This paper investigates how elite professionals perceive and respond to organisational attempts at regulating their identities. Drawing on an ethnography of a Danish symphony orchestra, we integrate the concept of identity regulation with resonance theory to show how musicians’ deep-held identity – and their raison d’être in creating resonance for their audience – fundamentally constrains managerial efforts to (re)define who they are. First, we describe how the musicians’ identities are elite as well as resonance-based. Second, we demonstrate how elite and resonance-based identities form self-conceptions which are non-negotiable and thus resistant to efficiency-driven imperatives. Third, this leads us to show how resistance to identity regulation often manifests in subtle signals, emotional expressions and even bodily breakdowns, extending beyond what existing, primarily discourse-based research captures. By illuminating the limits of identity regulation in a setting where professional identities are inseparable from artistic commitment, this study contributes with a new theoretical lens to understand how and why professionals resist organisational pressures for change. We show that such resistance is not merely reactionary but is grounded in a sense of self that transcends conventional “art vs. business” debates, offering broader insights into identity regulation of deeply held professional identities.
