“Collective effervescence is the feeling of energy and harmony when people are engaged in a shared purpose. It is a joie de vivre that manifests when we share moments with others, such as being in a stadium that erupts in simultaneous applause when a musician returns for an encore performance.”
This definition comes from online teaching resource, The Core Collaborative, and the term “Collective Effervescence” was defined more than 100 years ago by French sociologist Emile Durkheim.
As I continued scrolling down through the Google search results, I was surprised to see the 3rd hit was a scientific article from the National Institutes of Heath (NIH), one of the world’s foremost medical research centres and an agency of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. I kept scrolling and found additional articles from Harvard, The New York Times, Psychology Today and more. Headlines include “Why Being Part of a Crowd Feels So Good” and “There’s a Specific Kind of Joy We’ve Been Missing”.
I’m fascinated by what it means to creative in a collaborative, community environment, in contrast to creating primarily in isolation, like many designers, typographers and other visual creatives work. It’s not to say that one is “good” and one is “bad”; distinct dichotomies are not helpful or necessary here. Rather, finding balance and finding the right moments in the process to engage with a community can elevate our individual creations, elevating everyone’s work.
My guest today is Jeff Newberry is a music director, composer, arranger, sound designer, and educator working in theatre, concert, and community spaces. For Mirvish, Jeff is the associate music director of Disney’s The Lion King in Toronto. (Opening night is November 2!)
In this conversation, Jeff describes his vision of strong creative leadership — a leader who isn’t afraid to feel stuck, can embrace silence and scrap a plan when needed. We talk about the importance of learning names as a gateway to making others feel seen and the magic to be found in encouraging others to be ‘strong and wrong’.
Jeff describes the importance of reading the room and acting in accordance with what each new situation calls for, recognizing the opportunities in both more extraverted, as well as introverted, creatives in the room.
We also dive into education more broadly. The importance of agency, what student-centred learning actually looks like and ways in which traditional hierarchical structures should be re-examined for a truly collaborative process.
Just before we dive into this conversation, I wanted to mention a ‘cousin episode’ to this one, from the podcast Work Life by organizational psychologist, Adam Grant, entitled “Fighting against the status quo with filmmaker Jon M. Chu”. The episode was released on August 20, 2024 and I listened to it not long after I recorded this episode with Jeff. Both Jon and Jeff echo one another in their approaches to creative leadership and I felt inspired after listening to both share their work. It’s such a great episode and I strongly recommend you listen to it if this one resonates.
Without further adieu, on with the show…
About Our Guest:
Jeff Newberry is a music director, composer, arranger, sound designer, and educator working in theatre, concert, and community spaces. His choral music is performed by a growing number of school, community, and university ensembles in Canada and the United States.
For Mirvish, Jeff is the associate music director of Disney’s The Lion King in Toronto. As resident music director at the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope, his projects have included: a Year with Frog and Toad, Little Shop of Horrors, A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline (Music Director); Christmastown, Prairie Nurse (Composer and Sound Designer); and the ongoing Billboard: In Concert series (Music Supervisor + Arranger/Orchestrator). Jeff contributes to the development of new musicals through his work as music supervisor and orchestrator/arranger for Rez Gas (Cale Crowe/Genevieve Adam), and as music director for Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang (Britta Johnson/Anika Johnson), Blood Ties (Anika Johnson/Barbara Johnston), and Summerland (Anika Johnson/Barbara Johnston/Suzy Wilde).
Jeff taught high school music at the Toronto District School Board for 10 years and now teaches part-time at York University in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance, and Design. He has won grants from the Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and York University. He holds a Bachelor of Music (University of Toronto), a Bachelor of Education (Queen’s University), an Honours Specialist in Vocal Music (OISE) and a Master of Education (York University).
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Music:
Weird Science - John Bartmann licensed under a CC0 1.0 Universal License
Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle