Your Conductor Might Be A Fraud If…

At one point or another, we’ve probably all crossed paths with a fraud of a conductor; you know, the type who spends more time dancing on the podium and wallowing in baton shtick thinking it “looks good” rather than inspiring a stage full of musicians and serving as the catalyst for a transcending live concert experience. Fortunately, for those who may not be 100 percent certain, there’s now a quick and easy test to figure it out.

<Ahem> In the voice of Jeff Foxworthy: your conductor might be a fraud if…

…his/her podium antics work when synced to Gangnam Style.

I’m confident someone could put an app together for this; just snap a video of your conductor using the phone’s video camera and the app attempts a Gangnam Style sync and you’ll have your results in under two minutes.

H/T to Norm Lebrecht for that chestnut and another h/t to Holly Mulcahy for posting a link to the original video and audio at her Facebook page (of Simonov’s performance, not Psy’s video):

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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