“The great leaders are like the best conductors – they reach beyond the notes to reach the magic in the players.” Blaine Lee
During the last month or so, I’ve gotten a few emails from ChoralNetters about something that can be defined as “Choral Cults.” I’ve written two blogs about the subject and decided to rerun them instead of writing something totally new, as what I wrote before still applies. Today’s blog is about a conductor creating a cult of personality, whether they realize it or not. Your comments are always welcome. ~MLGA
A few weeks ago, I had lunch with an old friend, Jay*, who is a choir friend of mine. He teaches and directs in the city, so we don’t always have time to actually see each other. This time, everything worked out so we could get together. He caught me up with his family’s doings and I caught him up with mine. Then he told me why he really wanted to see me.
He asked if I remembered our choir director being especially perfect or if I ever did something some way because HE had done it that way. I told him no, while I admired our director and often think of him, I try to be myself as a conductor and director, not stuck in someone else’s image. My friend was relieved, and then went on to explain why he wanted to talk about this particular subject.
Jay decided to join a select community chorus last year so he could regularly perform again. While he occasionally has a singing gig and certainly sings for examples as he directs his school choirs, he missed singing large choral works, directed by somebody else. He thought this group would be a perfect way to satisfy that urge. And while it HAS accomplished that, it has also shown him a dark side to community choral singing he never knew existed: the conductor cult.
I am sure some of you are confused with what I mean by a conductor cult. I do NOT mean the many students and assistants of nationally and internationally known, well-respected conductors of the past and of the present. I mean those conductors and directors who have set up their own little kingdom in their own little community, brain-washing singers to believe their way is the ONLY way.
Jay’s director, while a very nice guy, has created a cult of people who won’t listen to anyone else. When the director auditioned Jay, and he realized Jay was a choral director too, he asked Jay to run an occasional sectional—and told him he would be paid. Jay agreed. Running those sectionals has been an eye-opening experience. Nothing Jay does, from his piano playing to his vocal technique suggestions, has been right. In fact, one of the singers Jay worked with asked the board to consider not paying him since he was “doing everything wrong.” He was paid, but Jay told the director he didn’t think it was a good idea for him to help with sectionals any longer. When Jay spoke with the director, he didn’t seem surprised and was even a bit smug. It was almost as if the director set Jay up, with the intention of making sure Jay knew this was his territory, and not Jay’s.
The director is a decent musician but Jay doesn’t know what all the fuss is about. There are cliques within the chorus, which are encouraged, that waste time and just perpetuate the cult. Jay doesn’t know if he’ll sing with them next year, he’s so disillusioned. But he does know he won’t help with sectionals.
In my conversation with Jay, I mentioned an experience I had with one of my own church choir singers. We were warming up and I asked everyone to hum through a five-note scale. One soprano refused and told me that she was refusing. When I asked her why, she said her college choir director told them never to hum because it destroyed the voice. Huh? I explained I was using hums to get the voice warmed up, explained how to do a healthy hum but no, she would not do it. This lady was in her late 60s, and her director must have been dead for at least a decade or two. She was devoted to his ways, and adamantly so. I told her to do what she wanted and moved on; you can’t argue with someone like that.
I think we do a disservice to our singers when we create a cult, an aura of infallibility around ourselves. There are plenty of ways—correct ways—to do things, not just one. We must be flexible, and we must encourage our singers to be flexible. You never know, we might be even better if we open up our minds to something and someone different.
*Name Withheld
David Topping says
I hope that this penomenon is becoming less common in choral music, with greater connectivity and wonderful examples of diverse voices, methods, and performances available online, perhaps resulting in fewer opportunities for people to be insulated from other options — but it’s just a hope. In my first teaching position, I followed someone who could “do no wrong” in the eyes of the small community and that was challenging. I’ve heard of junior high teachers who indocrinated their student with thoughts that “this is a good as it will ever get,” resulting in many of the singers not continuing into high school programs.
I was lucky to have sung and studied under Helmuth Rilling, both at the Oregon Bach Festival and during an exchange year in Germany, and I sometimes observed people treating him in this manner, but that wasn’t his fault, because he is humble and has never had the massive ego of some of our colleagues. Thanks for your many interesting pieces on choral ethics. Marie!
Marie Grass Amenta says
Hi David!
Thank you for your comments!
It should surprise me about the Jr. High choral teachers discouraging their students from singing in their high school programs but it really doesn’t. It is so petty as to be laughable. 🙁
I am also not surprised about Helmuth Rilling being a nice guy, a humble guy. I am reminded of a dear friend, piano teacher of one of my sons and accompanist par excellent, who told me more than once the BEST musicians are humble and kind because they have nothing to prove. Maestro Rilling has nothing to prove and his true personality shines through!
Marie