3 ms·
I guess it depends what you mean by "play an instrument" - almost all proficient conductors have proficiency in at least one orchestral instrument. There is at
by darreninthenet 3y ago
I guess it depends what you mean by "play an instrument" - almost all proficient conductors have proficiency in at least one orchestral instrument.
There is at least one (so I'm speculating he's not the only one, but it is likely to be rare) proficient conductor (Leopold Stokowski) who had no real proficiency with any instrument but he did have some very rudimentary piano training... and then pretty much taught himself conducting. Whether that rudimentary piano ability counts as "play an instrument"
- MikeTheGreat 3y agoI was intrigued and looked into this. According to Wikipedia: "He studied at the Royal College of Music, where he first enrolled in 1896 at the age of thirteen, making him one of the youngest students to do so. In his later life in the United States, Stokowski would perform six of the nine symphonies composed by his fellow organ student Ralph Vaughan Williams. Stokowski sang in the choir of the St Marylebone Parish Church, and later he became the assistant organist to Sir Walford Davies at The Temple Church. By age 16, Stokowski was elected to membership of the Royal College of Organists. In 1900, he formed the choir of St. Mary's Church, Charing Cross Road, where he trained the choirboys and played the organ. In 1902, he was appointed the organist and choir director of St. James's Church, Piccadilly. He also attended The Queen's College, Oxford, where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 1903" [1] That sounds like a bit more than rudimentary piano training to me :) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Stokowski#Early_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Stokowski#Early_life