Music & Leadership

Leadership – the conductor and the orchestra

• Principles by which the orchestra is run are universal to the running of any good organization
• Great leader-conductors with their great but different personalities and styles of leadership have led to different styles of communication
• How do conductors transform an ordinary performance into an extraordinary performance ?

– how do they communicate with the orchestra and public

– plan and prepare a performance

– inspire and gain respect

– provide vision

– make musicians overcome their expectations and perform their best

– achieve balance between rationality and imagination

 

Teamwork on a musical basis

• How does management communication work within a clearly defined structure such as the Orchestra?
• Chamber music – an area of activity identified as solely based on teamwork

– Is there someone taking over leadership?

– How to extract the functions of different instruments/players and how teamwork is

built towards improvement in performance

– Make fast irreversible decisions; build on each others ideas

– rotating leadership responsibilities

– alternate between leading and supporting roles

– manage diversity

– be innovative and creative during the performance

– the myth of playing the second fiddle

 

The creative process – the composer

• How do composers develop their unique identity

– Use music structures to balance discipline and freedom

– Be a reflection of any human activity-conflict versus resolving, rationality

versus imagination

– Find inspiration

 

Music and personal development

• Music can teach greater self-understanding and build our self-confidence
• How do musicians develop technical skills?

– Performance preparation and presentation

– Achieve excellence in performance

– Always find the passion within themselves

– Define personal goals

– Re-invent themselves

– Communicate with the audience

 

Music and cross-cultural diversity

• Music can tell us more about a people or country than any other field ; communicate the culture of the nation or region
• Today's multinational and multicultural orchestras and ensembles offer an unique insight providing business organizations with examples of overcoming cultural diversity issues