Your first concert

There is no barrier to clear. You need a ticket and you need to be roughly on time. Here is the whole evening, in the order it happens.

Choosing one

For a first concert, an orchestral programme is the safest bet — large sound, plenty of colour, hard to drift away from. A concerto works too: there is a soloist on stage and an obvious thing to watch. Chamber music and solo recitals are quieter and reward attention you may not have yet. Save them for the second time.

Most concerts run 90 to 120 minutes with a 20-minute interval. Every event page here states the running time and whether there is an interval, but only where the presenter published it. Where they did not, we leave it blank rather than guess.

Buying

Tickets for the main Shanghai halls go on sale one to three months ahead. Popular nights lose most of their cheap seats on the day of release. Prices usually come in five or six tiers, with the lowest often between ¥80 and ¥180.

For channels, release times and student tickets, see how to get tickets.

What to wear

Whatever you would wear to work or to meet friends. Shanghai's concert halls have no dress code and jeans are ordinary. The one thing worth planning for is the air conditioning — several halls run it hard in summer. Bring a layer.

When to arrive

Twenty minutes early is comfortable. Collecting tickets, checking a bag, finding the seat and visiting the lavatory add up to about that. Bells and an announcement warn you before curtain.

Latecomers are not turned away, but they are not let straight in either. Staff will hold you outside, usually in front of a screen showing the stage, until a piece finishes or a gap between movements arrives, and then seat you at the back. That wait can be twenty minutes. Better to be early.

Metro, parking and arrival notes for each hall are on its venue page — for instance Shanghai Symphony Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall and Shanghai Oriental Art Center.

Once it starts

The lights go down and the orchestra tunes. An oboe sounds a long A and the rest of the players tune to it. That is not part of the performance and gets no applause.

The conductor walks on. That is applause. They turn to face the orchestra, raise their hands, the hall goes quiet, and the music begins.

A symphony usually has three or four movements with pauses of a few seconds between them. Those pauses are not for applause. Wait until the whole piece ends, the conductor lowers their arms and turns around. If you are unsure, watch the conductor's hands — still raised means not finished — or simply follow the room.

More detail in when to applaud.

The interval

About 20 minutes. Water, lavatories, a look at the programme book. Bells ring two or three times; the second one is your cue to head back.

The end

If the applause is warm, the orchestra will play an encore or two — short pieces, usually announced from the stage. When the encores are over, the leader stands to bring the orchestra up, and the house lights come on. That is the real end.

It is fine not to like it. Not connecting with a concert is not a failure of yours; it is a mismatch with that programme. Try another one, another composer, another hall. Enough concerts and the ones that are yours become obvious.

Next

• Where to sit
• Reading the programme
• What's on