Orpheus: The Sound of Leadership

Paper Summary:

This paper addresses the interesting way the chamber orchestra Orpheus is managed and led. The orchestra has no conductor and is run in a grassroots style. The rewards and challenges of this style are discussed in the paper and within the context of Ron Leiber's 2000 article, "Leadership Ensemble".

From the Paper:

"Orpheus, however, has no conductor. Who would lead them? The answer they came up with was everyone. All members of the group would have input and decision making authority on the pieces they were preparing. Every detail of the music would be decided by the musicians. However, this soon proved to be overwhelming. Musicians are very passionate about their work and, given the opportunity, will always choose to do something their own way. Orpheus needed a way to refine the decision making processes of the group without denying the creativity of the musicians. Orpheus solved this problem by forming smaller groups composed of members who would change regularly. These groups would then practice the piece apart from one another, deciding how to make it sound the best. After some practice time the entire orchestra would then come together and each group would present its interpretation of the piece. The orchestra would then draw upon these interpretations to finalize the style of the work."

More papers on Orpheus: The Sound of Leadership:

• Film Review # 113886 : "Film: "The Sound of Music"
• Film Review # 106573 : "The Sound of Music"
• Film Review # 105311 : "How Camp Culture Changed "The Sound of Music"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: