Andy Taylor's letter of complaint about his departure from AMICA has
plucked a chord on my harp of pet-peeves.  I wish I had a dollar for
every concert I have attended which in some way was interrupted or
spoiled by the misbehavior of some small child whose parents would
swear that they have never acted that way before.

No one can predict how youngsters will comport themselves when exposed
to unfamiliar circumstances.  Children have no conception of how
speaking out, running up and down the aisles, or any other disruptive
display of self-expression, which at home might be considered clever or
cute by their parents, might disturb not only the audience around them,
but the artist on the stage.  Every parent believes that their darlings
will behave at concerts.  Some of them are right.  The problems arise
with those who guess wrong.

I acted as Concert Manager for the QRS Great Performers Series for more
than 20 years and got burned by misbehaving moppets in only the first
two of our concerts.  After that, I banned all children under the age
of twelve.  To be sure, that didn't solve all our problems.  There were
still ladies with a couple of quarts of noisy jewelry, alarm watches,
pagers, and later cellphones, and the ubiquitous cellophane lozenge
wrappers.  But most people appreciated the "New Rule" and thanked me
often.

I myself grew up in an age when audiences were generally quiet and
well behaved (not including Italy).  My grandmother used to take me
to concerts and the opera from the time (I was seven) _after_ having
broken me in with outdoor events and small musicales and monitoring
my behavior and carefully instructing me in the proper etiquette in
concert halls.

Since then, I find that general audiences, not including the elderly,
tend to be more restless.  I blame the advent of television for the
deterioration of good manners in an auditorium.  Family members, from
the youngest to the oldest, wander in and out of the family room,
hold conversations and engage in all manner of activities, and only
pay scant attention to whatever program is on the TV set.  That may
be acceptable in a closed environment, but not when there is live
entertainment.  Alas, most children don't have the capacity to judge
the difference.

I sympathize with Andy.  His son might have been a paragon of
self-control but concert promoters need to see to the enjoyment of
their larger audience and judge themselves accordingly.  I'm sure that
the fine folks in San Francisco in 1988 had no intention of offending
him but when one is trying to organize something as complicated as a
large convention, they can hardly be faulted for failing to spoon-feed
every "special case".

Felix Klempka
Buffalo, New York
Chief Engineer (1972-2005), QRS Music Rolls, Inc.