Music to My Ears

Last night 20 Pardesians attended the Jerusalem Symphony.

It was utter insanity.

Typically, the concert hall is a very formal place where decorum is extremely important. As expected, in Israel, it is not.

Things we found to be awry:

People in jeans
People shouting out to the conductor that they could not hear in the middle of his speech
People singing along to the music
People clapping between movements of the same piece
People's cell phones ringing during the mandolin solo

Israelis wear jeans to weddings, so its not surprising that the concert hall was not as formal as in America.
The entire evening was very interactive. The concert began with HaTikvah, the Israeli national anthem which was immediately followed by a clarinet solo of Yerushalim Shel Zahav. As the soloist moved from the back of the hall up onto the stage, the audience decided to quietly sing the words. Up in the balcony we were totally clueless as to why this would be appropriate when we have all come to listen to an instrumental concert but Ma la'asot?
During the first half of the concert there were obviously some novice audience members who kept clapping between the movements- they learned of their mistake during the intermission and did not repeat it during the second half.
But really the mother of all faux pas was when the cell phones were all making noise at the beginning of the concert and the conductor clearly stated "Turn of your cell phones" in English and then a nokia cell phone ring went off during the first mandolin solo. There was a collective tsk while that person, I'm sure, wished they were melting into their seat.

Despite the distractions it was a beautiful concert and we all enjoyed ourselves. Yay for free student connections!