Twelve Cincinnati students were among the thirty five chosen to perform for the President and his guests.
Before the concert, the President highlighted an issue of our music culture that we should work to ...um, you know, CHANGE.
Why can't we applaud to show our appreciation for classical musicians?
At the evening concert, Obama tried to put the audience at ease by telling the crowd that even President Kennedy wasn't always sure when to clap during classical performances and had to get a signal from his social secretary on when to applaud.
"Fortunately, I have Michelle to tell me when to applaud," he joked. "The rest of you are on your own."
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Why do the rules require silence during the whole performance of a piece of classical music?
Silly - if we want more people to share and enjoy music, we should all show the joy when we like something. That would be more fun for everyone (including the musicians) and removes a barrier for newcomers.
Instead - as the President points out...we make this one form of music different from others by creating insiders and outsiders: people who know the cultural norms and people who don't.
Here's a tip for the President. You could do even more for classical music by changing the rules. Set the new norm: applauding when we like something - no matter where we are or what the music!
Yes, indeed, I'm all for it! Actually, it wouldn't be a change, it would be reverting to the old rules. In the 18th and a good part of the 19th century audiences felt free to register their approval (or disapproval) between movements of sonatas, concertos, and symphonies. Composers such as Mozart and Beethoven would have been highly disappointed not to elicit such response. Today, staged opera is the only branch of classical music which never lost that tradition. Let's go for it! --Rosemary Waller
PS It would also take care of such perennial problems as the pause between the last two movements of the Tchaikowsky 6th Symphony, when the super-rousing end of the third movement fools even some of the most sophisticated listeners into thinking that it's the end of the work, and clapping and yelling "BRAVO" when "shouldn't."