I recently attended a concert at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FL, and the numerous people texting, e-mailing, and taking pictures with their smartphones was extremely annoying. As someone else here noted, the bright lights from the phones in a dark concert hall is distracting in the extreme. This behavior is now a major distinctive for me to pay good money for another concert unless the halls start cracking down on smartphone use, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. :(

So long as the ubiquitous, back-lit blue screens (plus frantic typing/keying of rlly kewl txt) doesn't interfere with my aural or visual experience in the hall, go for it. Have a tweet room. Serve ckctls. Just don't interfere with my experience. No phones, no crackling candy wrappers, no whispering, just listening.

Thank you,

D~~

And let's get some vendors selling hot dogs and popcorn too!!!

How about bringing big laptops and using e-mail, internet, and all kinds of lighting effects to enliven the procedures? Concerts with music by Beethoven, Haydn or Mozart shouldn’t be dull. Let’s make them real fun for ourselves and others. Between movements of a Brahms piano sonata the laptops could be used to tune to radio and TV stations, play commercials out loud and thus help the economy. And don’t forget a feature once every 10 minutes: the baseball scores.

When I was a student at both Juilliard and Columbia University, we received Score Desk seats for a dollar at seats with a desk on both SIDES and behind all the other seats, at the Family Circle, the top balcony at the old Met.
Today we should have separate areas of the opera houses and concert halls and arenas where ONLY Smartphones, texting and twittering are permitted. Like smokers, in this respect only, they are not bothered by others twitting, texting, or whatever. I PERSONALLY WOULD NEVER ENGAGE IN SUCH ACTIVITIES IN THOSE VENUES.
As an opera composer, Wagnerian heldentenor and director of the Richard Wagner Music Drama Institute, I enjoy exclusive attention to the performance without distractions.

MULTITASKING HAS BECOME MORE AND MORE OUR COUNTRY's LIFESTYLE ! Many depend on a daily menu of hedonistic pleasures of all that surrounds us. I DO NOT, BUT I DO UNDERSTAND. OUR SENSES ARE OUR TREASURABLE AND LASTING VALUES ALONGSIDE OUR FRIENDSHIPS ! As an opera composer, "Shakespeare" and "The Political Shakespeare," my own perceptions of character development, interactiveness between the personalities, and the era and mores of that era in time all directly immensely define the tapestry of the orchestration and the denouement. I studied with leading performers and teachers composing, conducting, singing and acting techniques at Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music and with Friedrich Schorr, Alexander Kipnis, Frieda Hempel, Margarete Matzenauer, Martial Singher, John Brownlee, Karin Branzell, Enrico Rosati, Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meissner, Philip Burton, Fausto Cleva and Laszlo Halasz and many others. I am a Wagnerian heldentenor and the director of the Richard Wagner Music Drama Institute. At my website, www.WagnerOpera.com, one may download free 37 complete selections from the over one hundred I have sung in four three hour long solo concerts in the main hall, the Isaac Stern Auditorium, of Carnegie Hall. They are all LIVE performances.

Apr. 01 2012 10:26 AM
Score: 0/0

I am writing to clearly state that there should be an obvious "logical" difference between attending performances within the parameters of a concert hall, and those given "outside;" such as in parks, restaurants, cafes, etc.. It's not so much the type of music, but rather, the setting in which its performance takes place, that makes the difference in whether or not 'distractive debvices' should be permitted. Musically yours, Frank Pedulla, www.boneplayer.com

I definitely believe it is not a 'smart' idea to allow Smartphone usage in the concert hall. The concert hall is a "sacred place" where people paying "good money" to listen to music without either themselves or anyone in attendence being by any means, distracted. However, if the same "exact" music were to be performed in a cafe-type setting where people go to eat and socialize, then it should be allowable. This line must be drawn, or music and the arts as a whole will continue to suffer, at least with regards to respect! Musically yours, Frank, www.boneplayer.com

It's clear most of the people commenting here that they dislike the idea didn't listen to the show. If they did, they'd realize that this would in no way impact the other audience members. The tweeters are isolated in an area where the rest of the audience can't see or hear them. The screen lights aren't an issue.

Also, I would disagree that you can't multitask at a concert. I listen to music while cooking, cleaning my apartment, reading, etc. and pick up just as much of the music as I would if I were just sitting there staring at a stage. It's time some of these luddites get with the 21st century!

It's already been proven that people really can't multitask -- their divided attention is no real attention at all. So tweeting during a concert? The music becomes secondary -- just so much background soundtrack. These are the same people crashing cars because driving becomes secondary to texting or telephoning. Bottom line? Those people would be taking up seats that should be available to people who really appreciate music and would actually pay attention.

The worst idea ever! These devices have no place in a concert hall. Totally agree with Chuck - if you can't disconnect from the outside world for a few hours, what are you doing there? Essential personnel were able to be reached years ago when cell phones didn't exist, so that argument doesn't hold water. Agree with others regarding how distracting the light from the phones is.....Let's hope this never becomes an accepted practice. Keep the concert halls and opera houses free from disruption & distraction.

Tweet seats are a good idea possibly misunderstood by the summary's author and by some of the commentators. It's not primarily about "enlivening" the experience. I think that's daft. Tweet seats are not an accommodation by the orchestra to people who like to tweet--or would be bored otherwise--but an invitation from the orchestra to have people help promote the orchestra by tweeting. It's not an accommodation to some (non-existent) suppressed urge to tweet suffered by a segment of subscribers. No, it's online and social media *marketing.* It turns a segment of attendees into promoters and advocates.

And it costs the orchestra nothing. That's key in this economy and also in light of subscription trends, which are not favorable for most orchestras.

Tweet seats are an experiment in finding a way to communicate to young potential subscribers the orchestra's ability to enrich people's lives and to drive them to the orchestra's website to buy tickets, see the schedule, and learn more. Also, it's a traceable effort. Web traffic can be tracked, and special offers can be made as part of the efforte--e.g., 1st time subscribers paying online could enter a discount code that is on the website only during a tweeted performance, etc.

I'm all for this. In this day and age, there are, in fact, professionals who must stay available and connected at all times. Think doctors, for example.

I'm with Chuck from Clark on this. Since when do people need other entertainment while attending a concert? It's juvenile, like the kids who can't do their homework without the TV on or the radio blasting. At least San Francisco has enough respect for concertgoers who are there to enjoy the music to put the "tweeters" in a separate section. One other concern: Are they occupying seats in an otherwise sold-out house, making seats unavailable to those who would attend if there were tickets left to buy?

This is the worst idea I've ever heard. I attended a wonderful Yefim Bronfman concert a week ago today at Carnegie Hall -- yes, Carnegie Hall --and a woman texted throughout the first half of the concert. She didn't text during the second half, so I can only think that people closer to her complained. I was very annoyed by the light from the phone she was using. If you can't spend an hour listening to a superb pianist, stay home. You can tweet or text during intermission or when the concert is over. Remind me never go to the San Francisco Symphony.

Good Grief! Can't we have some places without phones, ipads or whatever. People can tweet after the performance if they wish to comment. If you set aside a place for tweeters, you might as well give them the restricted view seats since they will be focusing on the devices. However, I really think electronic devices should be off during concerts, as a courtesy to the performers, the rest of the audience, and as a favor to the tweeeters who will then listen without distraction.

Firts, humanbeing has not instantanous conscience of facts. They need time to elaborate feellings, sensations. Besides, the performance is a hole, which must be evaluated so. Ergo, the information you will get, maybe it will be not true. Besides, poor musiciens who will be thinking about evaluation, and not feeling the music and perfoming acording to music. These are tecniques which has nothings to do with arts. Please, let people feels.

You have got to be kidding! In no way should this practice be allowed or encouraged! Don't we have enough intrusion of these obnoxious devices in concert halls?

I agree with Chuck. If your Smartphone or other electronic device is so important that you can't even attend a concert and pay attention to the performance without texting or tweeting or whatever else you do with them, then you shouldn't be there in the first place. Listening to music is an active experience that requires your full attention, as opposed to merely hearing music, which then becomes a background to whatever else you happen to be doing at the time. I'm not saying that there isn't a place for music as background, but it should not be in the concert hall. Have some respect for the composer, the musicians and your fellow audience members!

I regularly watch TV while doing work or social media on my laptop. To me, a concert can be no different. Our brains are built to multitask and there's no reason why we can't Tweet or read program notes for that matter and still digest the performance as it's happening. I think it's going to be a long time before we see Tweet Seats at the NY Philharmonic though, after the infamous marimba ringtone incident.

Wow, never would have thought to read "What are other ways that orchestras can make the concert experience less stuffy?" on a classical radio website. If you don't understand why Mozart's Don Giovanni or Beethoven's E flat major symphony or The Rite of Spring are vital and exciting I don't know what you're doing in a classical concert hall.