Both the Melbourne Recital Centre and City Recital Hall are open one hour prior to our concert start time, and Queensland Performing Arts Centre foyers generally open 90 minutes prior to the performance start time. Some people like to arrive with time to read the concert program, enjoy a glass of champagne, catch up with friends and even make some new ones. It’s a great way to wind down from your day at work, rushing around or fighting with the traffic. We suggest you allow extra time if driving on a Friday night as traffic tends to be at its worst.

If you are running late, don’t worry! Although entry into the concert hall is restricted once the performance has begun, ushers will be able to let you in at a suitable break. This may be during the applause between pieces, or at interval. The venue ushers will be able to assist you.

One beautiful printed concert program is free to each subscriber and is available for sale to the general public for $10. The Brandenburg programs are full of well written background information and greatly enhance your concert experience. They are produced by the Brandenburg, so all proceeds from their sale go towards presenting the music you love.

For the benefit of our musicians and your fellow audience members, we kindly ask that you turn off all electronic devices before a performance begins. Other distractions can include talking and whispering, shuffling feet, coughing and paper rustling. Please respect the performers and those around you by ensuring these distractions are kept to a minimum. Photographing and recording is strictly prohibited at all times.

Brandenburg concert-goers are varied and so is their attire. While some dress casually, others treat our performances as an opportunity to dress up. It is completely up to you!

Just like jazz or pop concerts, orchestral concerts have a unique format which is easy to pick up. As a book has chapters, so a piece of orchestral music has several sections called movements. Although our musicians pause briefly between each movement, it’s accepted practice not to applaud but to wait until the end of a piece. At that time separate applause may be given to the soloist, which the conductor will indicate. To understand what’s going on, you can refer to your program to see how many movements there are in each piece or follow the cues from those around you.

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra performs on period instruments which are more fragile than their modern equivalents and sensitive to temperature and humidity. In particular, the gut strings are not as stable as the metal strings on modern instruments.  The materials and construction of period instruments contribute a great deal to their distinctive sound, but a consequence is that they tend to lose pitch quicker than their modern counterparts. For this reason the Brandenburg re-tunes during a concert more often than a modern symphony orchestra does. The musicians need to be able to hear their instruments and one another during the tuning process, so we ask you to remain quiet at this time.

This varies from concert to concert, according to the program. The majority of our concerts are scheduled to last two hours with a 20 minute interval. If this is not the case, we will make this clear in the concert program and on our website.

Of course the most important thing of all is to immerse yourself in the experience and enjoy the music!