FAQs

1. Turn your cell phone off, or turn the ringer off, either before the concert or as you’re seated.
2. Don’t talk during the performance.
3. If you have a cough, or are prone to coughing, please have a bottle of water and unwrapped throat lozenges readily available before the concert begins.  If you can’t control your coughing, it’s best to quietly exit the hall.

You can simply attend and enjoy the music. You can also research online, read about the pieces that are being performed and listen to recordings of the music to better familiarize yourself. Our website offers YouTube links for most of the classical pieces that will be performed during the festival. Listening to classical pieces a few times will allow you to recognize melodies that are repeated within the music, or altered slightly to add a different character, and will provide an even more fulfilling musical experience.

After the chamber concerts, Artistic Director Vadim Gluzman will offer his comments and invite discussions from the audience about the pieces and composers. For the classical orchestra concerts at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, we offer free pre-concert lectures in the Center for SW Studies adjacent to the Concert Hall. These are informative and fun lectures put on by Dr. Linda Mack Berven. They tend to be standing room only, so please arrive early.

For performances at the Concert Hall, if you will be picking up tickets at Will Call, plan to arrive 40 minutes before the scheduled concert time. Plan to arrive 30 minutes before if you picked up your tickets at the Festival Office prior to the concert. This allows you time to familiarize yourself with the venue, pick up refreshments if desired, find your seats and glance through the program. If you arrive late, you may not be allowed into the hall until a suitable pause in the program, when an usher can direct you to your seat.  

For performances at other venues, please plan to arrive 25 – 30 minutes before the performance time.

Orchestra concerts range from 90 minutes to 2 hours.  Chamber concerts tend to be slightly shorter. Performances at other venues will range from 1 to 2 hours. Mobile stage performances usually last about 45 minutes.

Some musicians like to warm up before the performance, either through playing scales or similar exercises, or playing difficult passages. Once all musicians are on stage, the orchestra tunes their instruments to the “A” of the oboe to ensure that they are all in tune.

The concertmaster acts as the leader of the string section and sits in the first chair of the first violins. They also play a leadership role with the orchestra, are the last orchestra member to enter the stage before a concert, and they cue the oboe to “tune” the orchestra.

The conductor keeps the orchestra in time and together, interprets the score, serves as a messenger for the composer, sets the tempo, and helps to shape the performance through the phrasing of the musicians. They communicate with the musicians primarily through hand gestures and the use of a baton, and through facial expressions and eye contact.

The conductor may choose to take a moment off stage to collect their thoughts and refocus before beginning the next piece of music. If the performance has been especially moving, and the audience applause is extensive, the conductor may choose to recognize the entire orchestra, or the musicians who had more significant roles in the performance.  

At the beginning of the concert and when a concert continues after intermission, it is appropriate to clap when the concertmaster walks onto the stage, and again when the conductor walks onto the stage.  In classical music, applause is generally delayed until the end of a piece, even though there may be several movements within a piece, when there are short pauses in between the music.