This study was designed to examine whether the presence of excellent or poor ensemble performances would influence the ratings assigned by ensemble members to conductors who demonstrated highly expressive conducting. Two conductors were videotaped conducting one of two excerpts from an arrangement of Frank Ticheli’s Loch Lomond. These videos subsequently were duplicated and synchronized with either excellent or poor performances that previously had been recorded with a university wind ensemble. To determine whether identical conducting performances would be evaluated differently on the basis of excellent or poor ensemble performance, college band, choir, and orchestra members (N = 120) viewed each of the four 1-minute excerpts and rated conductor expressivity and ensemble performance quality on 10-point Likert-type scales and provided one brief written comment about each video. Results indicated that ensemble performance quality significantly affected ratings of conductor expressivity (p < .001). However, the effect size was modest (partial η2 = .29). Participants’ written comments were directed most frequently to the conductor in the excellent-performance condition and to the ensemble in the poor-performance condition.
