I always feel like in any self managing organization, that we talk to or look at the process of bringing people from outside to inside. So that it's its cool to hear the way in which youall have tackled that. Another place i'd love to hear about some tactics is rehearsal. Is there a process that you follow? Is there a is it the same every time? Are there dynamic rolls that facilitate it? Come tell us a little bit about that. How many hours do we have? It's a really complicated question because, you know, a lot of it depends on repertoire.
Our ears perk up when we hear about different systems practicing self-management. That was the case with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, a Grammy-award winning group that rehearses and performs without a formal conductor. Instead, the orchestra decentralizes power and leadership among its members, who rotate in between positions and treat each other as equals. Collaborative decision-making; multi-filled roles; shared ownership; clear feedback agreements—Orpheus embodies the very practices we love to talk about.
In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans ask James Wilson, a cellist with Orpheus and one of the ensemble’s three artistic directors, and Alexander Scheirle, Orpheus’s executive director, about the group’s democratic underpinnings and how it’s experimented with emergence for more than 50 years.
Learn more about Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at orpheusnyc.org.
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