Candlelight Concert Review: A Tribute to Taylor Swift

Candlelight Concerts just came to Richmond, VA, so I finally got a chance to check it out! The concert I saw was a string quartet Tribute to Taylor Swift, and I don’t think you could create a concert that’s more “me” than that! Today I’ll share my Candlelight Concert review with you.

WATCH THE VLOG AND REVIEW

What is a Candlelight Concert?

Candlelight Concerts are created by Fever, a programmer and ticketing website. They host chamber music concerts in candlelit venues all over the world. It’s really beautiful, and they have a lot of fun themes!

My Candlelight Concert Review

I really enjoyed my experience, especially since it was an all Taylor Swift concert! If you don’t know me, I’m a huge Taylor Swift fan, and I’m also a classical musician. My favorite type of chamber ensemble is the string quartet, so this concert was absolutely made for me.

The Venue

The venue for this concert was the Bolling Haxall House in Richmond, VA. This is a historic mansion in the city, and was a perfect, intricate venue for a chamber music concert. It was especially beautiful in the glow of all the candles!

The Musicians

The string quartet played beautifully; I could tell they’re all professional musicians. Since I’m a classical music fan, and I know every Taylor Swift song forward and backwards, I did notice a few small mistakes and hiccups. But I was paying such close attention to minute details that I don’t think the “average” concertgoer would’ve noticed.

Our Seats

For our concert, and for all others I looked at on the websites, there were three tiers of tickets: Zone A ($55), Zone B ($45), and Zone C ($35). We opted for Zone B, and were told that seating within zones were first come, first serve.

We arrived at the concert about 30 minutes beforehand, and got seats in what I think was the first row of Zone B! I was on the aisle, and I had a perfect, unobstructed view through the entire concert!

We also received a discount from Fever, since we’d gone to the Harry Potter Forbidden Forest experience in December. It looks like when you purchase tickets on Fever, they give you a discount towards your next purchase. I believe we ended up saving about $8.

The Atmosphere

A big draw to this concert series is in the name: the candlelight. Candles surround the performers on stage and trail down through the venue. It’s really a gorgeous view, and is a really romantic atmosphere for chamber music.

The audience was pretty good too, though I was surprised to see an older demographic than I was expecting–I know classical music draws an elderly crowd, but I didn’t think I’d see so many retirees at a Taylor Swift themed concert.

There was an announcement at the beginning to silence all phones, and we were reminded of some audience etiquette. Someone (or a group of people) kept dropping their phone on the hardwood floor during performances, which was super annoying! Otherwise, it was a great audience atmosphere.

The Music

Since this was a Tribute to Taylor Swift, the quartet played most of her greatest hits. The concert was 65 minutes long, which was a little short for my taste as a patient classical musician, but I think it’s a good length for audience members who are new to this type of experience.

The arrangements of the songs were fantastic! Many were the vocal melody with background lines very true to the originals, but my favorite was All Too Well – the arranger added a lot of textures to the music. It sounded like a string quartet that happened to have/follow the melody and form of All Too Well. It was so beautiful!

What to Know Before You Go

Venue

After looking at a few Candlelight Concert programs in different cities, it looks like they’re almost always performed in historic buildings and churches. Places like these usually have great acoustics for string players!

Tickets

Tickets have to be purchased ahead of time through Fever, and are digital. I do believe you can print them if you need to, since they’re in the form of a QR code.

Again, for my venue, tickets were split into three seating/pricing zones.

Food and Drink

No food or drink was sold or permitted at this concert. After looking at other programs, it looks like this is a theme at all Candlelight Concerts.

Pictures and Video

We were told quite a few times what the photography policy was: we could take pictures of/with the stage before and after the concert, but no photography or video recording was allowed during the performance, until the last bit when the performers gave us permission.

At that point, we were told we could take pictures and videos (without flash), sing, and dance along if we’d like.

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Overall, this was a great experience, and I’m so glad this concert series has come to Richmond, VA! I’m really excited to go to more Candlelight Concerts now that they’re so close by.