Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra — Local services in Pittsburgh

I made the trip to Pittsburgh to see this orchestra performing a special one-time event a couple years ago. I came in with high expectations, as I had seen another (not local) orchestra perform this same event about a year prior. Unfortunately I was a bit let down for the experience.

First and foremost, the orchestra was not well balanced. Melody was routinely lost behind countermelody or harmony, and certain sections always seemed to overpower the rest of the ensemble.

Second, the orchestra as a whole was not very good in terms of technical execution. Missed notes, sloppy entries, and (as I said before) a general lack of awareness of volume.

Third, the A/V team was not very good with their cues. Numerous times throughout the performance they missed opening microphones for sections or soloists, leaving their performance barely audible.

Lastly... Downtown Pittsburgh, where's your traffic management for special events? We arrived an hour early for the 8PM event, and still were stuck in gridlock traffic downtown for almost 45 minutes.

I realize the hometown orchestra that I frequent, the Cleveland Orchestra, is widely considered among the finest in the nation and even world, so I'm trying to not let the expectations I have of that group affect my judgment of the performance I heard in Pittsburgh. However I heard a much smaller, less-well-known-city's orchestra who undoubtedly has a smaller budget than Pittsburgh's, perform the same program to a standard almost as high as what I would have held the Cleveland...

We are long-time subscribers. In February I asked for seat changes in same zone. A one-time request after many decades. It was frustrating and very unsatisfying. Our representative did not communicate well. Many times not returning email or phone calls, not for weeks, just not at all. Finally this week (wk of July 8) I emailed, called twice and finally called general number and spoke with someone who got the message to my rep and we settled things. I was forced to always take the initiative and follow this as if it was my job. There are only four reps to take care of thousands of accounts (so I'm told). Really? That doesn't sound like it would be a good customer service model. Listening to a symphony administrator standing on stage thanking subscribers for their support and encouraging them to renew their subscription all sounds pretty positive. It was not a positive experience for us trying to make an easy one-time change on a pair of seats. It was not only time consuming, it was exasperating to listen to excuses while given the run around (when you could even talk with your rep). Our Pittsburgh Symphony is amazing and treasure to our great city. But in my experience they need better administrators (or more?) to give some weight to that big thank you that we hear from the...

Wanted to go and see the live Harry Potter performance. Saw they had many individual seat tickets, but no pairs next to one another. Firstly, this sounds like a poor ticket management problem. So, I called and asked if there was a way to get any two seats next to each other. They offered me two seats, one in front of the other. I obliged to the offer and was told my tickets "should be sent in the mail shortly", I thought it to be odd that they do not have virtual tickets in the first place, but this was 2 weeks prior to the event. Waited 10 days (over a holiday), no tickets. I called after the Holiday and said my tickets never arrived and I'd like to cancel my order. They said the could NOT do a refund and they offered to hold them at the door for me as sending them in the mail now would take too long.

I see other reviewers having a similar experience of never receiving their tickets.

So I never got what I paid for, cannot sell them to someone else because the tickets are not virtual and they never sent them, and I couldn't get a refund.

Poor experience. Hope others view my experience...