25 Conductors Quotes for You to Enjoy

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

Lost Ran Say Never Most Underground Track Passenger Years Off Conductor Conductors Train Eight Railroad

Conducting, I tried it once off the cuff, and quickly realized there were subtle aspects that I was missing. There is a lot more to it that I was able to grasp simply by watching conductors. Carter Burwell

Once Tried Able More Simply Missing Were Lot Off Conducting Conductors Quickly Subtle Realized Aspects Grasp Watching

On the other hand, when I give it closer thought, I realize I'm not enough of a dictator to conduct an orchestra because it requires a pretty awful person. When you read these biographies of famous conductors, they are all awful people who fail in their private relationships. Eberhard Weber

You People Thought Other Enough Relationships Pretty Give Fail Read Because Private Hand Conduct Conductors Dictator Person Closer Orchestra Famous Realize Requires Who Awful Biographies

The great actors are the luminous ones. They are the great conductors of the stage. Ethel Barrymore

Great Stage Conductors Actor Luminous

The intensity of being in front of all these incredible musicians and tremendous conductors in these elaborate halls can be overwhelming. Idina Menzel

Musicians Overwhelming Incredible Tremendous Halls Conductors Front Intensity Being Elaborate

Good conductors know when to let an orchestra lead itself. Ninety percent of what a conductor does comes in the rehearsal - the vision, the structure, the architecture. Joshua Bell

Good Architecture Vision Ninety Ninety Percent Percent Structure Lead Know Does Itself Conductor Conductors Orchestra Rehearsal

So many times, I've seen conductors that, every time they have a thought, they stop the orchestra and say it, and I can see the orchestra rolling their eyes and saying, 'Oh, God, he stopped again.' So there's a technique to rehearsing. Joshua Bell

Young conductors who are confident enough, they very often have success. Kurt Masur

Success Young Enough Very Conductors Confident Often Who

A good example of how it must have been is today's world of conducting, which is still utterly dominated by men, and the prejudice the few female conductors have to battle even today is astounding. Lara St. John

Technique is communication: the two words are synonymous in conductors. Leonard Bernstein

Communication Words Synonymous Conductors Technique Two

Many, many years ago, I was one of the few conductors who talked to the audience and now a lot of classical conductors have figured it out... otherwise, you just get the back of someone's head playing music you could hear on a CD. It's not enough anymore. Marvin Hamlisch

Music You Few Enough Otherwise Back Out Classical Someone Could Head Talked Audience Hear Years Years Ago Lot Conductors Get Just Anymore Figured Who Many Now Playing

Perhaps, once I am gone, the one thing I might be remembered for is having sung a great deal of Mahler with a great many phenomenal conductors. It is wonderful music, very spiritual. Maureen Forrester

Conductors are performers. Michael Tilson Thomas

Performers Conductors

Conductors don't suffer, they are part of the performance. Michael Tippett

Part Performance Conductors Suffer

Conducting is more difficult than playing a single instrument. You have to know the culture, to know the score, and to project what you want to hear. Some conductors are well prepared but cannot transmit their ideas to an orchestra, and others are good communicators but have nothing to transmit because they are not absorbed enough in the score. Pierre Boulez

Good You Culture Single Nothing Difficult Enough Others Project Some More Absorb Ideas Know Instrument Well Because Hear Score Conducting Conductors Than Orchestra Want Cannot Communicators Transmit Prepared Playing

Catalysts are the conductors who choreograph the chemical dance that results in the formation of new structures. Robert H. Grubbs

Dance Structures Results New Chemical Conductors Formation Who Choreograph

They gave me four weeks, and I asked if the first week could be just music with the two main conductors. So, the conductors came over to my home, and we worked in the music room, and I learned my two little songs. Rue McClanahan

Nobody would comment on what clothes male conductors wear. Or if they kind of put on some weight or something like that, and maybe their jacket is a little bit too tight. But if that happens to me as a female, then that's immediately pointed out. Ruth Reinhardt

Me Clothes Too Bit Immediately Out Kind Would Wear Some Something Pointed Weight Put Nobody Like Tight Female Male Comment Conductors Jacket Maybe Happens Little Little Bit Then

Firstly, I think that now there are many young female conductors, but as it takes at least thirty years for a conductor to 'ripen/mature,' we'll only see them in 'top conductors statistics' in some decades. Ruth Reinhardt

Young Think Thirty Top Statistics See Some Only Takes Female Firstly Least Years Conductor Conductors Decades Them Many Now

Conductors start getting good when everybody else retires. Simon Rattle

Good Everybody Everybody Else Else Retires Conductors Getting Start

My father's Alfred Newman - born in 1900, child prodigy at the piano, ended up in pit orchestras in the teens. I think he's one of the youngest conductors to conduct Broadway and worked with George Gershwin and Jerome Kern and Cole Porter - went out with Irvin Berlin in 1930 to Hollywood and never left. Thomas Newman

Father Think Cole Porter Teens Broadway Berlin Out Born Piano Never He George Left Up Conduct Conductors Gershwin Child Ended Pit Orchestra Newman Hollywood Prodigy Worked Youngest Porter

I think conductors do spend too little time with their orchestras. Zubin Mehta

Time Think Too Spend Conductors Orchestra Little Little Time

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