s understandable that Marxists, as critics of Great Man Theory, would be skeptical of the extent of the influence of figureheads with, often, large egos, but I think the conductor-musician relationship is a lot more direct than the one between a head of state and their subjects.

I think this is very important to understand, particularly in the creative field, where art direction (not in the capitalistic sense of extracting surplus, but in the sense of allocating people and resources to achieve a certain vision) is sometimes key to get somewhere where a single person wouldn't have been able to.

The nature of said hierarchy and relationship between the person directing and the team is worth critiquing, because more often than not it reinforces or relies on oppressive hierarchies, but I don't think the role of someone leading a team of artists should be completely abolished.