Creativity Quote by Eugene Ormandy

Ormandy punctures the most durable myth in classical music: that the conductor is a kind of enlightened monarch. By calling himself "one of the boys" and comparing his status to "the last second violinist", he performs an egalitarian reset inside a profession built on hierarchy. The phrasing is deliberately blue-collar, almost locker-room plain, as if to insist that artistry is labor before it is aura.

The subtext is shrewd. Conductors trade in visibility; their authority is theatrical as much as technical. Ormandy admits the mechanics of that theater: he is "the lucky one to be standing in the center". Luck here does two things at once. It flatters the orchestra (the real engine of sound) while also insulating him from the charge of ego. Yet he doesn't pretend the job is meaningless. "Telling them how to play" is a blunt description of power, softened by the humble framing. He’s acknowledging the paradox: the conductor makes no sound, but shapes all of it.

Context matters. Ormandy led the Philadelphia Orchestra for decades, an institution synonymous with polish and discipline. In that world, reputations can curdle into cults of personality. This line reads like a preemptive counterspell against celebrity, a reminder that the "center" is a position, not a moral elevation. It’s also a quiet lesson in leadership: authority works best when it looks like service, and when the people doing the real work feel seen rather than managed.