What happens if the conductor of an orchestra has an accident or gets suddenly ill and is unable to conduct? Do they have understudies that fill in for them? Does a musician from the orchestra take over his duties? (If so, who is it usually? The lead violinist?) Or would the orchestra management have to call around to find another conductor on short notice?
Orchestras have Assistant Conductors just for this eventuality, and that’s exactly how Leonard Bernstein got his big break. On November 14, 1943, Bruno Walter, the Conductor of the New York Philharmonic, became ill, and Bernstein had to fill in for him. The rest is history.
Sometimes there’s no assistant conductor, particularly with a lesser orchestra or amateurs. Sakari Oramo, conductor of the CBSO, started life as a violinist, and got his break in a similar situation to Bernstein, except that this was in an orchestra he was leading.
I would assume that the concertmaster would have a pretty good idea of how to conduct or else s/he wouldn’t have gotten that job.
What do these assistant conductors do when the conductor is not sick? Do they just sit beside the conductor and observe him, or do they play an instrument with the orchestra?
Sometimes they’ll conduct rehearsal, sometimes they’ll observe. Sometimes they do other gigs elsewhere. Rarely (almost to the point of never, I’d say) do they play an instrument in the orchestra.
And where the hell is tdn? He knows all about conducting and should be able to give you the real straight dope.
Nope, it’s certainly not an automatic expectation that an orchestra’s leader can double as a conductor. They’d be the first port-of-call in an emergency, but their actual role is quite different.
Yes. It’s called the semiconductor.
HAHAHAHAHA!!! I slay me.
All I can say is that people new to this profession are by definition immune from death by lightning stike: They are poor conductors.
When asked to fill in for big events, many of them get nervous. They find they can’t perform without taking drugs. These are known as doped semiconductors.
Some people seem to be destined never to make it to the spotlight. They’re always in the background position. They are intrinsic semiconductors.
Then there are the conductors that are from the planet Krypton. They are the Superconductors.
If they struggle to beat 9/8, they’re a compound semiconductor. And if they forget the repeats, they’re a ternary semiconductor. Should I stop now?
On the Broadway show Mrs. Cheesesteak works for, they have understudy conductors. There’s the lead conductor/Musical Director, and 3 other people in the orchestra who are trained in conducting the show’s music. When the lead is out for a scheduled (and frequent) day off, one of the other three is tapped to conduct the show and their position in the orchestra is filled by a substitute. Those understudies apparently play keyboards and percussion.
Eight shows a week on a long running musical, you need backups for everything.
Not in modern times, that is. I’ve read that in Mozart’s time, the orchestra leader was always the conductor, and actually conducted while playing. Thus Amadeus’s depiction of Mozart standing at the front of his orchestra, frantically waving his arms, is anachronistic.