Who is my customer?
It took me a long time to be OK with believing that my "customer" as a conductor is not the audience. My customers are the musicians in front of me. And my product is the experience they have with me - in the rehearsal room and on the concert stage, as a musician and as a person.
From a business sense, I can understand the perspective of the audience being the customer for our musical products - because they are literally paying for it (if not with their money, then with their time and attention).
For me, this idea overlooks the people who actually create the product and the crucial link that ensures the audience actually receives the best version of what they pay for.
Here are 3 ways I think about this:
The audience is a witness to our enthusiasm for the wonderful music we play. People naturally desire to be a part of something exciting. So musicians must feel enthusiastic about the music we play. They won't be inspired if we're not inspired.
The audience is a student of our expertise in the artform. People feel good when they learn and grow. So musicians must deeply understand the music so we can teach it through the act of performance. The wisdom of "you don't really know it until you can teach it" rings true here.
The audience is a recipient of awe. Feelings of awe are underrated and can lead to greater overall life satisfaction and happiness - like increasing prosocial behaviors, improved well-being, seeing a bigger picture. So musicians can gift the feeling of awe when we are in awe of the music we perform.
In order for the audience to benefit in these ways, musicians must be enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and feel awe. That's my job as a conductor, to create these experiences for my musicians.
Sometimes, lackluster performances are not due to lack of skill or rehearsal time. They are missing genuine enthusiasm for the little details in the music. They are missing deep knowledge about how the parts fit together and the story they tell. They are missing a feeling of awe.
When I take care of musicians as my primary customers, an excellent product is the result, and the subsequent byproduct is the audience being fully served.
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