A Modern Conductor with a Liberal Arts Education
According to the statistics of music consumption in the U.S. in 2018 by genre, classical music consists of only 0.7 % of total music consumption.[1] The conclusions aroused from this data is “classical music is dying” or “people have not found about it yet.”[2] Generally speaking, there are considerable definitions of being successful, such as achieving wealth, being known by people, getting the awards, influencing the society, and any elements that bring pleasure into life. Whatever the definition of the success it is, it is clear to say there has been disadvantages and difficulties to classical musicians to have a successful and fulfilling life with what they love in today’s society based on the statistic. This seems to be one of the biggest challenges to all the modern conductors today: as a leader of the musical organization, the conductor has a big responsibility to deliver the highest art form through music to people and lead other musicians to achieve the meaningful life.[3] Therefore, the most important quality of a modern conductor to create such an environment are not to be the music expert or the great technician with the gesture. It is to have the transferable skills they need to become inspiring and well-rounded leaders.[4] That is, while one may assume that a professional conductor has to graduate from a music conservatory, the true modern conductor cannot survive without the liberal arts education. In the past, I had a privilege to involve with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and observe the work of the music director and conductor, Ken Lam.[5] From this experience, it is undeniable to say the organization breaks the stereotype of “symphony orchestra” as a provider of sophisticated and incomprehensible music and a mere icon of a city by engaging the community and providing the low-cost education[6]: the organization that is based in the community, rather than a group of unrelatable music experts. This research paper will examine how the liberal education shapes the modern successful conductor to create the community-based musical organization by modeling the Ken Lam and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
A conductor is the only person on the stage who does not make a single sound: he depends on his ability to make other people power through the gesture.[7] This idea applies when a conductor is off the stage: supporting and behaving considerately toward musicians that influence their commitment to the organization[8] and programming contemporary pieces to support local composers as Frederick Stock frequently did with Chicago Symphony.[9] The conductor is the only one who has the access to all the musicians in the ensembles from the podium, and the only person who can be a bridge between the artistic goal, financial goal, community engaging goal, and every brunch you can think of within the organization.[10] When this network point among the musicians and staffs can awaken possibility in other people by inspiring, caring, and assisting them, the organization will strengthen into the high standard. To gain this kind of human quality, it requires the skills to communicate with others and has a huge range of understanding of different life value to be able to work in a diverse community. The liberal arts college like Rollins seems to be one of the most appropriate educational situations where it emphasizes on recruiting a considerable number of international students and having classes of a smaller size so all the students are able to deepen their understanding of how to be a network between different people through interacting with each other. There has still has been the notion of a conductor being a dictator in some places. However, musicians, staffs, and many people from the organization are much more educated than 50 years ago[11]: they do not need to be “led” by one person since they have their experience and knowledge of what to do in order to achieve a successful performance and administration.
The ability to find the problems and solve them to enhance and adjust the organization with the requirements and expectations of contemporary society is another key to be successful as a conductor today.[12] The symphony orchestra or any musical ensembles are a unique organization where the immediate feedback from consumers is observed and experienced by the musicians, rather than people who are running the organization from the administration officials. In other words, the direct communication between the listeners from the community and the performers, including a conductor is possible in the daily live performances and other community engagements of the organization. Therefore, a conductor has a big responsibility to observe and collect opinions and impressions from the consumers that can be improved and transmit these issues to the administration side: it is conductor’s responsibility and job to be a bridge between on-stage and off-stage to reduce any flaws or inefficient activities.11 The famous conducting pedagogue Markand Thakar said: “musicians should perform and improve themselves like a sculptor sculpts, not like a painter paints.”[13] This idea seems to apply to how conductors can find and solve the problems by eliminating any conditions and elements that prevent the community’s expectation. Being a modern conductor to be successful requires to have liberal skills to see the current circumstance of the organization in the relation to the community critically and find a solution with multiple angles by communicating and collaborating others.[14] Interestingly, this is quite similar to the core idea of Rollins mission “to produce global citizenship and responsible leadership.” Most of these activities and actual jobs as a modern conductor might not be seen or known by many people within the organization, however, the outcome of achieving conductor’s responsibility has a major influence on creating the successful environment as a whole organization: the musicians would commit to the organization, the organization would commit to the community, and the community would commit to the success of the organization. The successful leadership as a conductor sometimes requires a reductive attitude to be a superficial conductor or a leader of the organization.[15]
Finally, another significant major quality to be a modern conductor is to have the attitude to show gratitude and be humble to others. This quality to be a successful conductor today came up to me when I observed how Maestro Lam behaved towards the sponsor, patron, musicians, and staffs of the orchestra.[16] Most of the patrons for the Charleston Symphony are elderly people who have retired. Any spared time, such as a short break in the rehearsal or after the concert, Maestro Lam went up to these patrons to talk and show them appreciation no matter how much he was exhausted or had other jobs that need to be done. Rather than coming to the rehearsals as the last person to enter the rehearsal hall as most of the well-known conductors would do, he was the first person to be at the rehearsal hall to chat and, again show them how much he appreciates their service and how much he respects all the musicians. He also took out serval staffs for dinner and keeps healthy relationships with a single one of them. It is remarkable even though a conductor is usually the busiest position by traveling around, studying the score, having the considerable number of meetings, and teaching, and he or she appears to be the star in the community, Maestro Lam was almost behaving like a servant or supporter of every person of the organization. He mentioned the very remarkable fact of a conductor, “conductor’s musical job takes only 10 percent, and the rest is something else for the organization and the community.”[17] Hamilton Holt pointed out in “My Commencement” that “While the players on the stage in front of the audience get the applause, I often think the back-stage crew deserves equal credit for the success of the play.”[18] This is one of the most significant elements to take high-quality leadership, which Rollins’ ethos is based on: gaining respect from others by being grateful to them and resecting them.
There is something that my conducting teachers and fellows with traditional conservatory-education idealism are missing: the conductor’s job is not only standing on the podium. In fact, when people will evaluate conductors whether or not he or she is a good conductor, they will see it when a conductor is not being a conductor, but a responsible leader for the organization.[19] Additionally, it is important to be aware of the drastic change in the market of classical music: the symphony orchestra is no longer a superficial icon of the city where puts indivisible wall to the 99.3 % of music consumers. It is rather to be an interactive and intimate opportunity for the musicians to connect and communicate with the community through the music. Similarly, the conductor’s major role is no longer to “lead” the orchestra, sell the recordings, or show his or her charisma to the society: it is to be the network between the musicians, the organization, and the community. Three major qualities to be a modern successful conductor include being able to inspire other people to be powerful, engage problem-solving, and gaining respect by being grateful and humble to others. The foundation of these qualities is possible to obtain through the liberal arts education, where it trains students to have a skill to see the world critically, an ability to communicate and collaborate with others from diverse backgrounds, and wide resources to be able to solve in the multiple views. Going back to the initial two contrasting opinions from the statistics of the popularity of classical music: “classical music is dying” or “people have not found about it yet.” In my opinion, there is no simple answer to which opinion is more relevant. However, classical music does not die: it is an aesthetic experience everybody can benefit from and the possibility that awaken their essence of self. It is how the organization provides it and share it with others which hugely depends on the existence of successful qualities of conductors today. This is why I am proud of being an active learner at Rollins College where it is possible to cultivate such qualities as a modern conductor to share the value of music.
[1] From BuzzAngle Music. "Share of Total Music Album Consumption* in The United States in 2018, by Genre." Statista - The Statistics Portal, Statista.
[2] From TED Talk by Benjamin Zander “The Transformative Power of Classical Music.”
[3] From the conversation with Mitsuko Flynn, a Director of Education and Community Engagement in March in 2019.
[4] From Murray, Patrick. "Qualities of a conductor." Canadian Music Educator, vol. 53, no. 3, 2012, p. 24+.
[5] I have participated in the Conducting Workshop with Charleston Symphony Orchestra in 2019.
[6] From the official website of Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
[7] From TED Talk by Benjamin Zander “The Transformative Power of Classical Music.”
[8] From Parasuraman, Saroj, and Sidney A. Nachman. "Correlates of Organizational and Professional Commitment THE CASE OF MUSICIANS IN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS." Group & Organization Studies (1986-1998), vol. 12, no. 3, 1987, pp. 287.
[9] From Epstein, Dena J. “Frederick Stock and American Music.” American Music, vol. 10, no. 1, 1992, pp. 20–52.
[10] From “TEDxStLouis - David Robertson - The Art of Conducting?”
[11] From the lecture by Christian Schulz for the Conducting Program at the Vienna Summer Music Festival in July of 2018 in Vienna, Austria.
[12] From Bibu, Nicolae, et al. “Managing a Symphony Orchestra in Times of Change: Behind the Curtains.” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 238, 27 Apr. 2018, pp. 507–516.
[13] From Thakar, Markand. Looking for the 'Harp' Quartet: An Investigation into Musical Beauty. Boydell & Brewer, 2011.
[14] From Rollins rFLA Overview from the official website of Rollins College.
[15] From Volpe, Gualtiero et al. “Measuring social interaction in music ensembles” Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences vol. 371,1693 (2016).
[16] During the Conducting Workshop with Charleston Symphony Orchestra 2019 as a fellow participant.
[17] From the lecture by Ken Lam for the Conducting Workshop with Charleston Symphony Orchestra in Charleston, South Carolina in January of 2019.
[18] From the Holt Commencement Address in 1949.
[19] From the conversation with Mitsuko Flynn, a Director of Education and Community Engagement in March in 2019.