What is musical leadership?

February 14, 2017 at 05:54 PM · I think a good musical leader is someone who, through their playing, is able to make everyone else around them sound better.

February 14, 2017 at 06:38 PM · I bet if you look at leadership literature, anything applicable to business world probably will also be applicable in music world. Emotional intelligence and lateral thinking comes on top of the list. Technical know-how helps but not crucial or even necessary.

Edit: a few qualities/skills to add come to mind are:

1. Working with others: put people before tasks, promote positive environment, and view success of others as one's own success. This also include good communication skills.

2. Accountability: Not afraid to set standard and be clear about expectation and hold people accountable for their performance

3. Conflict resolution skills: not afraid of dealing with conflicts and able to getting win-win outcomes when dealing with them.

4. Resilience: able to deal with failures well and even better, able to turn an adverse situation to new insight and opportunity for improvement

5. Good organization skills: time management, documentation and communication skills, etc.

6. Good sense of humor and humility. Have heart.

February 14, 2017 at 06:47 PM · Agree with others. In particular, a musical leader should plan ahead, and avoid the last minute repertoire/bow changes. Leading a group of artists are like herding cats.

February 14, 2017 at 07:38 PM · I would start by asking what the end of "musical leadership" is: to where is everyone being led? I don't think the answer to that is playing the best, because what defines "the best"?

February 14, 2017 at 09:23 PM · Context matters here, too. Is this performance leadership, or organizational leadership? There are great conductors who are terrible music directors, I imagine, to give an example of the distinction.

February 14, 2017 at 10:59 PM · Oh, Carleen.... that is a one mil $ question! I hope that you will publish your thesis one day.

I guess that all attributes of a good leader in other fields could apply, plus, that one leads by example and also is "1st among the equals".

Personally, I like leaders with good musical skills who also have a great sense of humour and approach music making as a creative group effort.

February 15, 2017 at 02:26 PM · I would add creativity and innovation to the mix. The world is littered with good instrumentalists, conductors, administrators, etc., but how many do things that have truly never been done before? I think that a leader is one who has the cajones, as well as the insight, and people skills to realize their vision with longevity.

February 15, 2017 at 06:43 PM · Being technical, and specific; the difference between a good conductor and a mediocre conductor is about one beat. The good conductor is mentally and visually a little ahead of the music, leading The conductor that is reacting to the music is following, too late to communicate any useful information, and the musicians don't pay much attention to him. For large, complex performing arts organizations like the orchestra, opera, etc., the most important creative leader is frequently not the conductor, but the producer, general manager, business manager. The audience doesn't see them, even the the performers may not know all that they do, but without them, nothing happens.

April 5, 2017 at 10:07 AM · Thank you all for your replies!

@Lydia Leong, yes, context matters! With musical leadership I mean the artistic kind, so the conductor, first chair, etc. In this instance I want to focus on the musical aspects, not financial or organisational.

So what would you ideally like in a purely musical leader?

@ Jason Broander. You're right, what defines 'the best'? Bringing an ensemble to it's full potential isn't just about playing the notes the best, but I think there is a point where a group can surpass itself because, for instance, it's inspired.

April 6, 2017 at 03:59 PM · A good musical leader is constantly evaluating the musical situation to help bring those under him or her into the musical pocket.

If it's an orchestra or band, the section leader is working with each player in sectional practice, showing by example first, yet very attuned to the individual parts.

A good leader will have solutions to problems on the ready. A good leader will have an "us" mentality. A team approach. No partiality. They will approach sensitive situations privately and not expose those to the rest of the team. They won't publicly demean others or harshly critique. The idea is to help softly. This all ties into music because if they don't do these things team morale will drop. The team won't be prone to respect the lead.

Do you mean a musical leader in an educational setting or in a professional setting? The two would have a few differences.

There are really only two reasons a person intentionally gets into leadership. To lead or to be in charge. I always prefer the first one.

Good leaders are helpers who decided to take on the most responsibility.

April 8, 2017 at 02:26 AM · The concepts need to be clarified more: a "good leader of musicians" is different to a "good leader of music performance", and a good leader in music education contexts (as was pointed out above) is also different.

Some conductors are good leaders of people, and some just have good ideas about the music they want played.

Leading people has been well documented and studied.

Working from the idea that in an orchestra or even in a chamber ensemble, many participants will have good ideas, I am interested in how musical leadership (nurturing all those good ideas, preferring some, and bringing some ideas into the performance) can be achieved. (This juxtaposed with the conductor as dictator practice.)

Of course, in an orchestra this might be forever unwieldy, but among a small ensemble it seems to me to be a necessary process, to ensure the longevity and evolution of the ensemble.

But how does "musical leadership" function in such an ensemble (putting aside the dictator model)?

April 8, 2017 at 07:34 AM · "Bringing an ensemble to it's full potential isn't just about playing the notes the best"

Carien, when you do get to write your thesis - is this in English or in some other language? Your name looks Dutch...

However, should you write your thesis in English, please pay attention to the "its" and "it's" issue.

"its" is the possive, whereas "it's" is "it is." So in the above quote it's "its full potential."

I'm not saying this as a snarky critique, but as a well-intended tip.