Protests in the concert hall are nothing new: think of the riot-inducing premiere of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in 1913 or the backlash at the 1861 premiere of Wagner's Tannhauser. Recently, protesters for a variety of causes have picketed the Metropolitan Opera, the Israel Philharmonic and the Valery Gergiev's Mariinsky Orchestra, among others. It happened again on Oct. 4 at a St. Louis Symphony concert, when a group of demonstrators protesting the police shooting of Michael Brown began to sing, chant and unfurl banners from the balcony, moments before the Brahms Requiem.

Beyond the sensational headlines, is there something deeper at play? And can a political demonstration actually shed light on the music that audiences have paid money to hear? Our experts thought so. They are:

• Sarah Bryan Miller, Classical music critic of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who witnessed the St. Louis Symphony protest.
• Philip Kennicott, Art and architecture critic of The Washington Post
• Kenneth Woods, a conductor, cellist and author of the blog, "A View from the Podium."

Some highlights of the podcast:

• Concert halls can either be an inappropriate forum for demonstrations or "a vehicle for creating empathy and connection."
• How a 1968 protest at a Mstislav Rostropovich performance made a powerful statement about the Prague Spring.
• Why "music is most effective and engaging with political challenges when we step beyond politics and look at the universal human ideas."

Listen to the full podcast above and tell us in the comments below: Have you ever witnessed a demonstration in a concert that was effective or ineffective?