Conductor Quotes

Composing is like driving down a foggy road.

— Benjamin Britten

You yourself may not be luminous, but you are a conductor of light.

— Anonymous

Baton technique is to a conductor what fingers are to a pianist.

— Igor Markevitch

Zeal, the blind conductor of the will.

— John Dryden

A conductor should guide rather than command.

— Riccardo Muti

Aromatherapy without massage is like an orchestra without a conductor

— Robert Tisserand

The conductor has the advantage of not seeing the audience.

— Andre Kostelanetz

Composers are not all good conductors.

— Anton Seidl

[To the patronizing train conductor who had twice said, 'Auntie, give me your ticket':] Which of my sister's sons are you?

— Mary McLeod Bethune

Never miss an opportunity to teach; when you teach others, you teach yourself.

— Itzhak Perlman

The success of our operas rests most of the time in the hands of the conductor. This person is as necessary as…

— Giuseppe Verdi

Show me an orchestra that likes its conductor and I'll show you a lousy conductor.

— Goddard Lieberson

“You are the conductor of your own attitude! Nobody else can compose your thoughts for you.”

— Lee J. Colan

I am somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels when it pours electricity into a non-conductor?

— Arthur Conan Doyle

Victor Hernandez, like an orchestral conductor directing his troops...

— Jon Champion

And if you are strong enough, then you can grow as a conductor more and more.

— Kurt Masur

A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist's mind to the viewer's. But it may never reach…

— Sol LeWitt

We were not for underestimating magic - a life-conductor like the sap between the tree-stem and the bark. We know that it…

— Freya Stark

A man gets on a train with his little boy, and gives the conductor only one ticket. 'How old's your kid?' the…

— Robert Benchley

I study the Bible constantly. I teach the Bible. You know, I'm a Bible conductor, and I have a lot of people…

— George Benson

The composers could no longer direct all performances in person, and so the responsibility of interpreting their works in the spirit in…

— Anton Seidl

Conducting, I tried it once off the cuff, and quickly realized there were subtle aspects that I was missing. There is a…

— Carter Burwell

Being a conductor is kind of a hybrid profession because most fundamentally, it is being someone who is a coach, a trainer,…

— Michael Tilson Thomas

When I first was conducting as guest conductor in Europe 25 years ago, I would propose doing American pieces and grudgingly it…

— Michael Tilson Thomas

Conductor, when you receive a fare, Punch in the presence of the passenjare. A blue trip slip for an eight-cent fare, A…

— Mark Twain

Along the way [Mozart] got married; fathered seven children (two of whom survived into adulthood); performed as a pianist; violinist; and conductor;…

— Robert Greenberg

As the bus slowed down at the crowded bus stop, the Pakistani bus conductor leaned from the platform and called out, "Six…

— Edwin Francis Gay

It seems always to have been difficult to have been a New York Philharmonic conductor because of the nature of New York.…

— Zubin Mehta

People have an affinity towards things, and you don't know where it comes from. Mozart wrote a symphony when he was four,…

— William Shatner

Boulez's only concern is with power. He lost the leadership of the avant-guard more than ten years ago to Stockhausen. Now others…

— Lukas Foss

Men of extraordinary success, in their honest moments, have always sung, "Not unto us, not unto us." According to the faith of…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

I took the first James Kelman novel, 'The Bus Conductor Hines', home to my dad. I thought, 'My dad will like this;…

— Ian Rankin

“Fresh proof of the risks you run in writing about players, and of the advisability of not standing to leeward of their…

— Hector Berlioz

“During my stay in London I resided for a considerable time in Clapham Road in the neighbourhood of Clapham Common... One fine…

— August Kekule

Direction is the most invisible part of the theatrical art. It's not like the conductor in the symphony orchestra performance because he's…

— Terry Teachout

“It seemed there was an announcement every five minutes from the mythical conductor, imparting sagacious gems such as "large items should be…

— Gail Honeyman

New York for a long time was a kind of conductor's graveyard.

— Zubin Mehta

Wherever there’s a conductor, you’re sure to find a dead composer!

— Anonymous

I was different from most young conductors today.

— Kurt Masur

I played with the best conductors of the world.

— Mstislav Rostropovich