a little culture is found at last

The day when I "outgrow" the student discount will be a sad day indeed.  I carry my student ID with me everywhere, mostly because I need it to open the gate at my apartment complex, but more importantly, because I LOVE getting things cheaper because I am a student.  You never know when you might come across a student discount.  J Crew Outlet gives me 15% off everything, movie tickets at Harkins are always matinee price, I save 10% at Bravi Tuscan Kitchen and YumBeri Frozen Yogurt.  Well this weekend, my friends and I found one SWEET student discount.

It all started when my friend Allie asked if I wanted to go with her to the Phoenix Symphony.  While looking at their website to see what they were playing, I noticed that they had student tickets for $11.  Turns out that the symphony sells empty seats on the day of the concert to students.  We showed up at the concert hall about 1 hour before show time and were able to get our $11 seats with our student IDs.  The face value of the ticket was $69!  The seats were amazing: right in the middle of the hall, just 21 rows back.

I really had an enjoyable evening at the symphony.  They played Suite from Much Ado About Nothing op.11 by Korngold, Concerto No.21 in C major for Piano & Orchestra, K.467 by Mozart, and Suite from The Firebird by Stravinsky.  I really love the Firebird Suite and so getting to hear it live was a real treat.  There were definitely parts that gave me goosebumps.

I also found it interesting that one of the violin players had a disability that confined her to a motorized wheelchair and prompted the use of a service dog.  When the orchestra came out, the woman wheeled up to her music stand and the dog (a large golden retriever) followed.  He sat right down next to her chair and didn't move a muscle for the entire concert.  I was impressed.  I know those dogs are really smart and trained well, but it was just a surprising environment (loud music) to see a dog so calm and relaxed.  What a lucky dog too, to be able to enjoy that caliber/quality of music all the time!

After the show was over, our little group went to a nearby bar called Hanny's for drinks and food.  The place was super trendy, but kind of neat.  No sooner do we sit down, but the conductor of the symphony and the featured piano player come walking in.  They must have been there to schmooze with "patrons of the arts" aka the people that donate to the symphony, because the rest of the table was full of old people wearing fancy clothes. (One man was even rocking a bowtie.)  We toyed with the idea of going to tell the performers how much we enjoyed the show, but thought it would be rude to interrupt their get-together.  Instead we enjoyed our drinks (mojito...yum) and trendy pizza.

Overall it was a super fun night.  I certainly will be taking advantage of that student discount again in the future.  Also, who knew there was at least the tiniest bit of personality and culture in Phoenix.  It was nice to find some at last.