Conductor and Ensemble Performance Expressivity and State Festival Ratings

This study is the second in a series examining the relationship between conducting and ensemble performance. The purpose was to further examine the associations among conductor, ensemble performance expressivity, and festival ratings. Participants were asked to rate the expressivity of video-only conducting and parallel audio-only excerpts from a state-level concert festival. There were significant differences among scores for conducting across festival ratings; however, there were no significant differences for ensemble performances. There was a significant interaction between festival ratings and video and audio excerpts. The relationship between expressivity of conducting and expressivity of ensemble performances found in some previous research was not found in this study; indeed, there was not even a relationship found in expressivity of ensemble performance to festival ratings. The lack of an apparent relationship of expressive conducting to expressive performance found here replicates, in part, the results of Price and Chang (2001). September 10, 2004 February 2, 2005.