Ringtone Halts New York Philharmonic Mid-Song
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Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage(NEW YORK) — For the first time ever, a performance of the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center was halted by a ringing cell phone.
Tuesday night, during the final movements of Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, the music was brought to a dramatic halt by Maestro Alan Gilbert.
The culprit? The distinctive sound of iPhone’s “Marimba” ringtone.
A ringing phone in the first row could be heard throughout the Center’s Avery Fisher Hall each time the symphony came to a quiet moment in the performance.
It was then that Maestro Gilbert sharply turned his head to signal to the offending audience member that that was enough, reports the Wall Street Journal, who happened to have a reporter in the audience.
The ringtone continued to the point where Gilbert turned to the audience and asked that the culprit, said to be a male and a regular Philharmonic attendee, quiet his phone.
Gilbert finally stopped the orchestra mid-song until it happened, and resumed the concert’s grand finale only after he received confirmation that it would not happen again.
The Philharmonic reports it was the first time the music director had ever interrupted a performance because of a cell phone, or any other disruption.
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