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Orchestral conductors are often compared to CEOs for their ability to inspire teamwork in organizations. But only a certain type of conductor – and CEO – provides the leadership that produces the best results.
I spent 25 years playing the string bass in all kinds of orchestras, and the image of an all-powerful conductor effortlessly extracting the best performance from a symphony orchestra always makes me pause. There is a little more to it than what most people see. Not all orchestras run on the same management model. One of the biggest managerial differences among orchestras is how some operate on a trust model, while others use a non-trust model.
Like all musicians, I started out playing in student orchestras, which operate on a non-trust model. There is a presumption that someone must be constantly demanding that the kids push themselves, or they will slack off. The conductor’s job includes constantly monitoring for mistakes, correcting them and perhaps even chastising those who “lost focus” or were “fooling around.”
Organizers and conductors doubt whether kids will practice as much as they should, so they put various monitoring and motivational systems in place. At one music camp, they put us through challenges every week. The members of each section voted on who played best, and we were rewarded with higher status in the section pecking order or punished with lower status depending on how well we played.
When I made the shift from student orchestras to a major orchestra, it was a bit of a shock. I only knew the non-trust model, so I was expecting the conductors and other personnel managers to monitor every single note I played and issue even more massively detailed instructions.
I could not have been more wrong.
A major orchestra operates on a “total trust” model. The mythical tales of great maestros leading totally obedient groups? Sorry, not in my experience. There was no need for the maestro to give constant direction and function as policeman. It was simply assumed (rightly so) that all the players in the orchestra know exactly what they are doing and are playing their best all the time. While an occasional mistake is inevitable, so what? It’s not likely that anybody could play better, so rare wrong notes are politely ignored.
