Random Monday: Delusions of Grandeur, A Balanced Embouchure and More Conductor Thoughts

• Who ‘owns’ the local orchestra?
  From a web site devoted to the book Beyond the Baton, an interesting paragraph:

  Then there is the question of “ownership” of the orchestra. Wittry noted that conductors, especially young ones, often feel that the orchestra is theirs to do with as they wish. “Sometimes,” Wittry said, “conductors will go fire half the orchestra because they have this vision of improving the orchestra but they really haven’t looked at the size of the community or considered where they will get other players to replace them or even if these other players can be afforded.

  They have to ask themselves how their decisions fit into the bigger picture, not just ‘Me and what I want artistically at this moment.’ They also have to understand how to grow the orchestra without actually killing it, because if you kill the orchestra you haven’t gained anything. So remind them that it’s not your orchestra, it belongs to the community.

  It’s going to be there after you leave and your job is not to sink it; your job is to move it forward on a path that is the right path for that orchestra in that community. If your vision begins to outgrow that community, you need to find a new job.

  If taken in regard to the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and its current music director this is very enlightening.

• A Devil onstage
  Apparently a staged version of Jasper Ree’s tome “A Devil to Play” is currently running in Hampstead U.K.  Mr. Rees talks about this adaptation at the arts desk.

• Dirty, rotten scoundrels
  In an interesting article (perhaps somewhat related to the first point), Robert Levine observes that a running history of board failures leads to an almost permanent state of institutional dysfunction, as illustrated by recent events in Honolulu.

• Balanced embouchure
  Valerie Wells has launched her own blog that chronicles her experiences with Jeff Smiley’s The Balanced Embouchure.

• But I’m with the conductor!
  From David Thomas’s archive, another perspective to an article posted here last week on the same topic. Just because you think you are with the conductor does not necessarily mean you are justifiably correct.

  So what?! It doesn’t matter a pile of feathers if it’s not together. Many musicians, good ones, don’t understand this basic fact of life in an orchestra. You have to factor in delay time for acoustics and human response time. So staying with the conductor is not the blanket solution. But it’s not rocket science, either.

• The conductor as business leader?
  At The Artful Manager, Andrew Taylor wonders too about the conductor metaphor that has been espoused by some as a model for business leadership. From the outside this metaphor all looks like rainbows and cotton candy, but the reality of course is something completely different.