What does a conductor actually do? It’s about more than arm waving – but that’s important too

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What does a conductor actually do? It’s about more than arm waving – but that’s important too

Stephen Langston
music sheet and baton CR Joshua Chehov on Unsplash
A conductor translates the black dots of sheet music into pleasurable sound, via the orchestra [Image: Joshua Chehov on Unsplash]

Stephen Langston sets the record straight about the role of a conductor, and explains the behind-the-scenes work that goes on with an orchestra before a concert

At the age of three, I remember jumping on my parent’s sofa, waving my arms in the air conducting a record of Gilbert and Sullivan’s musical The Pirat, Leonard Bernstein CR Sjakkelien Vollebregt on Wikimedia Commons CC, Leonard Bernstein conducting the Dutch Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1985 – Bernstein was an exacting perfectionist [Image: Sjakkelien Vollebregt on Wiki