Many venues and symphony orchestras are suffering from poor attendance nationwide. There are lots of reasons which people give. Tickets are too high priced, the music is boring, no place to park, too far away, and lots of other half baked reasons. I think I have the real reason. The seats in most symphony halls are too darn uncomfortable. If I have to park my butt in one for 3 hours I want to be comfortable.
At home I listen to music of the same type. I get a nice cup of something pleasurable, set it beside me, sit back in my big red overstuffed chair, turn off the lights and drift away. I get lost in the music. I'm an active listener. I can't stand good music as background music if it's written and performed well . I shut my eyes and disappear into the depths of it. BUT if my butt hurts or I'm cramped like I was in a 737 airplane seat it's much harder. If you owned a movie theater and you said, "darn it all, those seats were good enough when I was growing up, they're good enough for my patrons." We would soon see a movie called "out of business" on your marquee.
Here's my iconoclastic suggestion to the musical performance arts community. Take a hint from the movie theaters. Gut your auditoriums. Put in big comfy chairs that hold full sized German American's which weigh an eighth of a ton each. Make them wide, deep, soft and with lots of leg room. Put in cupholders. Serve coffee and/or other beverages for people to consume at exorbitant prices during the concert. You aren't filling those seats now. Why not make those few refugees like me that attend more comfortable. Who knows people might actually come back if your weren't exacting such a physical as well as financial price for attending.
Don't give me all that guff about people that attend football games on bleachers and survive. Do you really want the wave during Mahler? So who'll be the first to go? Anyone, someone, anyone? (Ferris Bueller).
At home I listen to music of the same type. I get a nice cup of something pleasurable, set it beside me, sit back in my big red overstuffed chair, turn off the lights and drift away. I get lost in the music. I'm an active listener. I can't stand good music as background music if it's written and performed well . I shut my eyes and disappear into the depths of it. BUT if my butt hurts or I'm cramped like I was in a 737 airplane seat it's much harder. If you owned a movie theater and you said, "darn it all, those seats were good enough when I was growing up, they're good enough for my patrons." We would soon see a movie called "out of business" on your marquee.
Here's my iconoclastic suggestion to the musical performance arts community. Take a hint from the movie theaters. Gut your auditoriums. Put in big comfy chairs that hold full sized German American's which weigh an eighth of a ton each. Make them wide, deep, soft and with lots of leg room. Put in cupholders. Serve coffee and/or other beverages for people to consume at exorbitant prices during the concert. You aren't filling those seats now. Why not make those few refugees like me that attend more comfortable. Who knows people might actually come back if your weren't exacting such a physical as well as financial price for attending.
Don't give me all that guff about people that attend football games on bleachers and survive. Do you really want the wave during Mahler? So who'll be the first to go? Anyone, someone, anyone? (Ferris Bueller).
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