A Body Language Expert Offering Feedback On A Professional Orchestra? Yes Please.

The 11/11/2019 edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a terrific article by Jeremy Reynolds, who came up with the idea to have a body language expert examine orchestra conductors and provide feedback.

It’s as interesting as you can imagine and a few steps short of what I would love to see next: observations of musicians and patrons during a live concert.

While I get why something like this begins with music directors, they are probably the last stakeholder on my list I want to hear from a body language expert about. Instead, I would find it fascinating to see the expert offer feedback of musicians through the full range of the concert event. Everything from the first musician to filter out to warm up through the final one heading off stage after the concert is over.

I’m equally curious to see an evaluation of concertmaster body language and when applicable, an executive’s curtain speech.

And then there’s the audience. Having the expert examine how patrons interact with one another and how they influence each other’s experience could be fascinating.

Lastly, there’s some real potential in contrasting orchestras of similar budget.

I did a bit of digging after reading Reynold’s article to see if there’s anything out there along the lines of formal research and came up empty. If anyone knows of something, I would be grateful to hear about it.