Music-making on the highest levels, like team sports, requires talent, a deep understanding of the discipline, a willingness to work in and with an ensemble where the player is often relegated to a supporting role, and a recognition that one’s individual voice will eventually be heard. Preparation is a key to success in any music ensemble or sports team, but the team-first attitude of the performers is as essential. And that is what the Knicks players demonstrated in abundance throughout the final 15 games of the playoffs. In any chamber ensemble, orchestra, small band, or big band, those traits are essential to achieve an artistic expression. This all seems quite logical on paper but in my 50+ years in the music industry, I have only rarely experienced this type of winning teamwork. This is what we can learn from the Knicks 2026 postseason performance.
Chamber ensembles tend to emphasize the team concept most vividly. Most instrumental chamber groups operate without a conductor and therefore require more from the performers. Each player is responsible for knowing all the parts and everything that occurs from moment to moment in rendering a stylistically appropriate interpretation of the music. Whether working on the Carter Woodwind Quintet, Brahms Clarinet Trio, Desenclos Saxophone Quartet, Debussy Flute Trio, Gil Evans’ Birth of the Cool, Art Pepper Plus 11, or Super sax arrangements, etc., this is the type of playing that forces everyone to function as a unified voice—a well-oiled team like the Knicks.
In the days of the European maestros of American orchestras who were dictatorial on the podium, we were the beneficiaries of great performances with interpretations that were based upon their longtime training, musical acumen, and experiences with European ensembles. Teamwork, often inspired by the fear of getting fired, was an absolute must to satisfy these conductors’ musical standards and interpretations. However, we are not likely to see the likes of an Arturo Toscanini, George Szell, Fritz Reiner, Leopold Stokowski, Serge Koussevitsky, Georg Solti, Eugene Ormandy, etc., again in the manner that they functioned with their orchestras in the U.S. The same could be said of the big band leaderships of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Tommy Dorsey whose ensembles also played with a high degree of perfection under fear of being singled out by the leader. Therefore, working in player-led chamber groups or small ensembles where the responsibilities for style, tone, pitch, rhythmic accuracy, blending of instruments, emphasis of line playing, and interpretation are left to the performers, is the best way to become a “champion” musician today.
Once the performer has had successful experiences with the chamber group concept of playing, he/she can extend this approach to larger ensembles to help promote more artful musical renderings. Since there are very few conductors today in any musical medium who are on the levels of the artists listed above and who can inspire that type of informed playing, it is incumbent upon today’s instrumentalists to take it upon themselves to develop that extra understanding and sensitivity by engaging in as much small group playing as possible. It worked for the Knicks so why not for musicians?