Audience
A number of music historians have described the St. Cecilia Society’s performances as among the earliest public concerts in the United States. This statement is misleading, however, as the society's concerts were never "public" events in the modern American sense of the word. From the beginning, the St. Cecilia Concerts were open only to members of the society and their guests, including the ladies of the members' families and invited gentlemen. The early success of its concerts soon prompted the society to enact measures to control access to its events. Many of its early rules articulate the eligibility requirements for male guests, and also expressly prohibit the admission of "boys."
Read more about this topic: St. Cecilia Society
Famous quotes containing the word audience:
“Your audience gives you everything you need. They tell you. There is no director who can direct you like an audience.”
—Fanny Brice (1891–1951)
“When you are writing before there is an audience anything written is as important as any other thing and you cherish anything and everything that you have written. After the audience begins, naturally they create something that is they create you, and so not everything is so important, something is more important than another thing ...”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“We are born at the rise of the curtain and we die with its fall, and every night in the presence of our patrons we write our new creation, and every night it is blotted out forever; and of what use is it to say to audience or to critic, “Ah, but you should have seen me last Tuesday”?”
—Michéal MacLiammóir (1899–1978)