Any musicians out there? Does the conductor really serve a purpose? I know his hand motions help keep time, but is anyone watching? I mean, aren’t the musicians only watching their sheet music? And, can the conductor really keep the entire orchestra on time…or is it just the fact that the members ARE professionals?
Hmmm, I’ve always wondered this myself. If they are really doing something or just up there looking like they are. Anyway I wanted to be the first reply.
How long you been saving up your questions?
Is that a valid link? Two links? I can’t get it to work. As for the questions…I can’t always get on the PC, so I have to save them up. Anyway, hope some may be wondering the same thing as me… (Will I be black-balled from the SDope?) - Jinx
Oops. The colon messes it up. I don’t know why I didn’t just put in the actual page’s URL:
There’s a section on the conductor if you scroll down a bit. It has a bold heading.
And I’m just funnin’ ya about your questions. The more the merrier!
I tried the link too, it doesn’t work, you can get to the home page of the site, but if you want to spend your time searching for whatever he/she was attempting to post, knock yourself out. 
(I tried, it’s a universities site, in other words, big)
Short answer: yes. Long answer:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33076
I sat in with a church orchestra once, and there was a conductor. Considering the fact that I ad-lib’ed the material and had no music (there was a rhythm chart, but I wasn’t too hot at reading), the conductor helped greatly; in fact, I don’t believe I would have gotten through without him.