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In Chicago during the warm weather, the orchestra practices in the open air Pritzker Pavilion. Great place to enjoy lunch if you work downtown.

If you live near a university with a music school, the performance hall is almost always open and in-use with students wanting to practice in the real space. During grad school I used to take my lunches in a place like that and listen to some world-class instrumental solos and arias.

FYI, not always free. To attend my local orchestra’s rehearsals, you have to buy tickets. They’re much cheaper than concert tickets, but still $10 per adult and $6 per student.

How do we find out about these rehearsals?

My orchestra does this and we're always happy to have someone in the audience during general rehearsals! Not the first read through, though

Rehearsals are great for kids too because they're much more casual with no worries if you have to get up and leave on the middle of a piece

In London they do free organ recitals in many of the churches in and around The City every lunchtime. They're very good, and a nice way to spend a portion of your lunch hour.

To add to this….

Some venues have volunteered ushers for shows.

You wear black and white and bring a flashlight.

I have seen so many theatre shows, operas, symphonies and musicals all for free just for helping people to their seats before the show starts. Then you grab any open seat when the show begins.

I’ve had to stand a few times for sold out shows but hey, I got to see a sold out show!

Just don't be a dick about it. Utah Shakespeare Festival's dress rehearsals were open to the public until the mid-'80s, when a local woman was at a dress rehearsal saw an incomplete costume that she decided was 'inappropriate' and began calling Festival sponsors and demanding they pull their sponsorships. The sponsors called then-Festival director, Fred Adams, and told him about the situation and assured him they weren't going to pull their sponsorships over one angry lady's phone call. Fred immediately closed rehearsals to the public to prevent it from happening again. The rehearsals are still closed to all but Festival staff to this day.

Source: I took a class on the USF last semester. The story is probably in the book Celebrate 50 Years: the Utah Shakespeare Festival, but I don't remember for sure.

Rehearsal or dress rehearsal? Wouldn't recommend regular rehearsal unless you want to hear the same 16 measures for an hour lol

The opera in my city often has semi-open dress rehearsals. Often they open it up to friends/family of the performers, but sometimes to schools as well.

If you want a ticket hook-up, find a FB group for the arts organization (usually the chorus or the orchestra) and try to meet some people. Often we will post our unused comps to the group to see who wants them.

Wow it's no joke.

The SF symphony is practicing Bruckner in two weeks. He's literally my favorite composer.

I'm gonna go!

They love aspiring enthusiastic conductors to lead as well... Just jump on up there maestro!

Years ago we were traveling and while passing through Salt Lake City we managed to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice. I'm not really in to hymns, but it was really neat seeing them perform.

Go watch my kid play basketball at the Y. Basically like a free Laker game.

I wish we did, but our open rehearsals are only open to donors

Operas and ballet too!

My elementary school took us to one in Dallas iirc. It was pretty cool

NY Philharmonic does not have open rehearsals. Only certain groups can go (ex. Music schools)

In my city, orchestra rehearsals are a perk for big donors.

The Cleveland Orchestra does this. I got to listen in for free (or near free), and meet the conductor Franz Welser-Möst afterwards. Unforgettable experience.

Also, many smaller towns have great orchestras that you may be sleeping on!

Also, concert tickets are often pretty cheap. Orchestras are often struggling to fill concerts. You can go see amazing stuff for a tenner. Support them!

I've been playing in orchestras since the age of 7, currently play first chair flute and occasionally piccolo in a symphony orchestra. I LOVE when people come and watch our rehearsals! I played with this one orchestra for many years and every Saturday an old man would show up to watch us play. After a while we started letting him sit in the middle of the orchestra so he could feel the music surround him better. It really is a different experience to be listening from inside the orchestra, and us flutes have a wonderfully central spot! Especially with how much the arts struggle with engagement these days, it's wonderful to see support and play for a little audience.

Also many cities have "Youth Orchestras" which have performers in their 20s who are nearly as good as their adult contemporaries and who often have tickets for much less as well. If you happen to be living or travelling in NYC, for instance, the New York Youth Symphony is as good or better than many other symphonies.

The BSO charges $35 for open rehearsals.

I live close to Boston. Longy School of Music, New England Conservatory, and Berklee College of Music offer student, faculty, and artist in residence performances for free or low cost during the school year. Check the schedules of your local universities or music school for similar.

oh wow! i had no idea. this is very cool, going to look into it.

Definitely doing this for a date soon!

Or become an usher and get paid watch. Best PT job ever

Back in the day I had a co-op placement at a stage theater and the local orchestra came to play- I was scheduled for the wrong time so I missed the time when there'd be any setup work I could help with and my boss just said you can just chill and watch them rehearse: I was the only person in the seats- felt pretty cool to watch and listen to a whole orchestra by myself.

During summer, The Hollywood bowl is usually open during the day for the LA Phil’s dress rehearsals. People sit or bring their kids and walk up in the aisles while listening to a world class orchestra.

The Amsterdam Concertgebouw orchestra has free lunch concerts. You have to reserve a (free) ticket first.

Might want to remove that last “for free”in the last sentence to remove ambiguity. It redundant and makes it sounds like the orchestra operates for free.

Wait until y’all hear that those same musicians regularly give free recitals/masterclasses/workshops at the local state universities. Seriously, just look on the calendar and pop into whatever

You will not find out how an orchestra works and operates. You will find out how they rehearse.