Discussion Panel: Page 11

Last month, Ann and I asked a panel of orchestra musicians what five things they would change about the behavior of conductors in order to make working for them a more positive experience than it often is. So we’d like the panelists to answer the same question, but this time about orchestra musicians.

Having been brought up in a conducting sort of way to think positively, and as a Canadian in general to be polite (i.e., never say “you’re playing too loud”, say “play softer…please!”), perhaps the question that Ann and Robert posed to us should be inverted: what HAVE you learned from other conductors. Certainly all, or […]

Interesting question – and one I would never have though of for myself. I don’t think that I ever try to do anything in particular because it is different from what another conductor would do. There are, of course, technical errors I try to avoid, as well as most of the standard things that players […]

Good news: My late entry to the discussion has allowed me to read everyone else’s posts before composing my own. Bad news: My late entry has allowed me to have already mastered Andrew’s #1 tip for achieving grandeur! What’s it like to conduct? There are two things that I find endlessly fascinating in our mutual […]

A conductor’s work with an orchestra begins and ends with the music. The music is the center and focus of what we do. This is obvious, but that focus is lost rather easily when issues of personality come into play, so to speak. One of the most challenging aspects of conducting an orchestra is to […]

Thank you for inviting me to participate, and for the interesting questions. For me the most important thing about conducting is being keenly aware that the orchestra itself is actually making the music, not the baton! I firmly believe that each performance comes from the collective hearts, brains and spirit of the musicians who are […]

Goodness……. Every time I get up in front of an orchestra I am reminded of the fact that I played in orchestras for years. My experience as an orchestral keyboardist is absolutely central to everything I try to accomplish from the podium. Being a keyboardist is a really unique position for an orchestra. One is […]

Ann and I have wrestled harder with questions for this VPD than for most others. This discussion was intended to offer conductors a chance to offer their perspective on conductor-orchestra relations. But neither Ann nor I have ever conducted an orchestra, which makes framing questions about being a conductor surprisingly difficult, given how many conductors […]

Once again, Robert Levine and I are moderating a discussion panel about conductors, but this time we want to let the conductors share with musicians their perspectives on conducting and making music. Musicians are famous for complaining about conductors – we don’t like your tempo, we don’t understand your beat, you talk too much, you […]

What most conductors don’t seem to know about music: What the composer wrote should be taken seriously. Obviously there are mistakes, inconsistencies, miscalculations and sketchy dynamics and articulations in a lot of pieces. But there’s lots of notation in many standard works that are substantive and are consistently ignored. I’ll give two examples from Mozart. […]