TED Talk: Classical Music

In Benjamin Zander’s TED talk “The transformative power of classical music,” he presents the idea that it is not us who are voluntarily acting in a way to classical music, but that it is the music that is making us act that way. Zander starts his talk by reminding us of two things, the first being what people who have just started playing sound like. The second thing is to what group of people we belong to in terms of the amount of classical music we listen to. Zander then goes on to talk about how as a conductor, his job is to get his people to be at their best and inspire them. He talks about how his goal in life isn’t money or power, but the number of shining eyes he can get while utilizing classical music.

This TED talk was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. Zander was pretty funny and did a great job portraying his views on classical music. I liked how he started off by addressing how different people respond differently to classical music. By doing this I think that he was able to connect more with his audience. When he started to talk about leadership and said, “It’s one of the characteristics of a leader that he not doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he’s leading to realize whatever he’s dreaming,” I feel like a he made a good point in that if you don’t believe in people, then they will never be able to meet your expectations. This TED talk was actually entertaining and I wouldn’t mind watching more talks by Zander.

TED Talk