We're Going In: A BPO Coffee Concert

Doughnuts, morning music, and a civilized way to flip the day on its head

Walk through the graceful doors of Kleinhans Music Hall — and coffee and doughnuts await! Photo by Alain Pierre-Lys on Unsplash

That’s what the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s Coffee Concerts do.

A Coffee Concert turns your day upside-down. I learned that years ago, when I was the classical music critic for The Buffalo News. The first time I attended one, I joked in the Buzz column that I kept telling people “Good evening” and looking around for the bar.

Other burgs have morning concerts, sure. But few treat you beforehand to coffee and doughnuts. I think some orchestra in Florida does — perhaps because so many Buffalonians winter there — but it’s rare.

Rare enough that when the New York Times came to town one Friday morning to review a performance, they contacted the BPO a few days later with a slightly panicked request: could we send photos of the coffee and doughnuts?

The BPO reached out to The Buffalo News, which is how I heard about it. We couldn’t find any pictures either.

Why would we have photos of the coffee and doughnuts?

It’s just life as usual.

Here, it is. Elsewhere, it isn’t.

Conductors and guest artists always marvel at our caffeine-fueled Fridays.

“I’ve never said ‘Good morning’ at a symphony concert before,” bantered Broadway singer Michele Ragusa, a Buffalo native, at a Coffee Concert one year. “We’re all jazzed up on sugar and caffeine and ready to go. I know I am!”

I remember that concert well. A staffer whispered that they had a record 160 dozen doughnuts. I did the math: 1,920 doughnuts. At roughly 300 calories each, that’s 576,000 calories.

There is something thrilling — and slightly daunting — about that number.

I thought about it as I prepared, last weekend, for my first Coffee Concert in something like five years. It felt like visiting a strange country all over again.

What would it be like now?

Such a deal

Coffee Concerts are a bargain. Tickets generally cost less than Saturday evening performances, and parking is still only $5 — less than you’d pay at night. That pairing matters. It’s not just affordability; it’s ease. The barriers are low. The welcome is wide.

Buffalo has a particular genius for making great art accessible.

A while back, I wrote about stopping into the downtown branch of M&T Bank — not for a tour, not for an event, but simply to do your banking — and realizing that you were welcome to sit and relax in a chair designed by Mies van der Rohe. (Click here to re-live that adventure.)

In both places, you step into an exalted environment — not because you paid a premium, but because the city decided long ago that daily life deserved beauty.

Kleinhans Music Hall is now cards-only — no cash — but otherwise much as I remembered it. Timeless is the word.

Walking through the graceful doors, I felt the familiar thrill I always feel entering this building. Kleinhans never feels dated. It always feels bracing and modern. The hall retains its original details — the water fountains, the coat check, even the signage. The vintage ladies’ room sign reads “Powder Room,” and the luxurious space is complete with curvy vanities and chairs. It is the only ladies’ room I know that invites you to sit and reflect. But I digress.

This being a Coffee Concert, I headed left into the Mary Seaton Room, pausing to admire the sky-high doors straight out of the 1930s. I can’t help it.

Inside, the soaring space was dominated by tables of coffee urns, cups, cream, and sugar — and smiling staffers serving concertgoers. You do not serve yourself. The Philharmonic gives you star treatment.

‘JoAnn Falletta suggested it’

At Coffee Concerts, the music begins at 10:30 a.m. I arrived at 9:30 so I could relax, savor my coffee, and enjoy myself.

I felt great, having my act together. However, I learned from Carl Klingenschmitt — who heads the Friends of the BPO, the volunteer group that serves the coffee and doughnuts — that many fans arrive even earlier.

“You should see the crowd at nine in the morning,” he said. “They’re ready.”

The doughnuts still come from Budwey’s — now Market in the Square — and the coffee is still from McCullagh Coffee, roasting beans here in Buffalo for 150 years. McCullagh donates the coffee, and the Coffee Concerts are sponsored by Highmark.

It’s more than a concert. It’s a celebration of the city. And like many good things in Buffalo, it’s growing.

Even at 9:30 a.m., it was hard to find a seat in the Mary Seaton Room. No matter — tables filled the lobby, and the lovely lower-level bar area offered more seating, and more doughnuts. Anywhere you land in Kleinhans is beautiful.

Klingenschmitt, stationed on the lower level behind a pile of crullers, smiled as he talked about the series.

“JoAnn Falletta suggested it,” he said. “We started it, and it’s taken off. We’ve been doing it about 15 years now.”

That’s how you grow an audience, he laughed. Offer them doughnuts.

“Buffalonians travel on their tummies,” he said.

True, that. I know I do. By the time the doors open to the hall, you’ve already been eased into a different frame of mind. I had parked without stress. Coffee had been poured for me. I was relaxed — and awake — ready to concentrate on Mozart, and already filled with a sense of awe before the first note.

This is a city where you can walk into a world-class building in the morning, drink locally roasted coffee, and enjoy a doughnut in a room designed to elevate both sound and spirit.

Yes — this is Buffalo.

This is what we do.

Further Reading

To view the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s Coffee Concerts schedule, click here.

To learn more about M&T Plaza and those Mies van der Rohe chairs we get to sit in, click here.

Click here to read my review of the concert I attended after I drank all that coffee.

Want to join the Friends of the BPO and serve that coffee with a smile? Click here.

Questions

Have you been to a coffee concert? What was your experience like? When was your last visit to Kleinhans Music Hall? What are your favorite features of the hall? What do you look for when you’re there?

What music do you think goes best with coffee?