At Baton

A new week, a new conductor, another chance to watch someone walk into the orchestra arena and raise their baton over our heads.  I wonder what it feels like to take such a position of leadership.  I wonder what it feels like to rely on the goodwill of an orchestra that you've never to make a sound.  How many hours does one study in silence, in the sound inside one's head, waiting for the moment to bring it to life?  Surely it will never be exactly as imagined.  Surely those that you are leading will never have quite the same passion and determination to do it as you wish.  To always be coming up a little bit short and to be asking your own musicality, your own personal skills, the way you use your body, the way you address the people around you, to overcome some of the shortcomings of your vision.  I imagine it must be a very difficult task.  We experience similar things in chamber music but never with such a large group, never in such a one-sided endeavor.  I enjoy almost every conductor with whom I work, and have never found one that is perfect.  I don't think they exist, but each has something to offer, most of them have a great deal to offer.  I feel very fortunate to be in such a position, to observe so many people grace our musical space and lead us in a myriad of ways.