Offering innovative approaches to thinking about orchestras, Global Perspectives on Orchestras: Collective Creativity and Social Agency adopts ethnographic, historical and comparative perspectives on a variety of traditions, including symphony, Caribbean steel, Indonesian gamelan, Indian film and Vietnamese court examples. The volume presents compelling analyses of orchestras in their socio-historical, economic, intercultural and postcolonial contexts, while emphasizing the global and historical connections between musical traditions.

By drawing on new ethnographic and historical data, the essays describe orchestral creative processes and the politics shaping performance practices. Each essay considers how musicians work together in ensembles, focusing on issues such as training, rehearsal, creative choices, compositional processes, and organizational infrastructures. Testimonies of orchestral musicians highlight practitioners' views into the diverse world of orchestras. As a whole, the volume discusses the creative roles of performers, arrangers, composers and arts agencies, as well as the social environments supporting musical collaborations.

With contributions from an international team of researchers, Global Perspectives on Orchestras offers critical insights gained from the study of orchestras, collective creativity and social agency, and the connections between orchestral performances, colonial histories, postcolonial practices, ethnographic writings and comparative theorizations.