By Laurie Niles: What motivates you to get tickets, set aside an evening, and get yourself to a live concert? Is it the program, or the featured performer(s)? ![performer or program]()
And if that is too hard to think about as a general question, think about the last time you attended a live concert; what made you go?
When the season programs come out for the local orchestras, I'll confess that the first thing I look for is, "Which violin soloists are coming to town?" It is quite likely that I'll mark my calendar for those concerts and really try to go, whether they are violinists I've seen many times, or newer violinists that I'm curious to hear.
I also get pretty jazzed for my favorite orchestral works, and I do like the big productions. Wow did I love it, a number of years ago when the LA Phil played all the Mahler Symphonies - I went to all of them! And when it comes to something like opera, yes, I'll show up for Porgy and Bess and probably look at the cast only after I've secured the tickets.
But the last time I attended a concert, it was because I wanted to see a certain performer - I wanted to see violinist Nathan Cole play Mozart Concerto No. 4 at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Phil - and he completely hit it out of the park, what a great performance.
What motivates you to attend a live performance? Would go to see a certain performer, even if you weren't crazy about the repertoire or didn't know the repertoire? Would you go to a concert just to hear a certain piece, above all? What drove you go to the last performance that you attended? If you buy season tickets, what primarily motivates you to get a certain package - is it the featured artists, or the repertoire? Please participate in the vote and then share your thoughts about it in the comments.
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