The Orchestra That Plays Without a Conductor

In 1972, a group of musicians in New York City formed the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with a radical idea: no conductor. No single person waving a baton from the podium. Instead, every rehearsal becomes a conversation. The first violinist leans toward the cellist. The oboist catches the eye of the flutist. They listen so deeply to one another that forty individual musicians breathe as one body.…