Before I say more, it's worth hearing the amusing story of how tails came to be. Back in the 1850's, the suit was essentially a long form coat that soldiers wore while riding horseback. The problem was that the front would bunch up in the saddle, so they had to push that part off to the side. After enough years of this nuisance, they decided to just cut off the front and voilà! Tails were born. It didn't take long for that style to catch on with civilians and fashion houses. Years later, in 1865, King Edward VII thought he'd look sharper yet by cutting off the tails, and voilà again! The tuxedo was essentially created.

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A white bow tie was traditionally worn with tails, so symphony orchestras settled on this as their uniform since it reflected what the audience was wearing. Over the years though — and as we all know — audiences have relaxed into jeans and suit jackets, short-sleeve button downs, and in the past few decades, just about anything short of beach wear. Nonetheless, orchestras have kept the tails tradition alive, which brings us to our dilemma: should we relax a bit and dress more like our audience, or are we to the point where tails have become an untouchable icon of the orchestra?

Some of us in the orchestra are more eager than others to make the switch. Ben Geller, our principal violist, wants to ditch the tails. He says we should only trot out the penguin suits at our most formal concerts like the Gala and New Year's Eve. His argument is that we're usually playing music from very different eras at each concert, so dressing in a specifically Baroque tradition doesn’t make sense. Another colleague in the CSO said that he doesn't like walking around Uptown in tails. "I'm afraid I'm going to get pied!" 

Personally, I feel pretty ambivalent, and it's not because I'm trying to be too cool for school. On one hand, a suit is physically easier to move around in (and playing cello for two hours is fairly physical!) and it looks nicely modern. On the other, I think it's pretty cool to even have a tradition that extends 150+ years back, so I'm a little uneasy about bringing it to an end.

When I asked CEO David Fisk about this in his office, he rubbed his hands together and laughed maniacally. “Now! I will finally bury this garish tradition once and for all!” Just kidding. He actually said he wondered if the audience would even notice. He intends to try it out, see how it goes, and then decide from there. 

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To summarize: we may or may not be wearing black suits next fall, and people may or may not even notice if we do. But feel free to write to us if you'd like to weigh in!