Press and reviews
We are visual beings. We believe what we see.
When we see fancy press and reviews, we think we know a person's worth. We also like to use quotes from press and reviews to make ourselves more credible in our own promotions - I'm guilty of falling into that trap. This is especially the case for artistic leaders like conductors.
I find it interesting that the industry subconsciously values the opinions of those who encounter conductors for a brief amount of time (such as audiences and press in a concert or interview setting) more than the opinions of those we work with the leaders every day in rehearsals (such as the musicians and staff).
I've been thinking about what if we equally emphasized "reviews" from the people we work with as part of how we promote ourselves as conductors and how the industry assesses conductors. Yes, I realize that these are called testimonials. But this makes me wonder why testimonials are not simply the same thing as press and reviews - why don't they seem to carry the same weight nor do we find them being used for the same purposes?
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For conductors, testimonials seem more informal, personal, and lower stakes. Reviews seem more official, serious, and high stakes. We tend to view reviews as holding more authority and importance. But when we think about the amount of time press and reviewers spend with conductors compared with the amount of time musicians and staff spend, there is no question as to which one is more frequent.
Imagine that we want to buy a toaster online. What do we do? We read the customer reviews. We find out how the people who actually interact with the product think of it. We find candid photos of the toaster so we see what it's really like in real life. We don't usually only trust the official industry statements from people who may or may not have even used the product.
Perhaps the nomenclature of review, testimonial, and customer is not that big of a deal, but I'd like to think that the group of musicians conductors are responsible for are in a sense the conductor's direct customers. The conductor has a huge impact on how well musicians are able to do their best in their craft and what their workplaces are like. The audiences are customers as well, but more specifically customers of the artistic product that is created together by all the musicians.
When the musicians feel like their voices are just as important as the voices of outside press, their sense of belonging and fulfillment in showing up everyday increases.
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I am interested in seeing more ways we can balance the emphasis placed on outside reviews from press and authorities with an equal emphasis on internal reviews from the people who work with the conductor.
Here are three thoughts for both conductors and artistic leaders:
Advertise how great it is to work with us and how awesome our people feel, in addition to how great of a product we produce for our customers.
Publicize testimonials of musicians alongside quotes from press and reviews.
Ask for feedback from the people in the organization - if they love it, you'll want to know why and be able to capitalize on the testimonial; if they have problems, you'll want to know why so you can address it.
When we don't do any of this, it's worth considering what that says about how much we value the people we work with and the quality of their work experience.
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