Christine Rooney asked:

>Is it appropriate to go back stage after an evening's performance to meet
>the guest artist?

As other listers said, if the artist hates meeting people, he would not
let the door open.  As a performer, I love to meet friends and unknown
listeners alike.  Now, I think that you should not expect too much from
such meetings, for several reasons.

After a concert, a musician is not always totally out of his/her inner
world.  Sometimes what s/he can behave in a slightly brusque way without
meaning it.  It happened to me once, with a little girl and her mother,
and I still feel sorry for it, twelve years later.

Many performers take this as a routine.  This means that they will always
have an autograph and ready-made words in store, but nothing more.

It is very frequent to meet parents who think that their child is
very gifted.  Sometimes it is true, but very rarely.  So, even if (and
especially if) your daughter is truly good enough to become a fine
performer, you should not expect a soloist to take your word for it and
jump on the occasion to audition her.  It seems more reasonable to ask
whether s/he teaches anywhere, in summer courses, and if you see that s/he
is not too exhausted and a hundred other spectators are not waiting in
line, you could ask for some general advice.  Others would tell you to go
ahead and ask for his/her address.  Well, do not be too surprised if s/he
refuses to give it to you.  On the other hand, s/he might suggest that you
turn to his/her agent.

When I was a kid, I once went backstage to meet Perlman -- I got an
esoteric curve on a record, and when I asked whether he did some teaching,
he said: "No." I did not get one more word, nor did I try to.  Probably
Perlman is not Menuhin, but one cannot judge on one unsignificant
"meeting".  Blomstedt, for instance, was a bit more talkative.  Of course,
if you actually go to a summer course and meet the performer again, you
can talk about the concert!  This is completely different, more
person-to-person, or even musician-to-musician.

Steven Schwartz (I think) mentioned that he got in friendly terms with
performers just by repeated meetings backstage.  Well, Steven is not
precisely an anonymous person!  What is sure is that some people, who
definitely do not have Mr. Schwartz's musical competency, love to boast
about "knowing" the best-known musicians and like to prove it by behaving
in a very casual, "old pal" way with them.  Probably performers come to
recognize faces, but they have little esteem for this kind of acting.  On
the other hand, we try to recognize people who genuinely like our music
and come back for it, not for showing off.  This is a reward, and a much
appreciated one.  Attitudes are often eloquent enough -- starting a long,
detailed, clinical account of how splendidly the pianist played the E flat
at 3:55 in the adagio is immaterial and tends to prove that you may well
have missed the point.

Best wishes,

Thanh-Tam Le
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