Five Things Hollywood Gets Wrong About Conductors

I've spent more than 20 years conducting professional orchestras. So, when a conductor appears in a movie or television show, I watch differently. 

The good news: Hollywood loves conductors. 

The bad news: it often gets us wrong. 

Here are five things that happen on screen far more often than they happen on the podium: 

1. The Conductor is the Most Powerful Person in the Room.

Not necessarily. 

Walk onto the podium in front of a professional orchestra, particularly as a guest conductor, and 100 musicians are immediately asking the same questions: 

Does this person know the score?

Can they hear?

Can they communicate?

Are they going to waste our time?

Do they have anything original to say? 

You can lose an orchestra in the first five minutes. 

And once you do, good luck getting it back.

 2. The Conductor Controls Everything.

The mythology is irresistible.

The brilliant maestro imposes their vision on 95 obedient musicians. 

That isn’t how orchestras work. 

Professional musicians arrive with decades of training, strong opinions (usually correct ones), union protections, and very little patience for someone wasting their time. 

You don't command an orchestra into realizing your vision. 

You persuade it to do so. Respectfully. 

3. Orchestras are Intimidated by Conductors.

Almost never.

Professional musicians have played for hundreds of conductors.

Brilliant ones, terrible ones, famous ones, young ones… tyrants, charmers, frauds, and geniuses. And they’ve seen every trick - - at least twenty times. 

They are judging you. 

Not the other way around. 

4. Great Conducting is About Dramatic Gestures.

Huge arms. Flying hair. Eyes closed. Ecstasy. 

This looks terrific on camera. 

But truly great conducting is often extraordinarily economical.

 A tiny change in the left hand, the quality of a beat, eye contact, or simply getting out of the orchestra's way can accomplish more than theatrical flailing ever will. 

Showmanship might impress audiences (some of the time). 

But to the players, it’s distracting at best, and destructive at worst. 

5. The Conductor Spends Rehearsals Making Inspirational Speeches.

Try that with a professional orchestra and watch how quickly the musicians start looking at the clock. 

Musicians need useful information, not poetry. 

Shorter.

Longer.

Lighter.

More bow.

Less vibrato.

Listen to the bassoon.

Horns, you're coming in late. 

The poetry is in the result, not the speech. 

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I’m writing stories set inside this beautiful, treacherous, occasionally absurd world.From the podium.

Ethan Danov

Conductor | Screenwriter

Creator, Firebirds