INTERVIEWER: MAHMOUD MANSI
Dr. Shady Abdel Salam; Artistic and Administrative Director of the BA Chamber Orchestra
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: How many different kinds of musical instruments and musicians do you manage in one performance? And how do you eventually succeed in creating such synergy and harmony between the team members, along with their instruments, and the audience, all in the same time?
Shady Abdel Salam: In our orchestra we deal mainly with string instruments (Violins, Violas, Cellos and Bases) but sometimes we also have wind instruments such as (Flutes and Oboes, etc…) It depends upon the kind of performance. The process of making a good performance is created through multiple steps. First, every member of the Orchestra must study and know his/her part to overcome personal and technical problems. Then comes the next step where the orchestra works with me, primarily in groups and then all together. In this phase they learn to play in the same style and dynamics by following the conductor’s instructions, and also to be perfectly synchronized. Finally, a good conductor must have the tools to make the players love and believe in the beauty of the music they are making, because once they truly believe in their music, it is easy to deliver the message to the other side of the stage – the audience – to embrace it with open hearts.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Among the different orchestra members, as they all punctually follow the leader, how can you measure their performance at such point and tell who is the most distinctive and who is not?
Shady Abdel Salam: Well, personal technical potentials and experience varies from one player to another, and through the long process of rehearsals these differences reveal and the conductor can distinguish between who is playing properly and who is not, also the attendance is a very essential factor for the players because in every rehearsal so many comments and playing details are showed by the conductor so missing one rehearsal certainly will affect the evaluation of a certain player.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Art performance and production is directly related to the mood of the artist. How do you manage to deal with one of the musicians who is in a very bad mood due to a personal problem? How do you encourage him/her to focus on work?
Shady Abdel Salam: It is very different how you deal with professional and amateur musicians. Concerning this matter, professionals have – to a far extent – the ability to control and separate their personal emotions during a rehearsal or a performance. However, amateur musicians are majorly affected by different moods, even without suffering from personal problems. Amateurs lose concentration fast due to the physical and mental fatigue, so I find it very important to create a humorous refreshing atmosphere throughout the rehearsal time; taking a few minutes in the middle to tell a funny story or a musical joke and making them participate with their comments. This helps them maintain a good mood as long as they are working together.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: How do you deal with someone who mistakenly repeats the same mistake and finds difficulty in learning a certain move or approach?
Shady Abdel Salam: Sometimes the Orchestral Scores demands a high standard of virtuosity and some players – especially new members – have difficulties in playing certain parts due to lack of experience. In this case, I offer to study with them individually this particular part before or after rehearsal.
However, if the player has the technical potential to play a certain part but he/she keeps playing it wrong because he/she is not prepared enough, I give him/her two or three chances while I am observing his/her progress, and then I ask him/her to play alone in front of his/her colleagues. If their performance was below standard, I make a negative comment on it. This makes the player feel embarrassed in front of all the Orchestra and usually the next rehearsal he/she studies properly and doesn’t repeat these mistakes.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Apart from the traditional rehearsals, are there any other kinds of trainings that help the team members bond further, become more dedicated, and become one?
Shady Abdel Salam: There is no particular kind of trainings to make the orchestra bond more together. The many hours of rehearsals we spend together are quite enough. On the personal level, I find it useful that all players become friends inside and outside rehearsals and share the same interests, so we have a private group on Facebook where we can stay connected all the time and share personal and musical opinions.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: What are the professional and personal qualifications of a maestro?
Shady Abdel Salam: Of course there are many important professional qualifications for a Conductor that we could talk about like mastering conducting techniques and reading musical scores… etc. However, I think what makes a really good conductor is his/her ability to dominate the orchestra through his/her self-confidence, and the talent to gain musicians’ trust and continuous attention during directing his/her artistic vision; which is what we call “Charismatic”.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: How do you manage to interview and choose your team members? What are the criteria? And how is the interview different from a traditional job interview?
Shady Abdel Salam: An orchestra job interview is completely different from a traditional one. It is called an “audition” and the only thing that we are looking for in a candidate is his/her musical skills. We don’t care in the auditions about age, certificates, language skills or personal appearance of the applicants at all!
To choose an orchestra member I make a call for an audition for new participants. The candidates are examined by a jury in three aspects; solo performance, difficult orchestral pieces and finally music sight reading. Then of course we choose the best candidates.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: How do you manage to motivate yourself?
Shady Abdel Salam: I always try to set a new challenge and work towards it. For example, as a violinist, when I am working on a difficult musical piece I always like to listen to an excellent performance of this piece by a great conductor or soloist, which puts me in front of a serious challenge trying to reach this level of perfection. Also, as a music director I always try to search for new interesting programs for my orchestra or pieces that were not played before by any other orchestra in Egypt.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: If you are to be an HR Director in an Egyptian organization, what will be your NUMBER ONE concern?
Shady Abdel Salam: I think that I will try to make every employee understand the importance and uniqueness of his/her role in this organization however small it is, and that everyone can make a difference if they just truly believe in what they are doing. Once you are convinced that you are doing an important job, you love it and thus seek perfection, and this would be the highest level of self-motivation for anybody to be totally dedicated to his/her job.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Do you advise HR Directors to include music lessons in the training programs they provide to employees? What kind of benefit can it add to the individual employee and to the company as a whole?
Shady Abdel Salam: Scientists have proven that music has great powers when it comes to controlling and changing a person’s mood. Accordingly it also has a powerful effect on a person’s productivity, creativity and tolerance in work.
I think music is a very essential thing in everybody’s live, yet, it is not necessary that everyone gets musical education to be able to listen to music. What I am advising HR Directors is to provide good background music at work stations which will help maintain their employees’ mental and emotional state at a high level during work hours.
Beside this, it is also advisable to try some music appreciation sessions from time to time – without going through technical details – to improve common taste.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: In 1995 you attained your Bachelor Degree in Physical Chemistry, how did this degree help you in your career as a violinist, as a human being, and as a manager?
Shady Abdel Salam: Science is based on materialistic observations, meticulously, strict procedures, measurements and results, and my study of physical chemistry taught me how to think in a scientific way and how to analyze data and deal with different variables. On the other hand, art depends essentially on creativity, freedom of expression and individuality. I consider myself blessed to have been able to think like a scientist and feel like an artist, with a brain capable of organized planning and problem solving, and a heart capable of feeling the beauty in all God’s creation.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Dr. Shady, we sincerely thank you so much for such honorable and valuable one of a kind interview.
EDITOR: Mennat-Allah Yasser Zohny