Going to the Symphony?

When I was a youngling, I went to the symphony a few times. I have always liked cultural events, like the symphony, opera, ballet, etc. When we lived in Houston, they had a family series at the symphony, and we went to that one season. Oh, look, I actually have a picture:



I have always wanted to go to more cultural events, and I'd been feeling a little sad that I haven't been to any recently. My husband is not interested, and my kids are still too young to go to full-length concerts. Over the past month, there were ads on the radio for the Utah Symphony's performance of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto. I really wanted to go! I looked the tickets up to see how much they cost, thinking maybe I would just go alone, and I remembered the main reason I don't go to cultural events/concerts. It's a VERY EXPENSIVE NAP. Most tickets for one performance at the Utah Symphony range from $32 to $51, with a few $26 and $16 seats. There are so few $16 seats that it makes me wonder what is wrong with them. I mean, it's the symphony, so it's not like you need to see, but maybe the seats are at the perfectly wrong spot acoustically, so you can't hear anything.

Anyway, I remembered that for me, cultural events nearly always turn into a nap. As I've mentioned, I've slept through the Phantom of the Opera at least twice. (I can't remember if I fell asleep when I went to see it the third time in Houston.) I have slept through Cats on Broadway in New York City. I am pretty sure I've slept through every other cultural event I've ever been to.

Now that I've remembered my tendency to nap, I'm not so concerned about going. I am, however, very grateful to my subscription to Rhapsody. I pay $13/month and can listen to almost anything. So I downloaded Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto. It fits perfectly into my playlist, right after 'Africa' by Toto, and right before 'Bed of Roses' by Bon Jovi. I also added the orchestral scores of all six Star Wars movies. It's fun to teach kids that orchestral music includes cool stuff like movie scores.

Oh, and best of all -- when I was looking up those ticket prices, I found that the Utah Symphony DOES have a family series! I am almost sure I looked this up when we moved back to Utah in 2006 and they did not have it then (or I am a bad Googler). The next concert is the Cowboy Jamboree. We are planning to go.