Associate Conductor question

Question: Last night when I saw "Follies", the very competent and talented Marvin Laird was on as conductor as opposed to the 'regular' conductor, James Moore. (Laird is typically associate conductor/pit pianist).

Do associate conductors have set performances that they conduct, and the principal conductor gets a night off? Or do they just fill in if the conductor has a conflict or calls in sick?

And what does the 'Assistant Conductor' do? How is that different than the associate or normal conductor? (in this case, he is a trombone player).


Also -- complete side note -- when I looked down into the pit at intermission, the harp and percussion (tympani, mallets, etc.) were nowhere to be found. Do they play in another room and then are piped in? It looked to me that there were chairs enough for all the other musicians but there were only a handfull of people in there so it was hard to tell.

Updated On: 9/18/11 at 08:34 PM

Updated On: 6/17/17 at 09:36 PM

Just to elaborate on the responses so far, yes, union musicians are allowed to "call out" up to 50% of the time and still keep "their chair", i.e. their job. That includes conductors; maybe James had something planned and knew about it weeks in advance, and maybe something suddenly came up and he had to call out that afternoon. That's why, just like with understudies, all the musicians and the conductors have a list of people who know the book already and who are ready to play at a moment's notice, in case something comes up and they have to call out. That's pretty much how you break into the business of being a Broadway musician; if you can get on someone's sub list, it's a great way to launch your career, assuming you go in there and do a good job.

Also, I just want to point out that four currently-running shows have a live harp: Follies, How to Succeed in Business, Phantom of the Opera, and Wicked. Not bad, considering there are only 17 or so musicals running right now!

"union musicians are allowed to "call out" up to 50% of the time and still keep "their chair""

So does this mean that, hypothetically, a musician could be playing for 2 currently-running shows at once? (ie, could do half the performances of one show and half of another?) Or are there union rules against that?

Regarding percussion instruments being housed in an adjacent room, rather than in the pit, and the sound being piped into the orchestral mix: long before such goings on were the norm, I can remember seeing the OBC of WEST SIDE STORY at the Winter Garden in 1958 and noticing that the timpani were situated in the orchestra level boxes. Back then, orchestras were heard live, unamplified. Those were, to me, the good old days.

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