The Effects of Post-Performance Conductor Behaviors on Perceptions of Ensemble Performance Quality and Conductor Competence

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of post-performance conductor behaviors on college music students’ perceptions of ensemble performance quality and conductor competence. Participants ( N = 202) were collegiate musicians who watched two videos of a male or female conductor, one with excellent and one with poor post-performance conductor behaviors. Although the visual aspects of each video were different, all videos had the same audio. After watching both videos, participants rated different aspects of the ensemble’s performance quality and the conductor’s competence. The post-performance conductor behaviors displayed in the videos had a significant effect on participants’ ratings of music performance quality ( p < .001), and there was also a significant interaction between post-performance conductor behavior and order ( p < .001). Additionally, post-performance conductor behaviors also affected participants’ ratings of conductor competence ( p < .001). Conductors with excellent post-performance stage behaviors were rated as being significantly more competent than directors who exhibited poor post-performance behaviors. No significant differences in participants’ ratings of ensemble performance quality or conductor competence were found as a function of conductor gender.