Conductor Quotes

I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say; I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger. (Harriet Tubman)
I don't feel that the conductor has real power. The orchestra has the power, and every member of it knows instantaneously if you're just beating time. View quote
Itzhak Perlman
In South America, I heard the 8th Symphony of Beethoven. And the young conductor thought, Beethoven must be heroic. But this is piece which shouldn't be heroic. And this was such a misunderstanding, such a deep misunderstanding. View quote
Kurt Masur
Being a conductor is kind of a hybrid profession because most fundamentally, it is being someone who is a coach, a trainer, an editor, a director. View quote
Michael Tilson Thomas
A good conductor ought to be a good chauffeur; the qualities that make the one also make the other. They are concentration, an incessant control of attention, and presence of mind; the conductor only has to add a little sense of music. View quote
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Perhaps the chief requirement of [the conductor] is that he be humble before the composer; that he never interpose himself between the music and the audience; that all his efforts, however strenuous or glamorous, be made in the service of the composer's meaning - the music itself, which, after all, is the whole reason for the conductor's existence. View quote
Leonard Bernstein
It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it. View quote
Arthur Conan Doyle
The principal task of a conductor is not to put himself in evidence but to disappear behind his functions as much as possible. We are pilots, not servants. View quote
Franz Liszt
A conductor should guide rather than command. View quote
Riccardo Muti
The conductor has the advantage of not seeing the audience. View quote
Andre Kostelanetz
I prefer it when the conductor follows me. It is more difficult to work with a conductor who does not listen - even if I understand that sometimes it makes sense when one person is ruling everything. But for bel canto, I have to have a conductor who listens and supports me. (Anna Netrebko)
Only when every one of us and every nation learns the secret of love for all mankind will the world become a great orchestra, following the beat of the Greatest Conductor of all. View quote
Artur Rodzinski
I like to create the music I hear in my interior. As a conductor, you have the ability to squeeze the sounds and interpretation you asked for from 50 to 80 people. View quote
Eberhard Weber
I think it's a very important collaboration between the conductor and the orchestra - especially when the conductor is one more member of the orchestra in the way that you are leading, but also respecting, feeling and building the same way for all the players to understand the music. View quote
Gustavo Dudamel
I guess, as a conductor, one goes in and out of fashion. Your career starts with a bang, everyone thinks you're wonderful, and then with middle age, something happens and you go into the wilderness. View quote
Jeffrey Tate
Is it not the business of the conductor to convey to the public in its dramatic form the central idea of a composition; and how can he convey that idea successfully if he does not enter heart and soul into the life of the music and the tale it unfolds? View quote
John Philip Sousa
There's nothing more frustrating than seeing a conductor say, 'Play softer,' as they're waving their hands in huge gestures. View quote
Joshua Bell
I always imagined that to bring an orchestra to play together is not enough for a conductor. View quote
Kurt Masur
And if you are strong enough, then you can grow as a conductor more and more. View quote
Kurt Masur
You know as I started as a shy young conductor, I always wanted to cooperate. To build up the musicians. To help them to be better than without a conductor. And sometimes young talented musicians have to be encouraged. View quote
Kurt Masur
And at the same time, I had my very first concert at the age of 16. I hadn't heard a symphony orchestra before, and I was so deeply impressed I said I have to be a conductor. (Kurt Masur)
The conductor is the artistic leader and sometimes cultural arbiter of his or her community. It is their leadership that is looked to and should anything go wrong, they are the persons taking most of the heat. View quote
Leonard Slatkin
I have three siblings. My sister makes music. My older brother is a classical conductor, and my younger brother is a mixing engineer. View quote
Lisa Loeb
When I first was conducting as guest conductor in Europe 25 years ago, I would propose doing American pieces and grudgingly it would be accepted from time to time. View quote
Michael Tilson Thomas
The awful thing about a conductor becoming geriatric is that you seem to become more desirable, not less. View quote
Neville Marriner