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<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Here's the excruciatingly painful (and
funny) story about "Patron X" from The NY Times:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">============ </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">The New York Times <BR>Thursday 12 January
2012</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=5 face="Palatino Linotype">Ringing Finally Ended, but There’s No
Button to Stop Shame</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">By DANIEL J. WAKIN</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">They were baying for blood in the usually
polite precincts of Avery Fisher Hall.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">The unmistakably jarring sound of an iPhone
marimba ring interrupted the soft and spiritual final measures of Mahler’s
Symphony No. 9 at the New York Philharmonic on Tuesday night. The conductor,
Alan Gilbert, did something almost unheard-of in a concert hall: He stopped the
performance. But the ringing kept on going, prompting increasingly angry shouts
in the audience directed at the malefactor.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">After words from Mr. Gilbert, and what
seemed like weeks, the cellphone owner finally silenced his device. After the
audience cheered, the concert resumed. Internet vitriol ensued.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">But no one, it seems, felt worse than the
culprit, who agreed to an interview on Thursday on condition that he not be
identified — for obvious reasons.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">“You can imagine how devastating it is to
know you had a hand in that,” said the man, who described himself as a business
executive between 60 and 70 who runs two companies. “It’s horrible, horrible.”
The man said he had not slept in two days.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">The man, called Patron X by the
Philharmonic, said he was a lifelong classical music lover and 20-year
subscriber to the orchestra who was friendly with several of its members. He
said he himself was often irked by coughs, badly timed applause — and cellphone
rings. “Then God, there was I. Holy smokes,” he said.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">“It was just awful to have any role in
something like that, that is so disturbing and disrespectful not only to the
conductor but to all the musicians and not least to the audience, which was so
into this concert,” he said by telephone.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">“I hope the people at that performance and
members of the orchestra can certainly forgive me for this whole event. I
apologize to the whole audience.”</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Patron X said he received a call from an
orchestra official the day after the concert. He had been identified by his
front-row seat. The official politely asked him not to do it again, he said, and
the man took the opportunity to ask to speak to Mr. Gilbert, to apologize in
person.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">The men talked by telephone (it was a land
line) on Thursday afternoon. Mr. Gilbert said he told Patron X, “I’m really
sorry you had to go through this,” and accepted his apology.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Before that, the disruption became the
marimba ring tone heard round the world, prompting feverish commentary on blogs
and comment forums about performance interruptions.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">In a Twitter message, the composer Daniel
Dorff said, “Changed my ringtone to play #Mahler 9 just in case.” A YouTube
poster superimposed a marimba sound over a performance of the piece by Leonard
Bernstein.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">The episode seemed to serve as an extreme
example of how one of the staples of modern life can disrupt a live performance,
because of both Mr. Gilbert’s reaction and the guilty party’s long delay in
shutting off the cellphone.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Actually, Patron X said he had no idea he
was the culprit. He said his company replaced his BlackBerry with an iPhone the
day before the concert. He said he made sure to turn it off before the concert,
not realizing that the alarm clock had accidentally been set and would sound
even if the phone was in silent mode.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">“I didn’t even know phones came with
alarms,” the man said.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">But as Mr. Gilbert was glaring in his
direction, he fiddled with the phone as others around him did, just to be sure,
pressing buttons. That was when the sound stopped. It was only in the car going
home that his wife checked the settings on his phone and found that the alarm
had been set.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Cellphones often go off during all sorts of
performances, but the Mahler incident was a rarity: It happened during one of
music’s most sublime moments, it did not stop after a few seconds, and it
emanated from the front row, where it was impossible for Mr. Gilbert to
ignore.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">The Philharmonic said the ushers at Avery
Fisher Hall — who work for Lincoln Center, not the orchestra — should have
intervened. Lincoln Center said it was investigating.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Both Mr. Gilbert and Patron X found
something positive in the episode.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">“It shows how important people still feel
live performance is,” Mr. Gilbert said. “This is something people either
consciously or implicitly recognize as sacred.”</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">The patron agreed. The incident underscored
“the very enduring and important bond between the audience and the performers,”
he said, adding, “If it’s disturbed in any significant way, it just shows how
precious this whole union is.”</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">James Barron contributed
reporting.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">This article has been revised to reflect the
following correction:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Correction: January 12, 2012</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">An earlier version of this article
misspelled the surname of the composer who sent a Twitter message about the
cellphone interruption as Dorf.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">- 30 -<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=vnvlain@gmail.com href="mailto:vnvlain@gmail.com">DJ Were-Panda</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=f_minor@glenngould.org
href="mailto:f_minor@glenngould.org">Discussion of the Canadian pianist Glenn
Gould.</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:10
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [f_minor] NYPO Mahler 9th
interrupted by cell phone</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<P>The Economist did a piece today on the matter. Before people start
seeing red on bliss intruded upon by digital devices, I'd like to direct you
to a quote from the article:</P>
<P>(quote)<BR>The New York Times reported that the gentleman in question,
interviewed by the newspaper but not named, had received a brand new company
iPhone a day before the concert, replacing his BlackBerry smartphone. An alarm
had been set accidentally, it appears, and he was only able to silence it
after much fumbling in his pocket. A spokeswoman for the Philharmonic told
Babbage that the hapless interrupter, a front-row season subscriber, is
mortified, and that the orchestra and staff feel for him.<BR>(end quote)</P>
<P>Full article here: <A
href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2012/01/mobile-phones?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/marimbamahler">http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2012/01/mobile-phones?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/marimbamahler</A></P>
<P>Regards, DJWP</P>
<P>
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