The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Artists in Residence at Baruch College

Orpheus is a conductorless, multi-leadered orchestra of international reknown. The conductorless "Orpheus Model" makes it an artistic home for dozens of virtuoso musicians to practice their art with freedom to experiment, explore, and work together, within a framework of mutual respect and commitment, toward the attainment of a common goal. This unique atmosphere unleashes the talent, vision, and leadership of each individual. The Orpheus model of shared leadership and workplace democracy has produced sustained excellence and creative innovation at the highest international standards.

This model is of particular significance in the context of Baruch College's focused mission, which emphasizes the integration of professional programs in business and administrative disciplines with the critical insights afforded by study of the arts and sciences. The results that Orpheus achieves by relying on a tremendous degree of personal responsibility are relevant to a broad spectrum of organizations in the business, academic, government, and non-profit sectors. In recent years, forums such as the Academy of Management, the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business and the University of Chicago Business School have used the Orpheus model to explore alternative perspectives on leadership through lectures, presentations and seminars. The Orpheus process (including, for example, the way leadership responsibilities in the orchestra shift throughout each piece of music in response to the demands of the score) is also the subject of a case study by Harvard University Professor J. Richard Hackman. Three years ago, the German film production company, EuroArts, engaged two-time Academy Award-winning director, Allan Miller (From Mao to Mozart and Bolero), to direct a documentary for worldwide television broadcast on the Orpheus working process. Orpheus in the Real World was broadcast nationally on PBS in January 1997.

From the point of view of the College, the purpose of this residency is to build on and expand our ongoing effort to integrate the arts within the curricula of all three schools: the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, the Zicklin School of Business, and the School of Public Affairs. George Weissman's reference to the matrix of dependencies invloving the arts, business, and community serves as both an inspiration and model for this residency, in which students in a wide variety of disciplines (e.g. Music, Arts Administration, Psychology, Management, Public Affairs) gain access in many ways and at different levels to an internationally-known artistic enterprise, based in New York. In short, this residency cuts across all boundaries within the College and is a spur to interdisciplinary synergy.

The residency got off to a flying start on September 24, 1999 with an audience of some 500 students, faculty, and staff for a preview performance of Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony (a preview of the official debut of Orpheus' version the next night at Carnegie Hall). In October several classes in Management and Psychology met with the orchestra. The format usually consists of two meetings with each class. The first meeting involves the orchestra's "core" of six to eight members—section leaders—who play important roles in a particular piece (seating rotates, so that the members of the core are different for each piece). Students and faculty witness an actual core rehearsal, in which basic performance issues (such as tempo, phrasing, emphasis, bowing etc.) are discussed, often with great passion. The next rehearsal includes the entire orchestra, to whom the decisions of the core are presented with much discussion within sections and within the orchestra at large.

The key is this: whether in front of classes in Management or Psychology (or anything else) the the residency consists of a real rehearsal unfolding in real time. Observers are not witness to a presentation of something carefully packaged, but rather something vital, something real—something that ultimately may lead to a performance on the stage of Carnegie Hall, where Orpheus has a regular subscription series. Students can see the dynamic of "democratic management" in utterly believable action.

The Orpheus residency also provides the Baruch community with reduced price tickets to Orpheus's concerts in Carnegie Hall and an internship site for our students in Management of Musical Enterprises and Arts Adminisitration.

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