Monday, November 26, 2007

Leadership defined?

This music review, of a Carnegie Hall performance by the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, directed by the young Venezuelan whiz-kid, Gustavo Dudamel, who at the tender age of 26 is scheduled to take over the L.A. Philharmonic, is worth reading anyway. But one sentence especially caught my eye. Simon Rattle, the British conductor (City of Bitmingham for many years) who now conducts the Berlin Philharmonic, led the orchestra in Shostakovich's 10th, and here's how Anthony Tommasini described it:

"Mr. Rattle empowered the players to take risks and play all out, leaving matters of control to him."

Empowering people to play all out and take risks. If there's a better definition of leadership -- of course voluntary leadership, consented to by people who have choices -- I'd like to hear it. Anybody out there have a better one? Humor me.

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