Crowd-Surfing Scientist Kicked Out of Classical Concert

The audience at a classical music concert in the UK was urged to loosen up a bit—but an American scientist who loosened up so much he attempted to crowd-surf ended up being ejected by his fellow classical music fans. During the "Hallelujah Chorus," Dr. David Glowacki, a leading expert in chemical reaction dynamics, had a dynamic reaction of his own to the music and was seen lurching from side to side with his hands in the air before the effort to crowd-surf at the Bristol Old Vic, the New York Daily News reports.

"Classical music, trying to seem cool and less stuffy, reeks of some sort of fossilized art form undergoing a midlife crisis," the academic tells the Independent, complaining that he was assaulted by "classical vigilantes" and hauled out of the theater. He denies being drunk, saying, "This may be a consequence of me being American, but I can quite easily be provocative without the need to be inebriated." The concert's director says the academic "got very over-excited" and was "investigating what the nature of the rules are using the skills that make him an extraordinary scientist—and for some in the audience, a slightly irritating one." He says this is the first such incident at a classical concert since the 18th-century—no word on who was trying to crowd-surf back then. (More classical music stories.)