Remember the Concert Companion? How about “tweet seats?”
Those early 2000s experiments are a reminder that, as long as there have been hand-held digital devices, orchestras have sought to capture the attention of their users. Often, the goal is loosely defined as educational: Both of those efforts involved delivering live feeds of program notes during performances.
But as the smartphone and smartwatch have come into their own, the concert hall has occasionally turned contentious, as the Philadelphia Orchestra was reminded this past May.
Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin was leading a performance of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony when ringing cellphones in Verizon Hall caused him to halt it twice. After the second episode he turned to the crowd and pleaded for silence: “Can we just spend one hour of our lives without the damn phones, please?” The remark made the rounds on social media, garnering much support, and it wasn’t long before it was on the orchestra’s online store, wittily emblazoned on phone cases, tote bags, and T-shirts.
When a Philadelphia Orchestra performance of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony this spring was interrupted twice by ringing cellphones, Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin turned to the audience and asked, “Can we just spend one hour of our lives without the damn phones, please?” The orchestra leaned into the moment by printing the remark on tote bags, T-shirts, and phone cases.
“I think the ringing of phones and digital engagement are different issues,” says Jeremy Rothman, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s chief programming officer. He referred to LiveNote, an app that the orchestra developed with Drexel University in the mid 2010s, and which delivered multiple feeds of commentary in real time during performances through phones or digital devices (LiveNote is now on indefinite hiatus). “The ringing phones, I would speculate, perhaps come from people who are just a little bit less aware of how to silence their phones.”
“I think the ringing of phones and digital engagement are different issues,” says Jeremy Rothman, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s chief programming officer. “The ringing phones, I would speculate, perhaps come from people who are just a little bit less aware of how to silence their phones.”
The latest conductor-phone face-off comes at a time when U.S. workers were logged into their employers’ networks 11 hours a day, according to a 2021 study—as opposed to eight hours a day before the pandemic. Few people, especially anyone under age 40, would ever dream of sitting for two hours without an active cellphone in their hand.
A patchwork of tools and policies at concert halls has emerged. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra forbids photography or filming of concerts but invites attendees to order a glass of Prosecco using Noble, an app that has helped to reduce lines at the lobby concession stand. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra welcomes audiences to take and share photos using the hashtag #IAMDSO as long as they are “cautious and respectful” of their fellow listeners. And while Philadelphia’s LiveNote has gone dark, another program note platform, ConcertCue, has resumed its offerings, partnering with organizations including the New World Symphony and Boston Baroque.
A concertgoer captures the Detroit Symphony Orchestra onstage. “It’s been a gradual approach to acceptance of audiences using cameras, as long as they are not distracting to musicians and fellow audience members,” says Matt Carlson, the DSO’s senior director of communications and media relations. “We still do prohibit audience video.” Photo courtesy of Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
In February 2022, Instant Encore, a veteran developer of apps for arts organizations, launched InsideGuide, a digital program book platform. In its sales material, the company points to significant cost savings over printed programs, the ability to reduce paper use and eliminate waste, and the ease of announcing last-minute changes: a soloist replacement no longer means printing hundreds of loose program inserts.
“What we found is, if there’s a champion at these organizations, that makes all the difference in the world,” says Instant Encore CEO Evan Schumacher, when asked about orchestras’ receptiveness to personal technology. “It’s someone who can remind colleagues why they are doing this, what the true north is.” He adds, “You’ll always have some people who are hesitant and worried about [recognizing] donors. That’s why we’ve tried to stay open and say, ‘If you want to do a hybrid option, where you still have some physical options, you can do that.’ ”
“You’ll always have some people who are hesitant and worried” about moving from printed to digital programs, says Instant Encore CEO Evan Schumacher. “That’s why we’ve tried to stay open and say, ‘If you want to do a hybrid option, where you still have some physical options, you can do that.’ ”
Some 40 percent of InsideGuide users have dropped printed programs entirely, while others simultaneously offer printed books or print-at-home PDFs. The app’s pages can be styled with dark backgrounds to minimize distracting glare, though a sampling of programs also reveal touches of digital bling: the Omaha Symphony beckons readers with an animated call for donations. The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra also uses animations and ads from a local advertising exchange.
“When you’re scrolling, it’s a way to catch a person’s eye, to show a lot of movement—things that you don’t get in a traditional printed book,” Schumacher says. “That’s not something we planned when we originally went into it. But our clients asked, ‘Can we do images in here that have movement?’ ”
To a segment of listeners, concert halls should remain a darkened bastion, safe from glowing screens and pecking thumbs. With a phone in hand, they say, patrons will be more tempted to text the babysitter or respond to the boss’s email. Delicate lines emerge. North Carolina’s Winston-Salem Symphony, an InsideGuide user, warns concertgoers in an online FAQ that “texting and tweeting can be very distracting for those around you, so please refrain!”
The Fading Taboo of Concert Photography
A small handful of orchestras have begun to loosen their photography and video policies. The Colorado Symphony permits photos and short videos for non-masterworks shows, such as those with a pop headliner. “People are used to bringing out their phones now when they go to concerts or sporting events,” says Nick Dobreff, the Colorado Symphony’s communications and creative director. “[But] our core audience comes to hear the classics, so we have to be intentional and strategic for expanding those audiences. For non-masterworks events, where people are more used to taking pictures or standing during concerts, we tend to be more lax.”
Ushers must be polite and discrete in enforcement, Dobreff adds, or their interventions can be just as disruptive as the photograph itself.
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, known for its DSO Live webcasts, is more permissive about photos. “It’s been a gradual approach to acceptance of audiences using cameras, as long as they are not being distracting to musicians and fellow audience members,” says Matt Carlson, the DSO’s senior director of communications and media relations. He adds, “We still do prohibit audience video, though that policy has been discussed recently given the prevalence of video sharing on social media.”
Audience members take photos at one of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Neighborhood Initiative events. The Detroit Symphony, which embraced tech in the concert hall early on via its DSO Live webcasts, permits concertgoers to photograph concerts, though audience videos are not allowed. Photo courtesy of Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
The #IAMDSO hashtag was conceived “to invite patrons into the DSO story by giving them more direct ownership over their role in the orchestra’s success,” says Carlson, who credits DSO Director of Content and Storytelling Sarah Smarch with developing the hashtag concept, which is aimed at building bridges in a city that has been historically marked by sharp divisions.
Detroit Symphony Orchestra audiences can get their photo taken or take their own selfies in front of the orchestra’s hashtag step-and-repeat. The #IAMDSO hashtag was conceived to connect DSO patrons directly with the orchestra. Photo courtesy of Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Like the Philadelphia Orchestra’s LiveNote app, ConcertCue is a web-based platform that feeds listeners information about pieces through a stream of text and images against a dark screen. Developed in 2016 by Eran Egozy, a professor of music technology at MIT, it was adopted by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for its Casual Friday concerts before the pandemic. It also delivers supertitles to any type of screen, whether over a stage or in the user’s hand.
Next season, the Birmingham Opera in Alabama plans to use ConcertCue for a performance of Touch, Carla Lucero’s opera about the life of Helen Keller, who lost her hearing and sight as an infant and went on to become a noted author, disability-rights advocate, and political activist. Low-vision attendees will be able to read ConcertCue titles on iPads. In June, the platform was used by the Metropolitan Youth Symphony, in Portland, Oregon, for a performance of “Locks, Lights, Out of Sight,”, a piece about the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The descriptive notes, by student composer Elaina Stuppler, included such details as “The pizzicato in the strings symbolizes the students quietly hiding.”
At a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert, ConcertCue gives listeners synchronized information about the music they are hearing through a stream of text and images; the app delivers supertitles to any type of screen.
“There are definitely people who are not interested in this kind of technology being in the concert hall,” admits Egozy, who was the co-founder of Harmonix Music Systems, the pioneering developer of the “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” game franchises. “But if you want millennials and [Gen] Z’s to be excited about this kind of music, they are glued to their screens all the time, and they are used to that being a source of information.” He adds, “We have to meet them where they are.”
“There are definitely people who are not interested in this kind of technology being in the concert hall,” says Eran Egozy, who developed the ConcertCue app. “But if you want millennials and [Gen] Z’s to be excited about this kind of music, they are glued to their screens all the time. We have to meet them where they are.”
About Those Jangling Ring Tones
Some worry that the image of conductors scolding patrons, however politely, when phones ring mid-pianissimo sends an unwelcoming message to newcomers, and that training in audience interaction should be provided. Drew McManus, an orchestra consultant and website developer, believes that public reprimands can lead to “art scars.” “I think we’re way past the point of expecting people to turn off their phones,” he says. “Even silencing them will be a challenge, as there are an increasing number of apps that have overrides to default notification settings. There is no good solution there other than ‘reminders can’t hurt.’ ”
Where program note apps lead remains to be seen; paperless tickets, by contrast, are now widespread. In contrast, Rothman of the Philadelphia Orchestra estimates that fewer than 20 percent of concertgoers used LiveNote at its peak. “We have not had a vocal demand to have technology in the hall because I think people are looking to get back to a more immediate live and connected experience,” he says of the Zoom and FaceTime era.
Ambient Orchestra Concertmaster Gabby Diaz gives the audience a brief tutorial of the ConcertCue app before the orchestra performed Evan Ziporyn’s arrangement of David Bowie’s Blackstar album for cello and orchestra. Evan Ziporyn led the concert, which featured Maya Beiser and took place at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium. Photo by Justin Knight.
Rothman also expresses pride in the polished design and engaging commentary featured on LiveNote, which included multiple streams of commentary that were never “dry, boring musicology.” And while some patrons complained about fellow attendees using the app during performances, it was never linked to errant ringtones. “I hope we come back to it at some point,” he says. “I still think it’s a very valuable tool for text and translations, or for a brand-new premiere.”
Still, he adds, “A lot of people said, ‘I love the LiveNote content, but I found myself putting it away and just listening to the music for the rest of the time.’ If people realize that they like sitting there, listening to music, that’s a great outcome as well: The power of music was so great that they couldn’t sit and focus on reading things.”
