Brothers In Blog

Last Sunday, my family attended a band recital being held by Chestnut Grove Middle School and West Stokes High School in Stokes County, NC. Our goddaughter attends the middle school and plays the trumpet and our foreign exchange student attends the high school and plays percussion. The event was held in the high school’s gymnasium since they don’t have an auditorium.

The gymnasium was packed with family members like ourselves waiting to watch their son or daughter perform. We had arrived about a half-hour early in order to get good seats, and it was a good thing we did because by event time people were standing in the aisles. The middle school band was up first, so the high school band and choir were waiting in the stands. I think it would have been better if they waited outside the gymnasium in order to make more seats available for the listening audience.

While waiting for the music to start, I noticed that the band members were not wearing matching attire. Now, I know our student was adamant about having to wear all black with a matching tie, and our goddaughter was wearing black pants with a white blouse, which is standard orchestra garb. In looking over the group, some were compliant while others appeared to just throw on whatever was hanging over the chair that afternoon including hooded sweatshirts. The only group that was 100% in fashion order was the Choir, which appeared in all black.

Now, I understand that such events are a great opportunity to raise money and by the number of soda cans I saw coming into the gymnasium I could only conclude that a concession stand was being manned outside. A full can eventually becomes an empty can, which is accidentally knocked down the bleachers at some point right in the middle of the entertainment. If that wasn’t bad enough, an announcement had been made at the beginning of the event that a recording was going to be made of all the songs and made available for sale afterwards. I’m sure those cascading cans sounded wonderful.

Another peeve I had was the number of people arriving late and then walking around looking for seats while my goddaughter’s mother is trying to film the performance. However, the worst of all the annoyances was the amount of talking that was going on in the audience. I understand that the last time these folks got together was at the regional tractor pull, but those are bassoons not exhaust pipes so PIPE DOWN!

Overall, we were disappointed with the experience. The distractions were just too many to ignore, and the conduct of the audience was appalling. Fortunately, we probably won’t run into this lot at a professional orchestral performance. If the ticket price doesn’t scare them off, the absence of canned beverages will.

For more information on proper etiquette when attending a classical concert, please check out the Community Arts Music Association website for some excellent tips.