CONDUCTORS ENSEMBLE, 2023 two-channels video, 07:17 min each transcends the conventional orchestral experience and challenges assumptions about music, leadership, and collaboration. In the first scene, conductors stand where musicians normally do, facing the audience, performing the opening of John Rutter’s Magnificat. In the second scene, the same group recreates individually chosen compositions from memory in a rehearsal studio, moving freely and emphasizing the choreography of conducting itself. Without conventional instrumentalists, attention shifts to gestures, expressions, and interactions, turning the conductors into both musical and performative artists. The sounds—often inarticulate or the whistling of batons—normally dismissed as noise, paradoxically reveal new meanings and unseen harmonies, highlighting aspects of music often overlooked. Traditionally, conductors hold an authoritative role, setting tone and guiding creativity. This work asks: can a symphonic concert exist without a conductor? What if the orchestra consists only of leaders, or only of women? By disrupting familiar hierarchies, Conductors Ensemble explores new forms of collaboration and challenges the conventions of both music and power.

Performers: Justyna Bęben, Katarzyna Chlebek, Magdalena Cichoń, Wiktoria Gołębiewska, Urszula Kowal, Agnieszka Kowalik, Karolina Podwysocka / Video: Michał Lutrzykowski - video4bands and Anna Łukasiewicz / Audio: Kamil Kęska

Co-financed by the City of Bydgoszcz and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. Possible due to support of the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. 



Conductors Ensemble © 2023 by Weronika Trojańska is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0