Tech CEO pays USD 400,000 to conduct orchestra: What exactly does a music conductor do?

Indian Express

13-07-2025

Last week, Canada-based entrepreneur Mandle Cheung, chairman and CEO of tech firm Computer Talk Technology, led the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as the ensemble's conductor. At Roy Thomas Hall, which houses the Toronto Symphony, Cheung presented Gustav Mahler's 'Resurrection', one of the most popular works by the Romantic Austrian composer.
But what made matters interesting was that 78-year-old Cheung, an amateur conductor and western classical music buff who always wanted to lead an orchestra, paid a whopping 400,000 US dollars to the movers and shakers of the Toronto Symphony to be allowed to conduct.
While there was much criticism from musicians, Cheung was unperturbed. 'I had seen the magic of the guy standing in front of the orchestra with a stick. So I said, 'Why can't I do it, too?… I can afford to do it, that's the main thing. So when it came across my mind, I said, 'Hey, maybe I should give it a try,' Cheung told The New York Times last week.
The organisers had allowed Cheung to go ahead to increase the revenue of the orchestra, which otherwise runs on ticket sales and charity, avenues that are often unable to cover all the costs.
To many, a conductor waving his baton in a series of gestures and wrist flicks may seem incomprehensible. So what exactly is the conductor doing? Is there something mysterious and enigmatic about his presence?
A Living Pulse
A conductor is a philosopher, a linguist, a scholar and an artiste, all rolled into one. Those from the community are actually interpreters of the scores written by a slew of composers, often from many years ago. They know the score technically as well as emotionally and come with the understanding of unifying a large number of people to present a score in its entirety.
While the musicians usually come fully trained in how to play these scores and go through rigorous audition processes to make it to noted orchestras around the world, it is the conductor who sets the emotional and rhythmic tone of an orchestra and the performance. Where does the music need to be brazen and bright, where does it need to be subtle and tender? The tone, the cadence, all of these are decisions made by the conductor.
Secondly, an orchestra consists of a large number of often very brilliant musicians who come with different personalities, ideas, egos, biases, likes and dislikes. A conductor brings them all together into an undivided space and tries to present a composer's vision through the musicians in a cohesive manner. They keep everyone and every note together.
Leonard Bernstein, one of the greatest conductors of the century, said on his Omnibus show 'The Art of Conducting'(1955), 'The conductor must not only make his orchestra play — he must make them want to play… And when this happens — when everybody shares his feelings, when 100 men are sharing the same feelings, exactly, simultaneously, responding as one to each rise and fall of the music, to each point of arrival and departure, to when all that is happening then there is a human identity of feeling that has no equal elsewhere.'
The first recorded incident of an individual 'conducting' an orchestra goes back to 709 BC in Greece. Some Egyptian and Sumerian reliefs from 2800 BC also depict hand signals to guide musicians. These were mostly timekeepers.
But a conductor as a musical specialist was accepted in 1784. Before this, instrumentalists and composers led the orchestras. An English journalist in the 1830s called a conductor a 'charlatan who fatigues himself and tires the spectator's eye… thinks that everything is done by himself'.
But the more the orchestras swelled, the more discrepancy there was in rhythm and cohesiveness of the music. The role of the conductor thus became paramount. This was a person who understood the composer's idea, studied and knew the scores, besides fully comprehending the purpose of the piece and its emotional depth. Increasingly, the triumph of a show was dependent on how brilliantly the composer brought everything together.
The right hand that holds the baton manages and regulates the beats and rhythmic patterns. The swiftness in the movement of the baton indicates how upbeat and downbeat the music is. The patterns, often not apparent to many in the audience, can be equated with the number of beats in a bar and here the conductor is keeping time.
While setting the volume of a section in the orchestra, the conductor may point the baton at a musician or a group; some simply raise an eyebrow or look in a particular direction to signal to an artiste to come in and start their piece. This is called a cue in Western classical music.
The left hand of the conductor usually conveys the temperament of the notes in various phases during a composition. Usually, circular motions indicate the flow, staccato movements can indicate more explicit and pronounced notes, and closing and opening a fist can indicate stopping and then releasing a phrase or a set of notes. While musicians do read the score and know it well, they also rely heavily on a conductor to guide them.
The conductor's body language and its impact on a performance
In all of this, the conductor's expressions, his breathing, and his body language are also significant in giving direction and subtle differences in performances by the same orchestra, besides a huge impact on the audience.
For example, Bombay boy Zubin Mehta is a more subtle and serene conductor known for minimal gestures, but Bernstein was extremely animated and would get very intense while conducting, so much so that he would jump off the podium during culmination moments.
British conductor Sir Simon Rattle, who turned 70 this year, has the full range – from spirited to subtle. Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini, one of the most influential conductors of the 20th century, was vigorous and precise like a military commander, while another Italian conductor, Claudio Abbado, was known for his graceful physicality. Then there is the Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, known for his frenetic and rapid style. All of them are passionate conductors who perceive a composer's music differently.