From the orchestra pit
When 71 instruments are to be transformed into one, it happens through a tight structure and silent communication.
The Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra has 71 full-time musicians from 17 different countries. On stage, they are seated in their respective sections—strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion—which together comprise more than 20 different instruments. Together, they blend into a single, unified sound.
– You can compare the orchestra to an organ, where you don’t talk about the different stops as individual voices, but as a whole. In the same way, one can say that the symphony orchestra as a whole constitutes a single instrument led by the conductor, explains KSO musician and violinist Henriette Amadea Lindstad Børven, who wrote her master’s thesis on the musician’s role and responsibilities within the orchestra.