Yes, I got a Standing Ovation at Carnegie Hall on New Year's Eve - Well Kinda
Steven Taub
Filmmaker, Writer, Event Producer, Marketing Consultant, Educator/workshop host (Emmy nominated)
If your question for me is this...
Hey did you ever get a standing ovation at Carnegie Hall on New Year’s Eve?
I can say the answer to that is yes, well kinda, sorta anyway.
Many years ago I was a bartender for really high end catering services. I was a champagne and sparkling water tender for the patrons of the arts at Carnegie Hall this New Year's Eve. The evenings performance featured The London Symphony orchestra with violin maestro Issac Stern and jazz pianist extraordinaire Keith Jarrett.
I was sitting back stage getting paid to listen to this evening of sterling musical amazement. At 11:30 p.m. the concert was supposed to end and the people that were devoted patrons of Carnegie Hall seated in the front couple of rows were to take the stage for a New Years toast. I was there to serve them along with three other bartenders. We all had bar carts filled and ready.
The concert program ended at 11:30 p.m. as scheduled. Not scheduled The London Symphony Orchestra added one more piece. I recall it was 'The Blue Danube' as I always liked that piece.
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Now though our two Maitre D's were in panic as we had to get about 100 people on stage and serve bubbly at midnight.
It was getting perilously close to New Years midnight. I was instructed to stand 'right behind the curtain off-stage' and as the last musician passed me 'roll my cart out to stage front'
The last musician passed me and I proceeded to center stage and there before my eyes was all of Carnegie Hall attendees giving a thunderous standing ovation. What a sight to behold from an on-stage perspective that is.
Funny about 95% of the audience must have been 'Why are bar carts rolling out?" as this champagne gesture was for but a few of the patrons attending. The first couple of rows made it on stage at about 11:55 p.m. as most of the hall was emptying out.
We did our champagne toast at midnight and Issac Stern played his violin and Keith Jarrett sat at the piano and they played an extended other-worldly version of 'Auld lang Syne'
In a small gathering I witnessed this musical miracle and I got a standing ovation too. Well, kinda, sorta on the ovation.