Learning for Life a Conducting Masterclass.

7/29/2019 Learning for Life a Conducting Masterclass.

1/5Voice affVioms America, Fall 2006

LEARNINGUFE:orA C O N D U C T I N G M A S T E R C L A S SConducting programs offer podium time,

repertoire, relationships, real-world skills, and renewa l-a recipe for con tinued professional grow th

STORY AN D PH OT OSBY KAR EN DEA NS

"Cellists hang out withthe other cellists,singers hang out withother singers, butconductors - who dowe hang out with?" Stephen Czarkowskiand 31 other conductors hung outtogether for four days last May to sharewith each other, explore some of thegreat works in the choral orchestralrepertoire, and learn from some of thenation's finest choral con ductors.

Sixteen conducting fellows, twelveassociates, and five auditors attendedChorus A merica's Choral-OrchestralConducting Masterclass, hosted byThe Curtis Institute of Music inPhiladelphia. They were a variedgroup. Some had considerable experi-ence as assistant conductors of largeorchestras; others conducted churchchairs or children's choruses, orwere in what one called "the wilder-ness period" between graduateschool and full employment. Onewas a cellist exploring a career inconducting after suffering a hand

injury, one had spent 20 years in artsmanagement before turning to conducOne traveled from Europe to attend thclass. In all, they weren't so much a groof people collectively making a stop alocomm on path as people meeting at a pwhere their many paths converged.Conducting fellows and associates a

the Masterclass had private conductinglessons and group classes. A s the progrprogressed, fellows conducted first the voice Philadelphia Singers, then the MaCollege of Music Orchestra. On the lasday they conducted the combined choand orchestra, under the tutelage of OWerner M ueller, head of the conductindepartment of The Curtis Institute ofMusic, and C hristoph Eschenbach, mudirector of T h e Philadelphia OrchestraConducting fellow Octavio Ms-Arowho is assistant con ductor of the N ati

Symphony of Spain, saw the Masterclaas "a really great opportunity to work wa fme orchestra and chorus and work some of the very best teachers. And coducting this repertoire is an opportuniyou don't usually get as a young conduIt's one of my greatest dreams."It also was. as conducting associate Keating said, "more intense than anythI've ever done."


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)i.(fi;>; Wolfe, Christophlischenluiiii, and Dav'ui Hayes,Conducting MastercUiss coaches.

MissaElegische Gesang, an darn lberge. As Hayes said, "I've

The narrow focus on Beethoven gave

Conducting fellow Franck Chastrusse

tionship between orchestra and cho rus.

But at the same time, in order to meet

g o " said Wolfe. In structor s

t they needed to continue learning - to

and p articularly to gain po dium

1works. Conducting associateJoy On dra Hirokawa said,"It's hard to get that kind ofpodium time. It 's a chicken-and-egg thing. You have to

try your wings in order to get the confi-dence and experience. But who's going tohire an inexperienced conductor who hasthe risk of not doing well?"

The Masterclass also presented an oppor-tunity for cond uctors to renew themselves.As con duc ting fellow Brad Sm ith said, "Afteryou leave college, it's hard to find t he tim eand opportunities to keep growing profes-sionally and artistically. Dealing with theday-to-day things like moving chairs grindsyou down. You get comfortable with yourown players. Even for performances I don'tget nervous. But here that's not the case.You're on display and you have to performund er pressure."

It was also a place to gain the perspec-

tives of many other conductors. The par-ticipants shared what Hirokawa called a"very supportive environment," and hadthe opportunity to be instructed not by justone or two accomplished conductors, hutseveral. "It's useful to learn from an oth ercond uctor 's experience," said associate GaryKeating. "We all have points we stress.Working with a variety ol conductorsbroadens our perspective and gives us otherways to look at and inter pret music."

The participants generally saw workshopexperiences as a good complement to tbeiracademic experiences, rather than a placeto make up for failures on the part of theiruniversities. Several felt that, although theircollege training had given them a solidbackground, there simply wasn' t enoughtime for them to get all of the neededorchestral and choral podium experiencesduring their student years.

The one area several participants men-tioned as lacking in their academic experi-ence was the management side of being aconductor. Czarkowski said, "A problem withcollege programs is that they don't tell youenough about the world as it is - things likedealing with m anagem ent, how to present aprogram , how to talk with a donor. Or withhow to put on a pops concert or a concertfor fourth- to sixth-graders."

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Conducting fellow Robert Boardman alnoted a lack in academic training of prepation for the economic realities of maintaina mu sic grou p. "At the university, if nobo dcomes to a concert, we still have a concert,said Boardman.

Lessons LearnedOn o ne level, what p articipants too k fromthe Masterclass varied as much as their bagrounds . A sampling of sotne of the speciftips they picked up: "You can't treal the cho rus like an orch e

You can't have them go over an d over adifficult passage. I didn't know about huseful it is to have them speak the text ojust sing it softly." "Separate mov emen t of the two han ds you can use them to convey two pieces information - to two different in stru meor to the chorus and orchestra, for instan

"You have to breathe . Breathing for a chis essential."

"We have to have the coura ge to be sma| in conducting movements] . A small gecan be more powerful th an a big gestureven if you're conducting a group of 20It's easy to un der stan d, but difficult to d

"Th e relation ship with a cbo rus is differthan with an orche.stra. It's closer, friendl

"At the mom ent ot the beat, you have npower. You influence what the musicianwill do in the preparation, the trajectorof the beat."Other important lessons were universal. T

Masterclass stressed the need for careful sstudy. Con ductin g fellow Cara Tasher notehow teacbers "reinforced tbe need to have score completely under your belt That demines how fast your mind can put the muinto the gesture." Fellow Ariette Cardenesadde d, "As a player, you do n' t th ink aboutwhat's going on around you. But as a conduyou have to have a complete understanding what you want and how to interpret that."

Teachers underscored the need for partpants simply to clean up their conductingHirokawa, whose duties include conductinchildren's choir, said, "If you clean up youcond ucting , make it better, everything is bter. It doesn't matter if you're working witchildren's choir or any othe r choir . The bacon duct ing skills are the same."

The Yoke of Chorus America, F all 2006


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"The motto of this Masterclass could beyou look is how they' ll soun d, '" said

"Wha t breath? W hat gesture?Perhaps what was most im portant aboutof a greatto

ts a copy of the score to the GloriaMissa Solemnis that had Roberts was not jtist to hand downtogive condu ctors skills that

low th em to create thei r ow n legacy. Assaid, "We have to be ourselves.

tofind your own way." ^in Alexandria. Virginia.

For more informationon Chorus America's upcoming

Conducting Masterclasses in 2007,see pages 15 and 31 in this issue, or

visit www.chorusamerica.org.

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Learning for Life a Conducting Masterclass.

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