• Zuill Bailey and Simone Dinnerstein play the Beethoven cello sonata at Le Poisson Rouge.

OK, so my musical follow-up to last week’s review of the New York theater has been backed up to next week. But as the new musical season revs up at Charlotte Symphony, there are a few programming ideas I can pass along, gleaned from my three-week sojourn in the Big Apple.

Think outside the box, the concert hall, the bandshell, and the church. Charlotte classical music presenters use the same venues over and over. Would it be a crime to program a chamber-sized classical group at the Double Door, the Evening Muse, or the Visulite? Up in New York, members of the Music Critics Association were introduced to Ronen Givoney, who founded Le Poisson Rouge at the former site of Village Gate jazz club in Greenwich Village. Among a lineup of progressive rock and pop – Naughty by Nature, Glenn Branca Ensemble, and Deerhoof in a typical week – Givoney programs hard-core classical. So one evening during my stay, my daughter Ilana and attended a CD launch by Simone Dinnerstein and Zuill Bailey, capped by a concert of Beethoven cello sonatas. We weren’t alone. In fact, we learned the hard way that, despite audible clinking beer glasses and visible waiters, classical acts at Le Poisson Rouge routinely draw SRO crowds.

Keep your superstars busy, and keep music lovers happy. While John Adams was leading the New York premiere of his new opera, The Flowering Tree, he was also rehearsing with the International Contemporary Ensemble and clarinetist Michael Collins for a concert of his instrumental music. The outstanding chorale who were the musical centerpiece for The Flowering Tree at the Rose Theater in Columbus Circle, Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, stayed over an extra day to give a superb concert at the new Alice Tully Hall.

Rather grandiose examples, I know. More practical is the utilization by the Mostly Mozart Festival of the big-name concert soloists who came in and collaborated with various large orchestras. Before Yevgeny Sudbin made his New York debut playing a Beethoven concerto with the Festival Orchestra, I heard the first notes he actually played to the New York public – at a brief 7pm pre-concert piano recital an hour before the orchestra took the stage. Think how much more we would have savored appearances by Stephen Hough, Ingrid Fliter, Andre Watts, and a host of other great artists if they had graced the Belk Theater for a precious 20-30 minutes more. These solo pre-concerts were free to ticketholders for the orchestral concerts that followed – with open seating.

Mostly Mozart also back-loaded their orchestral concerts with a series of ticketed post-concert events, aptly named A Little Night Music. After their individual 8pm guest appearances at Avery Fischer Hall, pianists Piotr Anderszewski, Nicholas Angelich, and Stefan Vladar adjourned to the nearby Stanley Kaplan Penthouse for solo recitals at 10:30pm.

No reason why Charlotte Symphony, in concert with the Blumenthal PAC or some of the Queen City’s chamber music organizations, couldn’t contrive to roll out a longer red carpet to visiting classical music royalty. It would be a win-win-win for the solo artists, our orchestra musicians, and Charlotte’s classical music supporters.