An Ensemble of the People and by the People : Music: In virtually all respects, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is self-governing. All positions rotate, and there is no conductor.

You might say that the members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra still play musical chairs.

“We rotate all seating positions in the orchestra,” explained Julian Fifer, executive director of the ensemble.

“The sections are absolutely interchangeable, and we rearrange seating for every piece. There is no such thing as being first violin player, or principal anything, in Orpheus.”

That means four different seating configurations tonight at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, where the group assays Boccherini’s Sinfonia in D minor, “La Casa del Diavolo”; Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-flat, with Radu Lupu as soloist; Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite, and Dvorak’s Serenade for Winds in D minor.

The 26-member ensemble has played without a conductor since Fifer founded it in 1972. In virtually all respects it is self-governing; impermanent seating plans reflect the fact that artistic decisions are made by revolving committees, or core groups. In recording sessions, everyone crowds into the production booth to listen to the first playbacks.

Is the New York-based Orpheus the French Revolution come to the arts, the embodiment of the democratic process in the music world?

Fifer chuckled.

“I think it depends on your own political persuasions,” he said. “In this country, people do view us as such an embodiment.

“But when we tour, it’s interesting how others react. In 1984 in Yugoslavia, they felt we were the ideal representation of socialism. On the same tour, in Romania, they were surprised that such an organization was permitted in the United States, because everything was run by the workers--they saw us as the ideal Communist workers’ collective! I don’t know what other systems we could visit as an orchestra--so far no one has viewed us as a dictatorship.

“It is somewhat democratic,” continued Fifer, who played cello with the group until deciding four years ago to focus on administrative duties.

“Over the years we’ve had internal discussions about the difference between democracy and republics. One of our horn players, William Purvis, has a philosophy degree, and he’s not sure we should refer to ourselves as a democracy because democracies tend to fall to the lowest common denominator, republics to the highest,” he said. “We are always seeking the highest denominators in our work.”

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Anyway, if it were really a democracy, the concertmaster wouldn’t always be a violinist.

“That’s a hot topic with a couple of non-violinists!” Fifer said. “For certain pieces, it has been felt that the concertmaster could be the principal cellist. And some of us have said there should be a concertmaster of the strings and a concertmaster of the winds, which I suppose would be whoever’s occupying the first oboe chair.

“As far as expressing ideas, and providing interpretive leadership, I suppose it could be anyone,” he said. “It could even be someone not playing in the group. But in terms of giving cues and interpretive impetus in performance, it really needs to be the violinist. The violins are out in front, and most of the time they have the leading melodic role.”

Hey, so change the seating!

Each year, Orpheus’ schedule includes up to 60 concerts and four albums for Deutsche Grammophon. Because the musicians themselves are responsible for the creative outcome of those efforts, Fifer feels that they take a greater-than-average pride in their accomplishments.

But Fifer also described some of the greater-than-average artistic hurdles the Orpheus has had to overcome.

“Because so many people are giving cues, at first there were problems when we performed larger pieces requiring additional strings, trumpets, timpani. . . . It was like trying to maneuver a trailer truck on a curvy mountain road,” he said. “It took time to develop the flexibility to accommodate an orchestra of up to 40 players for certain recordings.

“The challenge that always remains is to find the unified collective spontaneity that any one of us as individual artists exercise when we play sonatas or concertos.”

Put more simply, it’s being able to make the slightest gesture and have it be immediately and accurately interpreted by all the other players.

“The conductor has two arms available with which to suddenly urge the troops one way or the other,” Fifer said. “With us, it’s much more subtle because we have instruments in our hands. It’s the nod of a head or bow arm. But some of the great conductors have shown us that very small motions can get very large responses.”

So why all the bother? Weren’t conductors invented for a reason?

“Without a conductor the musician never needs to choose between what he hears and what he sees,” Fifer said. “(The orchestral chamber repertory) really becomes chamber music. Radu (Lupu) can talk directly to anyone, he can just say, ‘Dave, would you mind playing it this way?’ And it’s obvious from the sound he makes the sound we all need to be making.”

* The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with Radu Lupu as piano soloist plays tonight at 8 at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. $28-$39. (310) 916-8500.