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Do We Need a “Little Kids Table”?

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Yes, we have covered this ground before, but given some of the behaviors I have seen lately, this bears repeating . . .
 
The 2015 ACDA National Conference takes place in Salt Lake City next week.  If you have looked at the conference Program Book (It’s also your February Choral Journal), then you can tell that this is a massive event with scores of performances spread over four days.  The Conference will provide almost twenty thousand choral musicians with unparalleled opportunities for performance, study, growth, and fellowship.
 
Cumulatively, the choirs, clinicians, and singers invited to perform will invest unimaginable amounts of money to travel to the Conference just to perform for us. (Our association doesn’t give the auditioned choirs a single nickel toward their conference performance.)  Perhaps even more impressive are the incalculable hours of preparation that these choirs will have devoted to the process.
 
With that in mind, one might think that every single colleague in attendance would show a little respect for the performers and celebrate their accomplishment.  Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
 
During a concert in the beautiful Meyerson Symphony Hall at the last national conference (in Dallas), two people sitting behind me nattered negatively and continually during the performance. “When MY choir sang this piece we did it better.” “Her sopranos are so shrill.” “Oh my gawd, look at her shoes.”  It was, in a word, maddening; the more they jabbered, the deeper the hole I bit in my tongue.  (WARNING to the classless among us:  This year, I will not sit silently when such buffoonery takes place.)
 
How would any one of us feel if someone ruined our concert with petty conversation . . . or Monday-morning quarterbacking . . . or most egregious of all, a cell phone?  Many folks would have a full-blown fit.
 
We’re supposed to be professionals, we’re sitting at the big kid’s table.  Let’s all try to act accordingly when we are on the other side of the podium at our professional conference.  Or as my dear ol’ Dad said, “if you can’t say something nice . . . .”

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Comments

  1. May I ask us to take this one step further? When at ACDA, let’s take the time to thank and to congratulate our colleagues on their performances. Artistry at it’s root requires courage, and performing at a national conference is a brave and generous action towards the choral community. 

  2. BRAVO Scott!  I would second your column…and third and fourth it too.  The nattering you experienced was negative but how would you have felt if it had been positive?  Would you have been as irritated?  Probably not, but it still would have rankled. 
     
    We teach our singers (and conducting students) many things but do we teach them how to behave during performances such as happens a national ACDA conference?  A professional performance is one thing but a middle school choir, singing their hearts out, seem to be fair game for snark. Treating those performers as we would want to be treated, or how we would want a choir with our own children or nieces or nephews singing in it, should be the model.  And if we can’t help the snarky comments, then we should at least keep our mouths shut while they are performing!
     
    Glare at them, Scott, or scold……someone has to and perhaps the folks will get the message this time. There shouldn’t be a need for a Kiddie Table!
     
    Marie

  4. I cannot tell you how often I’ve encountered this behavior at any number of events I’ve attended.  My mother, normally a very reticent person, told me the story of being at Symphony Hall in Sprngfield, MA, for a concert, with two women constantly chattering away – no, that’s too charitable a description; flapping their gums is more accurate – behind her.  Finally, goaded beyond patience, she turned, looked them squarely in the eye, and said, “Did you come for the concert or to continue your talking?”  They shut up.  Unfortunately, there are some people whose very classlessness invites an equal amount from us – for the good of the whole.  So, ladies and gentlemen attending the conference and who read these postings, do NOT hesitate to point out to people when their behavior is unacceptable – ON THE SPOT.  And if they don’t get it, tackle ’em after the concert and give them a piece of your mind.  Contentious?  Yes, perhaps; but unfortunately, necessary.
     
    Ron

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