What to expect at a classical concert
Frequently Asked Questions:

• When Do Performances Start And End?
  Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra concerts vary in length.  Most concerts are an hour and a half including intermission.  We invite you to visit our concert page for approximate times of each performance.
  
  
• May I Take Pictures During The Concert?
  Due to distractions for the musicians and audience members around you, cameras, video cameras or tape recorders of any kind are not permitted.
  
  
• What happens if I arrive late?
  In consideration of the comfort and listening pleasure of the audience, patrons who arrive after the concert begins will be asked to wait to be seated until an appropriate pause between pieces.
  

• How do concerts begin?
  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 theorchestra 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!
  
  
• Will I recognize the music?
  It is very likely that you will recognize parts of many symphonies, concertos and choral works. Many of today's popular songs, television shows, and movies include or are taken from classical themes, like the “Lone Ranger” theme (Rossini's William Tell Overture), the Bugs Bunny cartoon "What's Opera, Doc?" (Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries), United Airlines television commercials (Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue), and many more. We invite you to visit our concert page for listening sound bites for each concert.
  
  
• When Is It Appropriate To Applaud?
  The audience will applaud to welcome the conductor when he or she walks out onto the stage. In most works performed, a movement is a large division of a larger composition or musical form. For example, symphonies are typically divided into four movements and concertos into three. It is appropriate to clap after the final movement of an entire work. You can always check your program to follow the movements as well.  If you're still not sure, you can wait for the rest of the audience to clap before applauding. And, 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 the end of a concert, you can 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.
  
  
• What about other noises -- coughing, cell phones, pagers?
  Please turn off cell phones and pagers before entering the concert hall. Noises such as a pager going off or a cell phone ringing are very distracting to your fellow audience members, the conductor, and the musicians.
  
  Coughing can be an unavoidable problem. But there are ways to avoid coughing during the music. If you feel a cold coming on, please bring lozenges with you. The next step is crucial: unwrap them ahead of time. Unwrapping a cough drop during the music makes more noise than you might think. If there are no lozenges in hand and you need to cough once or twice, please try to wait for the end of the movement.
  
  Also, it is customary not to talk while the music is playing. Being sensitive to your neighbors allows everyone to have a more pleasant concert experience.
  
  
• How many players are there in the Orchestra?
  There are approximately 72 main members in the orchestra plus others that are on-call.
  

What a conductor does

Here's a great explanation of what a conductor does. Please note: This link will take you out of the Boulder Philharmonic website to the Kennedy Center website.