Leandros Nikolaidis
Leandros Nikolaidis once touched the wall first in a crowded 200-meter backstroke heat, then gave up competitive swimming's dawn lanes and meet weekends for rehearsals that ran past the scheduled release and kept running after the conductor's final cutoff. Recently retired, he now treats every extra bar after the posted end time as a matter requiring witnesses, exact clocks, and a clear account of who still had the baton.
Articles by Leandros Nikolaidis
Conductor's Autobiography Devotes 200 Pages to a Single Disputed Fermata in Beethoven
The fermata in question lasts approximately three seconds in performance and has generated what the publisher describes as 'the most detailed analysis of a pause in literary history.'
Orchestra's Annual Retreat Ends in Tears After Team-Building Exercise Requires Playing Each Other's Instruments
The violinists were given tubas, the brass were given violins, and the percussionist was given a harp, which he described as 'a weapon designed to humiliate me.'
Tempo Interpretation War Between Conductor and Pianist Results in Concert Finishing 11 Minutes Early
The pianist took every tempo marking as 'a minimum speed suggestion' and the conductor retaliated by accelerating through the orchestral passages until both parties were, in the words of one critic, 'racing toward the end like competing trains.'