I do basically what a conductor does with a baton, except I also play along with the orchestra. So I have to juggle the roles of playing the concertmaster; sometimes I drop the violin and wave my arms.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I like to create the music I hear in my interior. As a conductor, you have the ability to squeeze the sounds and interpretation you asked for from 50 to 80 people.
Acting is just playing the violin in an orchestra. Directing is being the conductor.
I am the conductor for life of the Staatskapelle in Berlin, which fills me with tremendous joy because I feel absolutely at one with them. When we play, I have a feeling that together we manage to create one collective lung for the whole orchestra so that everybody in the stage breathes the music in the same way.
I did the one concert, and I was not bitten by the conducting bug, and I thought I was done, but then the phone started to ring, and gradually, over time, I started conducting more and more. Now a third of my performances are with orchestras.
I always imagined that to bring an orchestra to play together is not enough for a conductor.
So, first you have to be able to play with a metronome. Then you take your freedom. If you play in an orchestra, you got to watch the conductor, he is like a metronome, but it is more difficult because he can change rhythms.
I love working with an orchestra, but there are many ways to make music.
I play the real instruments. I don't waste my time with anything else.
I've figured out what to do with my hands... onstage. I'm a percussion player, so I grab a tambourine as much as I can.
I kind of alternate between conducting and playing and kind of juggling those things, but I don't use a baton.