Conductor Quotes

• Direction is the most invisible part of the theatrical art. It's not like the conductor in the symphony orchestra performance because he's standing in front of you waiving his arms. You now what he's doing. You don't know what the director is doing unless you know a lot about theater and even then you can only deduce it. You know it when you go to rehearsal. You really know it when they are rehearsing something of yours. I learned more in the rehearsals for The Letter than I have ever dreamed of know in the theater as a critic. If it doesn't make me a better critic, I'm an idiot.

  

  Terry Teachout
  • Art
  • Critics
  • Idiot

• Drummers are conductors - we set the pace for the music - so if you're not relaxed and feeling right, the whole thing goes out the window.

  

  Steven Adler
  • Music
  • Drummer
  • Pace

• A lot of people think the orchestra is playing and the conductor doesn't do very much, but the conductor's the person that gives shape to the music, gets the phrasing, and if he has really fine musicians in solo spots, the question is does he try to help them phrase, or does he let them go?

  

  William Lipscomb
  • Music
  • Shape
  • Conductor

• Being a conductor is kind of a hybrid profession because most fundamentally, it is being someone who is a coach, a trainer, an editor, a director.

  

  Michael Tilson Thomas
  • Directors
  • Profession
  • Coaches

• Classic music somehow changed, and it changed between the first and the second world wars, and somehow what happened was that the hero that had been the composer, the hero now was the performer, and especially the conductor.

  

  Esa-Pekka Salonen
  • World
  • War
  • Hero

• As a conductor I find the hardest tasks are to listen to the instinct of a musician and to hear the music behind the notes.

  

  Edward Gardner
  • Musician
  • Notes
  • Conductor

• The director is a bit analogous to the conductor of a symphony orchestra. It's a collaborative adventure.

  

  Nicholas Meyer
  • Director
  • Conductor
  • Analogous

• The greatest contribution jazz has made in music has been to replace the role of the conductor with a member of the ensemble who, instead of waving his arms to keep time and convey mood, is an active member of the musical statement. That person is the drummer.

  

  Elvin Jones
  • Mood
  • Role
  • Jazz

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