Army Leader vs. Musical Director

I am in Basic Officer Leadership Course (BOLC) right now at the U.S. Army School of Music in Virginia Beach, VA. My buddies who are infantry, artillery, armor, or transportation officers are at their respective BOLCs, but nobody really knows what Army conductors do in BOLC. Well, here you go…

Here at the U.S. Army School of Music, we don't learn anything about music because my colleagues and I already know music—that's why we were chosen for this job. Instead, we learn a ton of non-musical subjects that are useful to us, like audio reinforcement, drill & ceremony, concert programming, copyright compliance, and unit cohesion/team development. Beyond that, we learn Army-important things, like supply procedures, how to prepare Army briefings and correspondence, fundamentals of joint operations, IED identification, soldier resilience, and a ton of regulations.

But the real subject of study here at BOLC is leadership, and it’s very interesting to learn the Army perspective on leadership. According to Field Manual 6-22 (Army Leadership), “An Army leader is anyone who...inspires and influences people to accomplish organizational goals. Army leaders motivate people...to pursue actions, focus thinking, and shape decisions for the greater good of the organization.” Hmm. Sounds like a music director. FM 6-22 also says that Army Leaders have three attributes—character, presence, and intellectual capacity—and Army Leaders essentially do three things—lead, develop others, and achieve results. Just like a music director. We Army leaders are expected to be agile, adaptable, and competent subject-matter experts who bring a team together and rely on the competence of others to accomplish a common goal. Wow. That sounds just like a music director.

Military leader vs. musical leader. What's the difference?

Now that I think of it, the Army's idea of a leader rhymes pretty well with what I've always thought a great musical leader was. As I begin my career as an Army Conductor, I am thinking a lot about how to incorporate my pre-conceived ideas about musical leadership into my military work, and I hope my military studies will help me improve my civilian musical work, too.

More soon...