Here’s a novel way to deal with pesky audience noise.

Cheeky Toronto visual artist Rob Elliott, whose gimlet-eyed view of the world I appreciate, happens to be a fan of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

He and his wife loved last week’s spectacular programme led by conductor John Storgaards, but were less than impressed with the audience (which, on the night I was there, included a cell phone noise that ruined the maestro’s downbeat on the opening piece).

Or, as Elliott puts it in his sketchbook/blog, You Windy Rathole, “Every time I attend the symphony, I fear my brain is going to explode before the concert is over.”

So he has come up with an alternate seating plan to deal with the problem (click on the illustration if you want to make it bigger):

John Terauds

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John Terauds

John Terauds, Editor-Emeritus of Ludwig van Toronto, is currently a Divinity student at the University of Toronto and a church music director. He joined the Toronto Star in 1988, was the classical music critic from 2005 to 2012, and continues as a freelance critic for the paper. He is the co-author of Roy Thomson Hall: A Portrait, a book written with Toronto Star Colleague, William Littler.

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