Technology in Concert Halls?

There has been a lot of hype in the media lately about audience members using their cell phones to film or take pictures of soloists in performance.  The latest occurrence was in Essen, Germany, when Krystian Zimerman stopped in the middle of a performance to ask an audience member to cease recording him with their phone.  He resumed playing but left the stage shortly after, reportedly because his concentration was broken.  When Zimerman returned to the stage he told the audience that "the destruction of music through YouTube is enormous."

Now I'm not quite sure what I think about that last statement, as I obviously use YouTube to promote my own performances, but I believe that Zimerman's refusal to allow audience members free reign of technological use during live performances is important.

There has been much heated discussion about how concert halls need to change their approach to allowing the use of mobile phones during concerts. After all, others claim, EVERYONE uses their phone to take pictures of and film Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift concerts! We should be able to use our phones whenever we want!

Now to some people that may make sense, but Classical Music is a completely different art form. And it is just that! ART! You wouldn't expect to go into a museum and cause all sorts of chaos by using flash photography, being loud and disruptive to other museum goers, and posting your replications of the art online, would you?  Maybe you would, but I hope not!

Others claim that Classical Orchestras and Musicians are too rigid and are not accepting of technology.  This to me is a very bold and quite uneducated statement.  That statement I publicly replied:

"... Every classical orchestra and artist that I know of has a website, Facebook account, Twitter account, LinkedIn account etc. Orchestras all over the world are streaming their concerts live. Technology is frequently used in performances, be it playing a movie on an overhead screen or as an interactive show, or even some pieces that have audience members "perform" with their cell phones! The Metropolitan Opera regularly has its performances shown on the big screen at movie theaters, and many artists use YouTube to advertise or upload creative videos that will help them reach wider audiences. There are chamber ensembles that use iPads with electronic foot pedals instead of traditional scores, not to mention the fact that lots of modern compositions call for electronics or electronic instruments. The list could go on and on. That we don't want people videoing our live performances (besides the fact that it's illegal because of photo and video releases) has nothing to do with classical musicians not embracing technology. Using electronics during a performance as an audience member is rude to the performers, disruptive to other audience members and takes away the electronic user's own focus! Try listening to any classical piece while texting, editing a photo, or taking a video on your phone. I guarantee you won't get full enjoyment from the piece as you would otherwise."

Most people seem to agree with me, but I know there are many who don't. People claim that we need to adapt and accept that the world is changing and technology is just going to take over every area of our lives.  I feel sorry for those people. They have so little faith in humanity that they will just let this happen to our world.  As a classical artist I take pride in the fact that my music can provide people with a little relief from this hectic, fast paced, technologically run life that we all now seem to live. I think it's very important that we work hard to make sure that we don't lose all of the parts of this world that are calm, peaceful and pure.  For if we have no refuge, what will happen to us?


And with that I will leave you with a picture of my puppy sitting on my lap while I practice because he is cute ^^

xoxo,
Chloé