'Creative leadership is a symbol of inspiration and possibility. Traditional leadership is a symbol of authority.'
Conductors invariably take the latter approach, but these days orchestras desperately need more of the former.
[John Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design, heard at Aspen Ideas Festival]
'Concentrate on the only things that really matter: the music and the people who are playing it. You are of no account whatever. But if you can help people to feel free to play as well as they can, that’s as good as it gets.'
A view of Igor Stravinsky the conductor on the fortieth anniversary of his death. If you’re in the mood to drop some coin Magnum has a killer set of Stravinsky images for hire.
[Original photograph by Cornell Capa, Venice 1953]
I’ve said it before and will say it again: despite all the hype surrounding LA Phil music director Gustavo Dudamel the orchestra’s tremendous success has much more to do with his predecessor Esa-Pekka Salonen. Here’s why:
‘Coming out of Europe, from very Boulezian circles—with all due respect, of course—and coming to LA with this somewhat arrogant Eurocentric idea that, ‘Okay, I’m from Europe, I’m going to show you guys what culture is and what we should be thinking.’ To my credit, I got quite quickly this is not the way to deal with this situation. Better to actually try to learn the identity of the local culture and how a symphony orchestra as an institution could have this unique identity of a Southern California arts organization as opposed to trying to plug in the Vienna Philharmonic clone somewhere in the San Fernando Valley. I luckily saw the light quite quickly.’
‘My first daughter was very little, so we started a new family life in a new country and on a new continent. She went to school there, and you get to know people in a completely different way as opposed to being a conductor who jets in and stays in a swanky hotel like this and flies out after the last show.’
When all music directors and orchestras come around to this point of view we’ll have many more success stories to tell.
[From an interview at Newcity Music, via NobleViola]
![A view of Igor Stravinsky the conductor on the fortieth anniversary of his death. If you’re in the mood to drop some coin Magnum has a killer set of Stravinsky images for hire.
[Original photograph by Cornell Capa, Venice 1953]](http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/jasonweinberger/4381849571/1/tumblr_lj7kklZBXz1qaocac)
