I'm curious just to kite together a couple of things that we've already heard from you. So the observation that things got a little looser or less engaging as you worked your way back through the section, as like, distance from explicit power holder in the conductor did something. And then also imperious about this dynamic of some one like the concert ser it the difference between folding power who's actually part of the section and also a player in the ensemble verseis a conductor who's sort of outside of the work. What are some of your observations about, about that dynamic ther the performance?
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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