Robert Levine writes a great response (as usual) to Holly Mulcahy’s article on how to alienate your audience, and address in particular the issue of musicians not smiling during performances.
Here’s what he says:
But two of her points were not as well taken, I thought.
1) Never smile. You are a serious musician who has spent hours honing your craft. Indeed, most concertgoers aren’t likely to understand the full depth of your artistic understanding. In order to make sure they understand this, it is best to project a brooding manner at all times. This is best accomplished by maintaining stoic expressions at all time, even onstage or when the audience responds to a truly triumphant performance with enthusiastic applause.
Granted, it is impossible to maintain a smile at all times during periods of intense concentration but an appreciative audience likes to know you are not pissed at them for showing up and enjoying a concert when they are applauding. It never hurts to remember that no one likes a martyr and you should respond to sincere applause with affirmative body language (yes, even a smile).
To some extent, she corrects herself with the line about “intense concentration,†but I still believe she misses the point. We don’t expect pitchers – or batters – to smile while they’re at work. We do expect them to “hustle.†It may be that what Holly is asking for is the orchestral equivalent of “hustle.†Go about 1’50†into this video and you’ll see a pretty good example. No one smiles during this performance (except the conductor, and he shouldn’t). But it’s pretty compelling nonetheless.
I wrote more about this subject a few months ago here, if you want a more detailed exposition of why I think American orchestras should look more like Berlin when they play.
Here’s the video that he references: