The Conductor as Yogi: Making Sense One Note at a Time

“The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another … and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.”

Leonard Bernstein

One note following another.  The linear, technical, intellectual, rudimentary, necessary stuff of what we do.  So simple yet profound; achievable, yet elusive.

Bernstein’s words are rich here (would we expect anything less?).  While many days we do not think of ourselves as “great artists,” we might, with a little perspective, see our roles as “great art-makers,” boundless creators of sound in community with others.  Guides to making sense, in skill, understanding, and on a larger level, in our human experience.

As we teach and rehearse fluidly between technique and understanding, we create purpose.  We help singers grow towards an end goal of performance through a path of awareness, making sense one note at a time and connecting them towards something larger, more meaningful and perfectly ordered.  There is a “rightness” of sound that goes far beyond accuracy of the page and as we rehearse, we get closer to that resonant order out of the technical confusion that can characterize the learning process.

Making sense of our world beyond the notes in the rehearsal room, concert hall, church sanctuary, or gym-a-torium is a different thing, but not unrelated.  When we teach a skill in context, we provide a path to understanding.  When we call attention to the sensation of the breath, we remember our human-ness and our vulnerability side by side with our power to control the essence of the moment we are in.  And when we contemplate and collaboratively explore the words of our choral music, we debate, we compromise, we learn something about each other, and we see a glimmer of hope.

This is the essence of the arts—sense-making.  Physical, emotional, psychological, and relational.  Especially when it is difficult to make sense out of anything else, the arts are there for us; beckoning, requiring, revealing, one note or cue or insight at a time.

Yes, sense-making takes energy and recommitment and a refusal to stay frustrated for long.  But it is worth it.  Necessary and healing in the most troubled of times.  The yogi knows this feeling after a practice on the mat, working through small awarenesses moment to moment, not knowing where it may lead, only to find repose at the end of that hour.  Better for that time, that willingness, that “showing up.”  Ineffable but so real, the feeling that “something is right in the world.”

Know that the work you do is not just about this note or that note, this concert or that service.  It is the work of the great artist.  Creating a sense of order out of chaos, reason out of arbitrariness, a whole instead of unrelated parts.  With feet on the ground and hope and possibility rising above, we can create a new reality that in this moment, this place, something is right in the world.

Wherever you are, you are needed.  Be well and go plan that next rehearsal.

Dr. Ramona Wis is the Mimi Rolland Endowed Professor in the Fine Arts, Professor of Music, and Director of Choral Activities at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois and the author of The Conductor as Leader:  Principles of Leadership Applied to Life on the Podium (and newly released video course through Forward Motion, the online learning center from Manhattan Concert Productions).  Dr. Wis is a 500-hour CYT (Certified Yoga Teacher) and a certified Brain Longevity® Specialist, a research-based certification on yoga and integrative medicine for brain health and healthy aging. Reach her at: rmwis@noctrl.edu or ramonawis.com.