ATTEND A CONCERT
- 2008/09 season
- 2007/08 season
- Family Concert
- Holiday Concerts
- FAQs
SPECIAL EVENTS
- Season-Opening Gala
- LGBT Night at Potemkin
- Hai-Ye Ni CD signing
- Red Violin Screening
- Elizabeth Pitcairn "At Home"
- L. Harlib "Chocolat" Tasting
- Spring Fundraiser
-
Carmina and the Media
- The Mountain Play
SUPPORT THE SYMPHONY
- Donate Today
- Donor Benefits
- Volunteer
- Encore Society
- Sponsors/Advertisers
THE PEOPLE OF THE MARIN SYMPHONY
- Employment Opportunities
DIRECTIONS
- To the Auditorium
- To our Offices
- To Four Points by Sheraton
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FREQUENTLY
ASKED QUESTIONS Before the Concert
During the Concert For more information about what to expect at your first concert, click here. Subscription tickets are available through the Marin Symphony office (415.479.8100). You may also stop by the office or download an order form and mail it to: 4340 Redwood Highway, Suite 409C, San Rafael, CA 94903. Single tickets will be available beginning Tuesday,
September 4, 2007 through the Marin Center Box Office (415.499.6800)
or at Ticketmaster. I am a subscriber and cannot attend on my regular night. Can I exchange my tickets for the other performance? As a benefit for season subscribers, you may easily
exchange your Sunday ticket for Tuesday night's performance, or your
Tuesday ticket for the Sunday night performance. Simply call the
Marin Symphony Association office at 415.479.8100. Contrary to popular belief, everyone does not wear tuxedos and evening gowns to concerts. Attending a Marin Symphony concert is a special occasion, so patrons generally dress up a bit. People usually wear business casual dress. Evening gowns and tuxedos are generally worn only to gala Symphony events, such as Opening Night. Tradition dictates that musicians and conductors wear formal black evening wear to heighten your symphonic experience by being uniform in appearance and limiting any visual distraction. We suggest you arrive 30 minutes before the concert is scheduled to begin. This will give you time to find parking, find your seat, relax, read the program notes and watch the musicians as they take the stage. Come an hour before the concert starts to hear a discussion of the evening's music with Maestro Alasdair Neale and different featured musicians in conversation. Marin Symphony concerts begin promptly at 7:30pm. Latecomers will not be seated until after the first work on the program. Concerts are typically one and a half hours to two hours long, with one 15-minute intermission. If you have to leave a concert before it ends, please do so between program works. Musicians must prepare for a concert as athletes do for a big game in that they must "warm up." When you first sit down, you will probably see members of the orchestra gradually filling the stage and warming up by playing their instruments. When the orchestra is ready, the lights dim and the audience becomes silent. The concertmaster (the leader of the first violin section) will enter from backstage. The audience claps and he takes a bow. The concertmaster then turns to the orchestra and cues the principal oboist, who sits in the middle of the orchestra, to play a single note (an A). All the musicians tune their instruments to this note. The conductor then comes onstage. As the audience applauds, the conductor may invite the orchestra to stand up to share in the applause. The conductor shakes hands with the concertmaster (since he is the representative of the orchestra). The concert is ready to begin! There are two times to clap at a concert: as a greeting and as appreciation. People generally applaud when the concertmaster, conductor, and guest artist come onstage. You usually do not applaud again until the end of each piece of music, to show your appreciation to the performers. It is generally considered proper concert etiquette to clap only after a piece is complete. When composers write music, they want the audience to hear the complete work as a total experience. Some longer pieces may have several sections, or movements, separated by a brief pause. In these pauses, clapping would be considered a disruption to an integrated hearing of the work. The program will list the movements in the piece, so you will know how many there are. If you are unsure when to applaud, you can always count on this rule of thumb: you know when a work is completed when the conductor turns around and smiles at the audience. At this point, let loose. Yell "bravo!" (for men), "brava!" (for women), and "bravi!" (for the whole orchestra). Keep the applause going for as long as you want to show the musicians, conductor and soloist how much you enjoyed their performance. Concert etiquette may be summarized by these five rules. Please remember that everyone there is experiencing a special evening. 1. Please do not bathe in perfume or cologne
before the concert. Since many people are allergic, a light touch
will be appreciated. The Marin Symphony Association Phone: 415.479.8100 |
