Orchestra of Life: How Do Conductors Do What They Do?

“What is it that a conductor does to get an orchestra/choir to play/sing so well?”

This is a question I get over and over again from friends who attend our Duke Chapel Choir concerts or orchestra concerts with me.

This video is the perfect answer. They sing what they want.

For example, when preparing for our performance of Messiah, our illustrious director, Dr. Zebulon Highben, has an ingenious, prolific library of vocal gymnastics to get our articulation of difficult passages so clear. For example, for the movement “And He Shall Purify,” he as a specific direction for us to make the word “purify” articulated. He tells us to remember Star Wars. You know, the guns? They go “pi-uuuu” “pi-uuu.”  So we sing, “And He shall pi-uuu-rify!”

Enjoy these moments of conductors singing what they want. It begins with my conducting hero, Sir Georg Solti, who was known for his meticulous, unrelentless metronome skills. You can hear the faint ping of his metronome as he demonstrates.