Theory

Meet the Person

Maestro Neeme Jarvi on Leadership

The Power of Innovation, Stakeholder Relations, Teamwork, and Nonverbal Communication

David C. Strubler Kettering University

Robert Evangelista The Business of Winning, LLC

Neeme Jarvi is one of the most prolific living conductors in the world with more than 350 recordings. During his 15 years as Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO), he gained international reputation as an orchestra builder. When Jarvi took over the DSO, the demoralized and debt-ridden orchestra was floundering. Under Jarvi’s inspiring and creative team-oriented leadership, the DSO was touring, recording, and out of debt within 2 years. Jarvi immigrated with his family to the United States in 1980 from then communist-controlled Estonia. He accepted a contract with Columbia Artists and has now given more than 1,200 concerts in 125 cities, conducting 72 orchestras. A graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory, he has held or currently holds posts with major orchestras in Estonia, Japan, Sweden, Scotland, and now New Jersey. His debuts were with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He has conducted nearly all of the major orchestras of the United States and Europe.

Keywords: leadership and innovation; creativity; spontaneity; teamwork and nonverbal communication

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and inspiring leader who has made a significant impact on the DSO, its diverse stakeholders, and on the future of classical music.

Strubler/Evangelista: When you came 14 years ago, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra was in serious trouble. They had been leaderless for several years, morale was low, and they had a substantial debt. With a reputation, even then, as an orchestra builder, you turned the entire situation around in just a few years. How did you do it?

Jarvi: Mark Volpe (former DSO Executive Director) had a vision. Shortly after I arrived in Detroit, he took me out to meet with families who supported the orchestra. Wonderful people. They wanted to know who I was. So I went out all the time. We had celebrations of the new conductor coming. We spent some money but all of it went for the good of the DSO. A conductor who doesn’t care about that isn’t going to be very successful. You have to do that in America.

Strubler/Evangelista: Describe how you lead?

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Just as many corporations are suffering from financial pressures, adapting to global and diverse knowledge- based workers, and challenged by the need to continually develop stakeholder relations, leaders of major sym- phony orchestras find themselves in a similar situation. Audience members are aging, funding from public and private resources is becoming increasingly limited, and union–management relationships are strained.

The role of a music director or conductor in a major symphony orchestra is changing. The stereotype of con- ductor as an authoritarian and, sometimes, tyrannical prima donna is being replaced by the inspiring leader and encouraging coach who treats players as highly skilled professionals on a cross-functional, integrated team. Furthermore, the role of effective conductors is expand- ing to the proactive leadership of all orchestra stakehold- ers, including donors, the media, orchestra management, and the audience itself.

Neeme Jarvi, Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) for 15 years, provides us with a bril- liant example of the “new” conductor. In his final year with the DSO, he reflects on his legacy as a spontaneous

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Jarvi: For some people, music is just a job. For me it is the creation of music. I love music and I give my love to the orchestra and to the particular piece, a masterwork. I have a vision to introduce this mas- terwork to the orchestra. It’s good for us to talk about how we love the music, but ultimately the music goes from the orchestra to the audience.

Strubler/Evangelista: How is leadership the same or different in an orchestra as compared to a business?

Jarvi: In a company, where you have an executive, it’s not really a visible thing and you don’t see the results (of your influence) very much. We (the conductor and orchestra) see the results every week. We are performing concerts, touring, or recording. We are producing an immediate result and that’s the differ- ence. In a business situation, even here in the DSO’s offices, who are we to blame if something goes wrong? In the orchestra, if there is a wrong note or we’re not together, who’s fault is it? The leader’s.

Strubler/Evangelista: One of the musicians in the orchestra said that one day in rehearsal you stopped them in the middle of a piece just to tell them that they were the greatest orchestra in the world. Is that typical of your leadership style?

Jarvi: When I’m not happy I don’t say things like that. I don’t believe in giving false praise. I do like to express my feelings to people who make great music. All orchestras can do great things if there is a great leader. We create nice, wonderful results when we work together. When I am happy with the results, I have to express my happiness.

Strubler/Evangelista: You once said, “If I didn’t know how to lead them, I would have to talk.” How do you lead without words?

Jarvi: I do have to explain my philosophical approach to a piece. However, it is all about technique. Conductors don’t need to talk about a piece that the orchestra already knows. You can put them to sleep that way. But then there is no joy for anyone. All work must be joy. All life must be joy. I have to express myself in such a way that they (the musi- cians) take over (adopt) my feelings for the music. You have to express yourself beautifully. People are going to like it. Musicians need a lot of technical help from the conductor. For example, you have to help them breathe. To help them come in at the right time. If you are an experienced conductor, you can avoid problems. Otherwise, it will be very shaky.

Strubler/Evangelista: With your nonverbal commu- nication, you seem to use a lot of visual contact, speaking with your eyes to the orchestra members.

Jarvi: Yes. It is like you are talking to them. Not just using formal (conducting) cues. (When conducting an orchestra that doesn’t understand his nonverbal cues.) I have to find out first what they are used to. It’s a very interactive process.

Strubler/Evangelista: Earlier you mentioned team- work. You seem to approach the whole orchestra, including its management, volunteers, and musi- cians, as if they are a team.

Jarvi: We are one team. I don’t separate myself. Of course, I am the leader, but I don’t separate myself. It’s like a good family where people understand each other. Sometimes people try to show power over others. That doesn’t make a good team.

Strubler/Evangelista: So how do you approach people, especially if you have to correct them?

Jarvi: You have to have humor without forgetting the serious point. Even if a (orchestra) member doesn’t like a particular repertoire, (I) use humor, not power to work with them. You have to love them. What I said yesterday (when I corrected someone), I don’t remember. I have to move forward and love them. If something goes wrong, I am still a friend to this person. I never say “That’s it. We’re enemies for the rest of my life.” I don’t have enemies. So when things go wrong, don’t blame. Don’t show your unhappiness all the time. You have to be strong to make (the music) right. Say to them, “Try this. Yes, that’s it. It’s fantastic! You’re fantastic!” That way, he doesn’t have to have any guilty feel- ings but he has done his job.

Strubler/Evangelista: I have watched you conduct many times and have seen you communicating nonverbally with audience members. Is that also part of your leadership style?

Jarvi: I see a bored face sitting in the audience. Why does he even come? So I try to attract his attention in some way. Maybe he’s sleeping (smiles). So I look at him (and catch his eye) and at the end of the concert he’s standing and clapping! He understood that it was a great performance because I commu- nicated with him. I like to share my feelings. Not many people understand what I am doing.

Strubler/Evangelista: So your leading the audience too?

Jarvi: Absolutely! Strubler/Evangelista: You once conducted a concert

involving a young choir singing with the orchestra. At the end of the concert, you invited two of the young singers to come out on stage. The mother of one of the children said that you had a life-changing

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impact on her son. Now he wants to be a conductor. Would it be correct to say that you carry a burden of leadership, not only with the orchestra but also with the entire community of music?

Jarvi: You must make a lot of positive “injections” to people, especially children because they are absorb- ing everything immediately. You must give enjoy- ment (through music) to the very young and the retired.

Strubler/Evangelista: You are well known by musi- cians and your audiences for spontaneity. How important is it to you to create spontaneity out of the ordinary routine?

Jarvi: I don’t like to repeat myself very much. I like to make it from scratch. I don’t care what I did with it last time. Now it’s today. It depends on my mood or my pulse. You have to be ready to create atmosphere— where the musicians don’t know what is going on in the next moment. Of course, you have to prepare them a bit or you could have disaster. That (ability to be spontaneous) comes with your experience. It doesn’t come immediately. You can do it easily if you are prepared technically and your mind is pre- pared for that. (Spontaneity) makes things fresh. The biggest problem today (with some orchestras) is nar- row mindedness and no flexibility. Let’s do it a dif- ferent way. We’re the DSO. We do it our way. Still, the relationship between human beings is the most important thing. Often, orchestras are used to having very formal conductors. Then along comes a con- ductor who does things differently. They’re not use to it but it comes very quickly.

Strubler/Evangelista: Your recently published book is called Encore! Every one of your concerts I attended had an encore. What is the significance of the encore?

Jarvi: Encores are a psychological thing. Few American orchestras do encores because the union says “no.” Now the union is asking me what kind of encore we are going to do. Because they think it is a good thing for their popularity. You play a beautiful encore and they go away happy.

Strubler/Evangelista: Is there such a thing as perfection?

Jarvi: We try to be as perfect as possible but if it’s artificially done it doesn’t work. This kind of per- fection, nobody needs.

Strubler/Evangelista: What about perfection for yourself?

Jarvi: You’re growing all the time from mistakes. You must be critical of your own attitude toward music making. There are so many possibilities. There must be a connection with what’s going on inside and outside myself. No artificiality. Things that use to be difficult are easy now. Then the trust comes more from the musicians.

Strubler/Evangelista: Someday your career will be finished . . .

Jarvi: (interrupts) When I’m dead (laughter). Strubler/Evangelista: What did Neeme Jarvi bring to

classical music? Jarvi: Recording is such an important thing. I never

copy anyone. Some people say that’s bad. I wouldn’t record Dvorak the same way twice. Some people question how that is possible. The most interesting thing is to do it differently than others do it. It must be interesting and lively (not boring and clean). There are lots of recordings like this. Music must flow.

Strubler/Evangelista: Looking back, do you have any regrets?

Jarvi: No. It (the orchestra) is always a joy. Not a boring place to go, just fielding my duties. Sometimes people have these feelings, but I get a great result from the orchestra and that’s my main happiness.

David C. Strubler is an associate professor of management at Kettering University in Flint, Michigan. His research interests include organizational leadership, teamwork, training, and communication. His current research is focused on cross-cultural adjustment, leader- ship, and ethics. He has also served Kettering University as associate vice president of graduate & corporate education and business depart- ment head. Prior to his academic career, he held two human resource positions in education and international industry and was director of an experiential education program for troubled youth. A strong sup- porter of integrating business and the arts, he earned his Ph.D. in organizational communication from Wayne State University.

Robert Evangelista is an award winning author of The Business of Winning: A Manager’s Guide to Building a Championship Team at Work. A graduate of Kettering University, he is a team performance expert, a world-renowned speaker, a successful hockey coach, a com- pelling teacher, and an experienced manager having achieved world- class results at a Fortune 10 company for 20 years. He has appeared with some of the world’s most famous motivational speakers. He has spoken to business leaders and citizens of more than 50 different countries on three continents.

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