Creativity Quote by Kurt Masur

Masur draws a clean line between power and intimacy: the podium is public, but it isn’t personal. “In front of an orchestra” sounds like the ultimate exposure, yet it’s also the one place where the social rules are fixed. Everyone knows their role, the script is the score, authority is not negotiated in real time. The anxiety doesn’t come from being seen; it comes from being seen without a framework.

That’s why the second half lands. Walking “through an audience in the reception” is the opposite of performance: no baton, no downbeat, no shared task to hold onto. It’s small talk, eye contact, being recognized as a person instead of a function. Masur admits that the charisma audiences project onto maestros can be situational, almost occupational. Onstage, the crowd’s gaze is directed through him toward the music; offstage, the gaze sticks.

The phrasing “still shy” does quiet work. It rejects the neat cultural myth that fame cures insecurity, or that leadership is a personality type. Shyness here isn’t weakness; it’s a private temperament that coexists with command. Coming from a conductor whose career unfolded in high-stakes German musical institutions, and who became a civic figure in Leipzig around 1989, the remark also hints at a broader truth: you can carry history in your hands and still feel awkward in a roomful of strangers. The podium is a kind of shelter. The reception is the real audition.