The Swiss Project Management Journal
The Creative Project
learned, with experience, that there is
going to be a surprise. So a good leader
knows how he will deal with the surprise,
whenever it presents itself.”
Adaptability is needed also because the
same leadership style does not work
equally well with each orchestra. “I learned a lot by studying other conductors,”
Lena-Lisa said, suspecting that all young
conductors are natural observers of their
elder peers’ different leadership styles.
(After all, anyone planning to stand in the
public eye will want to see how others fare
in it.) “I think practical experience is the
best teacher but one can learn so much by
studying another conductor’s results and
identifying why something did or did not
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work, or why the team did or did not
respond to a particular style.” In orchestra
conducting, the conductor needs to be
ready to adapt.
“With such a short time, available it will
not only be the orchestra who will need to
change if something is not working quite
right.” Flexibility helps to respond as well
to the technological changes that time
throws our way. Even in the world of
classical music (where some oft-heard
compositions are over two hundred years
old) conductors have navigated an everevolving environment. “Back in 1750,
orchestras were smaller, the audience
was closer, and the instruments did not
need to be as powerful as today’s. They
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were played slightly differently and
sounded slightly differently too.”
Lena-Lisa explained the vast concert halls
we visit now were introduced in the
second half of the 19th century. The fact
that today’s orchestras can have over one
hundred musicians is something a
conductor from before 1850 would not
have had to deal with. The music played
in a concert today is the conductor’s
interpretation of the composition written
so long ago, incorporating the spirit of the
times. And it is this interpretation of the
music that keeps the sound interesting
and appealing. Lena-Lisa says it this way,
“While the composers may be dead, the
compositions are not. Already the sounds
2016 Edition