ETIQUETTE FOR RECITALS
PERFORMERS
• Performers should dress nice and wear appropriate attire for performances: girls in knee-length or longer dresses, boys in dress pants and buttoned dress shirts with ties preferred, or suits. No spaghetti straps, no platform shoes, flip-flops, or athletic footwear. Please do not wear dangling, jingling jewelry or wrist corsages.
• Remember to practice in your outfit, shoes included.
• Performers must bow at the end of the performance (and at the beginning, if there is applause when you enter the stage). Practice bowing properly.
• Arrive at the requested time in order to learn where you are to sit and receive instructions for the performance.
• Once the recital begins, please listen and be quiet.
• Respect the other performers. Unnecessary noise from whispering, talking, candy wrappers, etc. during a program is not acceptable. Reading, studying, and writing letters during a program are also inappropriate.
from the Abilene, Texas Music Teachers Association
AUDIENCE
• Recitals are a special occasion and so it is customary to dress nicely.
• Please arrive a little early in order to find a comfortable place to sit.
• Once the recital begins, please listen and be quiet. Crying babies should be taken out. They are not happy!
• If you arrive late, please wait to enter between pieces when you hear applause.
• Do not enter while someone is performing.
• The conductor, leader, or soloist will bow and your response is to applaud politely!
• Compositions that have movements or suites are, in general, performed without applause in the middle.
• Respect the performers. Unnecessary noise from whispering, talking, candy wrappers, etc. during a program is not acceptable. Reading, studying, and writing letters during a program are also inappropriate.
• For the comfort of others, stay home if you have a cold or a cough. If you must un-wrap a cough drop, bring the kind with quiet wrappers.
• Please stay until the performance or event is completely over and the performers have left the stage.
• Recording and flash photography is inappropriate during a performance, and in professional concerts illegal. Be sure to ask the program director or teacher when you may take photographs. (Usually it is best to wait until the end of the performance).
• Enjoy! Your presence is the greatest affirmation!
from the Abilene, Texas Music Teachers Association
(Please turn off cell phones, or set to vibrate.)