Audience behavior during a recent ULM concert left a number of music faculty and students disappointed.
A couple of weeks ago students in the audience disrupted a faculty concert put on by Dr. Mel Mobley, associate professor of music.
Most of the complaints involved the high noise level of the audience during the performances. Complaints included talking, cell phones and an overall lack of respect.
“This particular audience was the most disruptive I have ever performed for at ULM. It was not only disruptive to myself as a performer, but also to my students: music majors who attend performances with the expectation of having an artistic experience,” said Dr. Claire Vangelisti, who also performed at the concert.
A large portion of the audience consisted of students from the Music 1091 class. About 200 from this course were in attendance.
These students are required to attend a certain number of concerts a semester.
Mobley said that he was not upset about the concert and that when people are forced to do something, it’s not a good starting situation.
If he would have known who would have made up the majority of the audience, Mobley said he would have prepared a different concert.
Despite the audience, performers kept their composure on stage and continued with the concert.
“You try to block out any disruptions,” said Mobley.
While some of the faculty was a little more understanding, some students were not.
“The guy sitting directly behind me was dipping, and using profane language to describe how long the pieces being played were. It was all I could do not to turn around and tell him that some of us were there to actually enjoy the concert,” said Alyssa Flowers, a senior musical theatre major. “These students need to learn to respect who is on stage, just like they would their favorite pop singers.”
Not only did the disruptive students behave rudely, but some music students felt that it also made a mockery of their aspirations.
“Listening to someone scoff at what you aspire to be isn’t easy to sit through,” said Nathanael Medlin, a sophmore vocal performance major.
