Personally, I believe yes. I have been part of multiple types of groups and working with a conductor makes things a heck of a lot easier. There is someone there to guide the speed and if you lose your place, especially in a show, you cannot rely upon the pianist to help, although in many instances she tries to (I'm thinking specifically of a pianist that is both our director, conductor, etc.) a conductor is fantastic for just pointing at you in the right moment. Also, there are some in a group that just can't count and a conductor helps those people to do so. The group that I'm thinking of doesn't have a principal violinist. It's a group of us that play for this local show called "Showstoppers" that has a theme every year. One year "Wonder Women" in which we played music form all sorts of big female names. My favourites so far was "One Night in Hollywood" in which we played big movie theme tunes. We have successfully performed these shows without a conductor, but having one would definitely have prevented some nights of pure fear that occurs when you've counted out the bars and something went wrong, or one of the cast members skips a line.

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Honey