“It was with great trepidation that I sat down Saturday evening at the Saenger Theatre and began to tweet during the symphony,” writes Robert McClendon Tuesday (11/20) on the Alabama news site AL.com, noting the usual taboo on cell phone use in the concert hall. “My tweeting, though, was officially sanctioned by Mobile Symphony Orchestra organizers, as I was testing out their Tweet Seats, a row of chairs in the back where concertgoers are welcome to tweet their hearts out. … The idea of the Tweet Seats is to use Twitter to draw in a crowd who might not otherwise come to a classical music show, according to Diana Brewer, the symphony’s very competent and kind public relations manager.” Discussing violin soloist Chee-Yun, McClendon writes: “Given the power of her performance, I regret somewhat that I spent a few precious seconds it sending 140-character missives into the swirling void of the Twittersphere. … However, the exercise helped transform me into more of an active listener, a true observer instead of merely an audience member. Little details that I might have missed seamed to jump out at me. Attempting to capture the concert in words forced me to think about it on a deeper level.”
Posted November 20, 2012
