it again like last week’s?
She was there tonight and so was a sizeable audience for a great performance of Barber’s Cello Concerto by Alicia Weilerstein, conducted by Kevin John Edusei. As usual, there was a clear announcement about phones and photography before the performance and everyone that I saw, respected it completely. Those that choose not to come because of what they hear about Symphony Hall concerts are the ones who are missing out.
Great that the audience was respectful tonigiht. Why then has Emma encouraged the opposite and why does her current policy still allow the opposite?
Many others have wasted a lot of money on concerts. Did anyone get a refund after the Eroica sh*tshow?
The music business is full of idiotic managers, administrators and programmers!!!
What if I don’t want to follow her “suggestion” and do it whenever I damn want to? Because a suggestion isn’t an order.
I have never seen such unanimity in any other posting on SD. Will no-one ris us of this turbulent numbskull?
…’rid us, I meant. I hope that she is reading this thread. How many more postings are needed to make her quit? Perhaps the Board of Management could demand her resignation in a text message sent to her during a performance of the March to the Scaffold from the Symphonie Fantastique, or Haydn’s Farewell Symphony.
High time that a petition was started to remove her from post. MU? Anyone else out there?
Ah yes sure. Let’s get some vigilante pitchforks at the ready while we’re at it.
Has anyone spoken to the Board yet? I am planning to write to them individually with my concerns and the evidence. If others do the same…
Ostensibly this is about phones at concerts but there is a much more serious issue and problem that has to be addressed.
The phone at concerts issue is easily addressed and is about respect. Take pictures at the beginning or end but not during. Filming a film is illegal.
The issue that is not being addressed is how orchestral concerts engage with audiences both existing and new and the CBSO approach is simplistic and cack handed.
Smaller ensembles have brilliantly understood and utilised instagram and social media to speak directly and engage with a new audience.
They speak directly to fans and have learned from the many talented young performers who use this to generate an income for their performances and gigs.
Often their posts are witty and inspiring and make you want to go to the event.
Our orchestras , on the other hand have struggled with how to build new audiences and part of that is you need proper research and a social media team creating and analysing.
This struggle is partly due to arrogance but mainly because orchestra head honchos don’t get out much and visit other types of events. The situation is made worse by the hot house Conservatoire approach where you the student is persuaded that by practicing 7 hours a day an audience will come to you or it’s someone elses job to get an audience.
Agents are guilty by putting out dire social media images of their clients that are a turn off .
Until ABO , sgents and the various Arts Councils spend time on looking at how to build audiences using social media and build them in a way that celebrates this world the situation is only going to get worse
Spot on Donna C – the whole issue is encased in the matter of respect, something that leaks out into other walks of life.
Have any of you ever been to a restaurant to meet a friend for a quiet chat over a meal; there are not many others there at the time but there’s one table with a few diners who are shouting and laughing at the tops of their voices, such that none of the others can enjoy a quiet chat over a meal?
Have you ever been on a bus or train where, again, the other passengers are speaking fairly quietly but there’s one moron who is barking into a mobile phone so loudly that you have to cover your ears?
Back to music – have you ever been to a concert where a couple of people close to you insist on talking to each other while the music is being played?
I once went to a concert where a few of us shared a box. Sitting very close to me, in the next box, were an elderly man and a woman. The man was clearly suffering from dementia and the woman was possibly his wife or his carer. Of course, I feel sorry for anyone who suffers from this appalling condition – but throughout the whole performance this man continuously and very frequently took off and put on his coat and otherwise shuffled around. It ruined the whole concert for me and those sharing our box.
Finally, I was at a performance of Hansel and Gretel (in English, hence the ‘and’ rather than ‘und’!). Sitting very close to me were a woman and a young girl. From the very beginning, the woman kept talking to the girl (probably her daughter) about the story of the opera.
Am I being selfish and intolerant if I say that incidents such as these cause me intense annoyance? In each case, the offenders, believing that only they mattered, were oblivious of the annoyance to others sharing their space. In the case of the man with dementia, my anger was moderated by sympathy for the poor guy; it wasn’t his fault – but is it reasonable that those around him who paid to hear the performance should be expected to suffer irritation in sympathy for him? That’s the thinking behind Emma Stenning’s ruling – namely, the majority must defer to the rights of a minority (at least at present) who cause irritation and anger by their deliberate disruptions.
So a mother is trying to introduce her daughter to a bit of culture and quietly explain to her the goings on of the story and you are on here moaning about it. Thank God she wasn’t on her phone annoying you by filming the whole performance!!
I’ve been thinking about what one needs to listen to classical music and I’ve distilled it down to two things:
1. An attention span of more than 5 minutes (I assume 5 mins is the average length of a pop song!);
2. The ability to manage without a mobile phone for a couple of hours.
Number 1 is probably achievable (though you can’t take even that for granted); number 2 is far more difficult, unless the user is actually asleep!
Earlier this week I was watching a breakfast time TV programme (I live in the UK). One of the features was an experiment in which a group of teens gave up their smartphones for a week in exchange for what have been called “dumb phones”. Encouragingly some coped quite well, while others showed “withdrawal symptoms”. My point here is that you don’t need gimmicks to attract young audiences. Other orchestras attract young people by imaginative programming and they don’t encourage phones.
I’m with everyone who condemns the CBSO development.
Read my comments below
The young audience will go to a CBSO concert because they want to hear *classical* music not because they relish a photo opportunity (with pint in hand). And it ain’t happening. Numbers are falling and with the loss of the £1.5m (?) grant from Birmingham Council the orchestra looks in grave peril. Seismic changes of the sort the management are making/proposing look unwise.
Is there someone else at the CBSO who can challenge this daft policy? Trustees, business sponsors, the musicians, the music director??