<p>At least it wasn’t Cee Lo Green. [Man’s</a> iPhone marimba ringtone halts entire New York Philharmonic - Yahoo! News](<a href=“Man's iPhone marimba ringtone halts entire New York Philharmonic”>Man's iPhone marimba ringtone halts entire New York Philharmonic)</p>
<p>Apparently the ringtone in question was probably an alarm, but same thing. The patron (not surprising) was elderly, and either he couldn’t hear the alarm going off or pretended to ignore it. It is funny, some were defending the guy, saying he probably didn’t realize that even if he had the phone silenced, the alarm could go off or make noise, but that misses a major point, that you are supposed to turn off devices like that, and when powered down, no noise. I have been to concerts where people were texting, tweeting and updating their facebook wall and they seemed totally oblivious how distracting that is, between the ‘keyclick’ noise they don’t turn off and the light from the screen. …and are people that important in their own mind that they can’t take 2 hours off to experience a concert? This permeates all levels, I was in an incredible recital the other day,pianist and violinist doing the Franck Sonata, and some pushy parent types cell phone went off and rang for 2 minutes with some loud, stupid Asian pop piece (or that is what my neighbor in the audience said it was, I didn’t recognize it), I felt sorry for the kids, they ended up stopping and then restarting and the parent finally turned it off and seemed miffed people were glaring at her.</p>
<p>I read an article in the NYT stating that the patron was mortified, especially after being telephone by the NY Phil, who knew his seat number (you can run but you cannot hide!) Poor guy had been given an iPhone the day before, to replace his Blackberry, and did not know there was an alarm feature. He did not understand that it was his phone at first. Mortified, he asked to apologize directly to Gilbert, and all is now forgiven. Maybe this will help us all to remember to turn our devices off. I didn’t know that the alarms on iPhones superseded the “all sounds off function.” There, by for the grace of God, go I…" From now on, I will power down rather than rely on a sounds-off button.</p>
<p>A number of wags report that they have changed their ringtones to Mahler 9 to avoid future mishaps.</p>
<p>I think the fact that this article and the one about the twitter sections during performances came out during the same week is telling. Our culture really needs to figure out what to do about this new technology thing (she said, putting on her oldtimer cranky hat).</p>
<p>It always amazes me that people don’t think that the please turn off/silence your cell phones refers to them. We attended son’s holiday concert last month which was being recorded for a PBS broadcast. They reminded everyone at the beginning to please turn off their phones or it would ruin the recording. Halfway through the concert someone’s cell phone went off. Fortunately, they were doing a repeat performance later in the day which would also be taped so they could edit the two together. Son also had a conductor at a summer program whose cell phone went off during the performance and he took the call. I guess this is just an extension of our self centered society.</p>
<p>the conductor answering the phone is AWFUL</p>
<p>There is NO way to silence the “alarm” feature on an iPhone, but you can silence all other sounds, so simply don’t set “Alarm” if you’re going to be in a public place- simple enough.
That said, each week, I hear at least 2 phones ringing away during concerts, and it’s always during the quietest sections, which makes me think that there are probably a lot more than get drowned out by the volume of the orchestra! Usually the owner of the errant device blithely ignores it and allows the darned thing to ring on and on. Ignorance or just insensitivity? I’m finding it more than annoying as do the soloists- one pianist just took her hands from the keyboard and stopped playing until the offender left! I think she was right and am behind Maestro Gilbert- he handled the situation in the right way at the right time. A friend who is a horn player said that the woman in the next chair actually answered her cell phone during a performance when it rang! Can you even imagine doing that?
Are actual audio reminders given to shut phones off in most places any more? They just put it in the back of the program here, and no one seems to read those pages! And what about those horrible watch alarms? Grrrrr…</p>
<p>I would think that turning it OFF would silence the alarm. </p>
<p>It is my understanding that we are asked to turn OFF our cell phones for additional reasons than ringing/alarm interruptions. Cell phones disrupt the wireless communications that are used for communication between techs, backstage, house front personnel, etc.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I attended a concert back when Loren Mazel was conducting the NY Phil. He raised his arms to begin the first piece, the orchestra readied their respective instruments, when merry chimes sounded from the second tier of Avery Fisher. Maestro lowered his arms slowly as an angry rumble filled the hall. One patron shouted “Turn it off!” </p></li>
<li><p>Last month my son and I attended a performance of the Messiah at a cathedral preceding Midnight Mass. A family takes their seats behind us. Dad’s cell phone rings during the performance (in a church!) and he proceeds to answer the phone and engage in conversation from his seat in the pew, struggling to make himself heard over that noisy choir in the loft. </p></li>
<li><p>Same son plays in a regional orchestra. During the first movement of whatever symphony they were performing, a cell phone rings. It is not immediately apparent where the beeping is coming from, but eventually the conductor and strings realize that is emanating from the viola section. Yep, one of the violists had set an alarm and forgotten about it. The violist plays on until she has a break in the music that allows her to reach into her pocket and silence the phone. I would have loved to have had a view of the maestro’s face during that fiasco.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My other son has said that the offenders should be sentenced to having a trombonist follow them around for a day. Every time they answer their phone, he gets to play the Valkyrie excerpt triple forte.</p>
<p>
MM, my pet theory with regard to this frequent and counter-intuitive behavior is that they are hoping that no one will realize the phone sound is coming from THEM. I have the opposite problem-- if a phone goes off, even if I know my own phone is turned off completely, I still instinctively clutch at my pocket, causing everyone to think it’s mine. </p>
<p>I still remember when the unwrapping of cough drops was the most offensive sound during a concert. No, scratch that: audience members singing along under their breath. </p>
<p>In my own city, the main chamber music series has an average audience age of about 75. (I’m not even kidding.) At those concerts there is a fairly horrific problem of hearing aid feedback screeching throughout the entire performance. The offenders are none the wise, of course, because they can’t hear it.</p>
<p>Saw this today and just had to post. From the BBC News Entertainment and Art web page:</p>
<p>"Slovakian viola player Lukas Kmit reacted coolly when a mobile phone interrupted his recital at the Orthodox Synagogue in Presov, in Slovakia.</p>
<p>Rather than losing his temper, Kmit adapted the notorious Nokia theme, much to the delight of his audience."</p>
<p>Classy and good-natured response by a young performer. There’s a video of the event on the BBC site - can’t post the link as its against CC rules.</p>
<p>Just as an fyi, I believe posting the link in question would be okay, I just read the TOS. Basicslly, they don’t want you posting links to personal sites, blog sites, photo sites, etc, and you aren’t supposed to post links to your own videos. You Tube is now legal because of the way You Tube screens video and according to the TOS, ‘authoritative’ sources are fine, which I think the BBC is one:)</p>