when I was a child, an outdoor concert was rained out. but the performer wanted to play anyway so he gathered a group to go play in the barn behind the stage. I went and fell asleep on my father's lap while listening.

Philip Glass's live performance of "Glassworks," St. Louis Art Museum, 1973. Snatches of the uniquely interesting piece were promoted on local FM stations for two weeks. The Auditorium audience started with about 150 people in attendance. The walk-out began gradually 5 minutes into the piece. I stayed about 20 minutes with maybe 8 people scattered about, when I realized my high pain threshold was deteriorating and the shear boredom of the repetitive arpeggios was driving me insane. The composer, playing keyboard and directing from the bench with an occasional nod, gave no indication that corrections should be made nor that there was, indeed, an audience or a problem. To this day, I consider this piece one of the most god-awful examples of the genre called, Minimalism. I guess, if you are a composer, you have to start somewhere.

This is a VERY difficult question for me to answer, but I will lump just a few select "experiences" together and call it a day: (1) Hearing Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 performed by the Blair String Quartet at Vanderbilt University, (2) Performing a Bach Chorale from the St. Matthew Passion ("Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden") IN the Thomaskirche, in Leipzig, Germany, and (3) Taking part in all things "Bang on a Can" that I was lucky enough to experience in person (Marathons, the Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, etc.)...

Live performance of Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich on the great vast plain under the night sky with a surround sound in the summer air.

My favorite memory from a live event was when I traveled to LA to see David Lang's opera, "The Loser," and after the show I got to meet some of the crew. I had the opportunity to talk to David and he told me that my students were very fortunate to have me as a choir director. It was really beautiful to get to share a memory like that from a show that is an example of praising the prodigy while the one individual is in the shadows, kind of how I was feeling at that point in my career.

at the end of a piece, when the music winds down to a final, elongated note ... and then you share the final silence with a few thousand people in the audience. So quiet, amid so many people.

The lights going down and the sound enveloping the room. The excitement of seeing an artist for the first time. The shouting out of "Free Bird"!

Symphony Hall Boston - Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra also: Lily Pad Cambridge piano festival held on 2 consecutive weekends (4 days) from afternoon till night.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor of the Shrine Exposition Hall in Los Angeles in 1967 or 1968 at a Mothers of Invention concert (opener was Sweetwater and maybe Iron Butterfly) for maybe four hours being completely blown away by the music. Zappa's band was astonishing and the music amazing.

Seeing the Grit Orchestra playing at Glasgow Concert Hall on the opening night of Celtic Connections. I was amazed at there being nine double bass players and four bagpipe players in the orchestra. I felt all the sound reverberate from my toes to my head.