CJ Replay: Concert Decorum for Singers

       Choir members must be given instructions as to what to do during the concert besides sing. "What if I make a mistake?" "What if I feel like I might faint?" "Do I applaud for a soloist ormy director at the end of the concert?" "What do I do when I see my mother in the audience?" "To whom may I talk and whisper?" These may seem like rhetorical questions to choral people with several years' experience, but our new members have no idea what is expected of them unless we tell them. Several suggestions that answer these questions are given in the first list below.

       Following a concert, one often hears members laughing and talking among themselves and to friends from the audience, saying, "Did you hear that place where the sopranos missed their entrance?" "Boy, didn't we go flat?" "It was awful, wasn't it?" Singers must be taught that artists do not discuss their shortcomings with their public. Neither should performers ask their friends from the audience, "How did ·you like it?" One doesn't invite dinner guests, and following the meal ask, "How did you like what I prepared?" One waits to be told. Likewise, if an audience member liked the concert, he or she will say so. If they did not enjoy it, let's show them the courtesy of letting them choose to let us know that fact or to keep it a secret.

 

(From the Choral Journal article “Cleaning Up Your Act: The Pride of Presentation Affects the Pride of Performance,” by Paul Hill.