We have thought about it for years, and we’ve finally pulled the trigger: we hold season tickets to the symphony. For the kids, of course – we’re always going to take a kid! But how, in this economy, on one income, can we possibly justify spending money on season tickets? Even extremely reasonably priced season tickets? Even as an educational venture? The following is my attempt to explain.
First, live music is fantastic. Listening to recordings, even great recordings on a great sound system, just is not the same. Feeling a timpani resonate in your chest, or being pinned to the back of your seat when the brass comes in all at once . . . it really only happens live. We don’t want them to miss it! Music out of the box! By taking our kids to the symphony regularly, we may very well inspire musical enthusiasm that might otherwise lay dormant.
It’s also a rare, rare opportunity for parent-child one-on-one time, which unfortunately often gets squeezed out of the family calendar. A little dinner out, the drive into the city . . . all good parent-child talking time. True, a trip to the ice cream shop or miniature golf might initially sound like more fun to them, but staying out late to go to an unusual and snazzy venue with the grown-ups has some good appeal, too. Even if none of our children aspires to become a professional – or even avid amateur – musician, we will have the chance to talk with them about their other aspirations.
Finally, it provides a steady dose of high-quality musical input for the family which is not dependent on my creativity and motivation. It’s sad but true: even as a musician, I can still let music fade into the background when school time gets tight. And especially since I am not a professional – not doing it for a living – my children’s exposure to polished performances can be limited. This year, however, once a month, music will already be on the calendar – and paid for! Only one child will get to go to each performance (we hold only two tickets), I’m hoping that – at the very least – it will provide sufficient impetus for me to hunt up related recordings and play them during dinner prep that week for all to hear.
If our rationalization has piqued your interest, here were some of our parameters. First and foremost, we picked the best seats we could get in the lowest price range. How did we determine “best”? We had been to the venue a few times ourselves and had sat in several different places, so we knew what we could get for how little. Our ‘best’ might not also be yours, but the point is, we did not make an investment without a little research.
And it was not as big an investment as might be expected; buying season tickets brings a huge price break per ticket cost. A fast-food dinner for four can easily cost more than two tickets to each concert.
One final buying tip: if there’s a piano soloist, sit toward the left side of the auditorium (as you face the stage). On stage, the pianist nearly always faces the right wall of the auditorium, leaving the piano keys at the left. If you sit to the left as well, you can see fingers, which is especially gratifying for young concert-goers.
In an upcoming post, I’ll give you an explanation of applause etiquette!
