Conductingadelaide
Conductingadelaide
By
Doctor of Philosophy
December 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................... III
DECLARATION ................................................................................................................... IV
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... V
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1
i
PART THREE: DEDUCTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
ii
Abstract
This doctoral dissertation is the outcome of a research investigation into the training of
The project analyses the conducting programs of seven leading tertiary-level schools
and searches for the reasons for their success. The analysis has involved examining the
practical, structural aspects of different curricula, as well as engaging with the philosophy
behind the teaching methods used. In examining a broad cross section of successful
international schools with varying pedagogical methods a deeper understanding of the key
New primary source materials have been generated in the form of interviews with leading
pedagogues, including Jorma Panula, Leif Segerstam, Alexander Polishchuk, Mark Stringer,
Johannes Schlaefli, Kenneth Kiesler, Christopher Seaman, John Carewe, James Ross and
Markand Thakar. These interviews were carried out by the author and were recorded in
Finland, Russia, the United Kingdom, Austria, the United States, and Australia. Quotations
from the transcripts of these recorded interviews are used extensively throughout the thesis
The thesis is structured in three parts. Following an introduction and literature review,
Part One identifies and investigates the main challenges facing a conducting program and
discusses the responses to these challenges by leading pedagogues. Part Two consists of a
detailed examination of the curricula and processes of seven leading international tertiary
level conducting programs, and identifies the unique features of their respective approaches.
Part Three presents comparisons and deductions based on the research presented thus far,
and outlines areas that are currently neglected and in need of further research. A detailed
iii
Declaration
I certify that this work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any
other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my
person, except where due reference has been made in the text. In addition, I certify that no
part of this work will, in the future, be used in a submission in my name, for any other degree
or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution without the prior approval of the
University of Adelaide and where applicable, any partner institution responsible for the joint-
I give consent to this copy of my thesis, when deposited in the University Library, being
made available for loan and photocopying, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act
1968.
I also give permission for the digital version of my thesis to be made available on the
web, via the University’s digital research repository, the Library catalogue, and also through
web search engines, unless permission has been granted by the University to restrict access
Luke Dollman
iv
Acknowledgements
First and foremost I would like to thank the conductors, pedagogues and administrators who
gave up their time to be interviewed, and who responded generously to my inevitable follow-
up questions. Without their participation and goodwill this project would not have been
possible.
Rae and Mark Carroll, who have given me invaluable support and guidance for the duration
of my candidature. They have helped to make my steps in to the world of academia as sure
as could be hoped.
formative years, my wife for her support and understanding during my inevitable absences
whilst making music and conducting research, and my children for helping me to realise
there is more to life than music and doctoral dissertations after all.
v
List of Tables and Figures
Tables
of Music………………………………………………………………………………………...107
of Arts…………………………………………………………………………………………...145
Figures
vi
Introduction
̶ Hermann Scherchen
What one can teach and what one can learn are so
minimal that I could explain it to you in a minute.
̶ Otto Klemperer
The quotations above, coming as they do from two towering figures in the history of
orchestral conducting, capture well the divergent views that the current study seeks to
address. For Hermann Scherchen, there is a clear and detailed path of learning available to
the student of conducting.1 Whereas for Otto Klemperer, all that can be imparted on the
That such contrasting opinions exist is in part due to the complexity of the art form. A
conductor must have the requisite musical education to be able to read and interpret a
complex musical score, and possess the physical presence and technique to be able to
communicate that interpretation to the musicians of an orchestra. The conductor should hear
precisely the sounds the orchestra produces, analysing them instantaneously, and then be
1
Hermann Scherchen, Handbook of Conducting, trans. M.D. Calvocoressi
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933), 4.
2
Peter Heyworth, Conversations with Klemperer (London: Victor Gollancz, 1973),
86.
1
able to rehearse the orchestra efficiently and effectively. This requires not only high level
musical and organisational skills, but personal and social skills as well.
Thus, with such a broad range of skills required, the question has arisen as to whether
the art of conducting in its highest form is indeed teachable, and therefore, whether training
in an academic setting is of any real benefit to the student who aspires to conduct
professionally.3 Nevertheless, the second half of the twentieth century saw a proliferation in
conducting courses being taught at the tertiary level.4 Despite this expansion of activity and
the challenges involved in training conductors, little research has been done investigating
and comparing the various strategies adopted by schools internationally, and it is this gap
The thesis identifies some of the world’s most successful tertiary schools in the field of
advanced orchestral conductor training, and analyses their methods and philosophies in
order to better understand the reasons for their success. It is hoped that by doing so, a clear
picture of what constitutes current international best practice in orchestral conductor training
can be established, and directions for future development can be identified. An ideal
the findings of the research. Within this context, the question of ‘can conducting be taught?’
stands in relation to it. To date, no study has taken a broad, international view of the leading
tertiary conducting programs of the world and detailed their activities. Additionally, no
previous study has attempted to identify the challenges involved in delivering conducting
on the international circuit, and prior to that, my own formative years as a student of
conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Aspen Music Festival and School, and
3Carl Bamberger, The Conductor’s Art (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989), 202.
4Alan Lee Baker, Creating Conductors: An Analysis of Conducting Pedagogy in American Higher
Education (DMA thesis, Stanford University, 1992), iv.
2
lesson some twenty years ago, I have been fascinated by the various approaches and
philosophies adopted in the pursuit of teaching this, at times, elusive art form. As time has
passed I have become increasingly active as a teacher of conducting, and thus have had to
confront many of the challenges discussed in this thesis myself. As such, this study is
new one in the context of musical history, having only come to be embraced fully in the
twentieth century. Whilst the pedagogies of many instruments have developed over
hundreds of years, conducting pedagogy is still a relatively new concept, and therefore is at
an earlier stage of development. Due to the conductor’s rapid rise to a level of prominence in
the world of classical music, it is all too easy to forget this fact. As such, a brief overview of
Historical Perspective
Whilst the antecedents of conducting may be traced as far back as 1500 B.C.,5 the story of
the development of modern conducting begins in the nineteenth century. According to Adam
Carse:
In the year 1800 it would have been difficult, or even impossible, to find any
orchestra in which the playing was controlled by a musician who did
nothing but beat time and indicate by gestures how the music should be
interpreted.6
In the previous century, the musical direction for a performance had normally come from
either the concertmaster or the continuo player, the continuo player often being the
composer himself. However, over the course of the 19th century the demands of music
making and the growth of the orchestra made the presence of an extra musician to keep
5 Elliott W. Galkin, A History of Orchestral Conducting: In Theory and Practice (New York:
Pendragon Press, 1988), 241.
6 Adam von Ahn Carse, The Orchestra from Beethoven to Berlioz: A History of the Orchestra in
the First Half of the 19th Century, and of the Development of Orchestral Baton-Conducting
(Cambridge: Heffer & Sons, 1948), 289.
3
things in order and provide musical direction a necessity. This was a gradual process and
initially concertmasters and keyboardists would simply beat time where necessary and then
return to playing their instrument. The composer Louis Spohr was one such musician who
began his career leading from the concertmaster’s chair. However, during his time as
Kapellmeister at the Frankfurt Opera (1815-1817), he often dispensed with his instrument
and began conducting with a baton in front of the orchestra.7 Several other composers soon
followed suit, including Weber, Spontini and Mendelssohn. When Mendelssohn took over
the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1835 he quickly dispensed with the tradition
of the concertmaster as director and conducted with a stick. This was not altogether popular
Despite these initial misgivings, Schumann would later conduct his own symphonies, albeit
with mixed success.9 By 1850 some form of time-beating was quite common, though the
concept of the conductor as we know it had not yet arrived, as it was not seen as a role
which required specialisation and was primarily seen as a way of keeping a performance
together.
Where possible, the conductor was the composer himself. Hector Berlioz often took to
the podium himself to conduct his compositions, and was one of the first to define the role of
The conductor should see and understand; he should be agile and vigorous;
he should know the composition he conducts and the nature and extent of the
instruments, he should know how to read a score, and should possess, in
addition to the special talent and the constituent qualities we are about
to explain, others which are almost indefinable, and without which an
impalpable barrier arises between him and those whom he directs, the faculty
7 Carse, 299.
8 Carse, 305.
9 Carse, 363.
4
of transmitting to them his feelings is denied him, and therefore power and
authority, the directive action, completely escapes him.10
It is remarkable that these comments were made when the art form was still in its infancy,
and yet, they still ring true over 150 years later. One of the most dominant examples of the
composer/conductor in the second half of the 19th century was Richard Wagner, who took
composition, the orchestra, and the nature of music drama itself to new heights. Due to the
relatively free nature of his works, there was no longer any question of whether a conductor
was required or not – it was an absolute necessity. Hence, the concept of the conductor as
specialist began to emerge, the most famous practitioners being Hans von Bülow, Arthur
Nikisch and Hans Richter.11 This was the beginning of the end of the composer/conductor
When Wagner relinquished his baton to Richter in 1877, his act symbolized a
transformation in the practice of conducting which was confirmed during the
final quarter of the nineteenth century: by 1900, Kapellmeister-conductors, ie
composer-conductors as exemplified by Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and
Sergei Rachmaninoff typified a waning tradition.12
Thus, the twentieth century had arrived, and with it the new profession of the conductor.
With conducting now a recognised practice in its own right, the issue of how to become
a conductor arose. The idea of actively training conductors was slow to come about, it being
assumed that conductors should simply learn by first-hand experience. In 1887 aspiring
American conductor Walter Damrosch wrote to Hans von Bülow asking for lessons. Von
Bülow, who was also a renowned pedagogue of the piano, was surprised by the request. He
replied, ‘In what way do you conceive that your wish can be fulfilled?’13 Gradually, however,
the idea of teaching some of the basic elements of conducting emerged. We know, for
10 Hector Berlioz, The Conductor, The Theory of his Art, trans. John Broadhouse (Michigan:
Scholarly Press, 1970), 5.
11 It should be noted that Hans von Bülow remained well-known as a pianist, in addition to his
activities as a conductor.
12 Galkin, 583.
13 Alan Walker, Hans von Bülow: A life and times (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 346.
5
example, that Hans Pfitzner taught a conducting class as early as 1905 in Berlin,14 and
Vincent d’Indy began teaching a conducting class in Paris in the same year.15 These early
attempts at formalising conductor training spread only gradually throughout Europe. In 1909,
Franz Schalk was appointed to lead a conducting program at the Hochschule in Vienna, and
in 1919, Adrian Boult began teaching conducting at the Royal College of Music in London.16
However, very little source material has been uncovered detailing what form these early
conducting classes took, and in what context they were administered. We can assume from
the writings of people such as Hermann Scherchen that any conductor training that did take
place in the early part of the twentieth century was of a fairly rudimentary level by today’s
including in tertiary syllabi around the beginning of the 1930s. One particularly notable
appointment was that of Fritz Reiner as Director of Orchestral Studies and Conducting at the
Curtis Institute in Philadelphia in 1931.18 However, it was not until after the Second World
War that the formal education of conductors flourished, with some form of training becoming
the norm at universities worldwide. As such, the beginning of the twenty-first century seems
to be an appropriate time to look back over this period and assess the strengths and
weaknesses of various programs and approaches that have developed throughout the
In order to teach conducting, the role of the conductor, and hence the skills and qualities he
or she should possess, need to be defined. Due to the complexities of the job, this in itself is
14 Peter Heyworth, Otto Klemperer: His Life and Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1996), 20.
15 Harold Farberman, ‘Training Conductors’ in José Antonio Bowen (ed.), The Cambridge
2005), 66.
6
not a straightforward task, as Nikolai Malko, one of the great conducting pedagogues points
out:
Conducting is the most complicated and the most difficult form of musical
performance. One psychologist has in his lectures referred to conducting as
the most complicated of psycho-physical activities, not only in music but in life
in general. Be that as it may, conducting has been formulated upon a basis of
theoretical analysis less than any other musical activity.19
Whilst the movements a conductor makes may seem relatively straightforward to the casual
observer, this is merely the external, visible manifestation of the many complex internal
processes that occur both in the moment of performance, and during the period of
preparation for a particular work. To learn a score thoroughly and develop a musical vision
of a piece, a conductor should have a wide array of knowledge, skills and abilities at their
disposal. American composer/conductor Gunther Schuller identifies the varieties of skills and
19 Nikolai Malko, The Conductor and his Baton (Copenhagen: Wilhelm Hansen, 1950), 11.
20 Schuller, 3.
7
Figure 1. Skills contributing to the art of conducting. Source: Author.
The sheer scope of these individual skills and capabilities begs the question as to whether
they can, in fact, be taught. Clearly, some of these skills are able to be taught. Most teachers
agree that the physical aspect of conducting can largely be dealt with, and there is no
question that areas such as music theory, history, orchestration, languages and repertoire
can be learned. Aural skills can be developed, as can general musicianship. However, other
elements, such as leadership qualities, charisma, and general communicative abilities may
Leopold Stokowski’s position can be said to be typical of those doubting the value of a
8
Conductors are born, not made. No amount of academic education can make
a real conductor out of someone who is not born with the necessary
qualities.21
He goes on to temper this stance to a certain extent, acknowledging that certain aspects of
However, Stokowski feels that there are important aspects that defy formal instruction:
These views are still held by many, including some who actively teach conducting. British
conductor Christopher Seaman has taught master classes on several continents, and
You can help people with skills. You can help people get an orchestra
playing, you can help people interpret a piece, but there’s an essential bit
that’s a gift and unteachable. It’s a certain unknown quantity whereby
somebody can make it happen with an orchestra. But even if someone has
that special something, there’s a very great deal they have to learn. In their
background, in their knowledge, in their skills and what they do physically
while they’re conducting. You can’t have that gift with no accompanying
skills.24
According to Seaman, someone who has these special ‘gifts’ can still benefit greatly from
further training. A gifted young conductor might still be well advised to spend some time
studying in order to maximise their potential, and increase their chances of success during
21 Bamberger, 202.
22 Bamberger, 202.
23 Bamberger, 202.
24 Christopher Seaman, interview by author, Hobart, 10 February 2012.
9
the early stages of their career. Lutz Koehler, Professor of conducting at the University of
The answer is not too easy, because there are different sides that you can
look at in the teaching of conducting. I look very much after the development
of the conducting technique – there are certain fundamental rules, just about
moving, which creates this or that result. If behind that, there is a real
musical, gifted personality … So in that sense I would say that yes, one can
teach conducting. What you can’t teach is the ‘aura’ you need as a conductor.
For example, I never forget when Bernard Haitink said about the appointment
of Simon Rattle in Berlin ‘I understand this so well, this man is a perfect
communicator’. This you can’t learn. You must have this talent and then you
can develop it, but that you can’t teach.25
Whilst Koehler views the technical aspects of conducting as being essentially teachable, he
defines this special and unteachable quality as the ‘aura’ of a conductor. He also quotes
example of someone who has an easy way of communicating with his musicians, whether it
be through gesture or words. Perhaps one could also replace the word ‘aura’ with
‘charisma’, and this is often cited as being a desirable quality for any conductor to possess.
conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, concurs with this view:
What I cannot teach you is charisma. I can teach you tricks – what works and
what doesn’t, but if you don’t have it, that’s what I can’t give you.26
As Stringer points out, tricks can be taught and good habits relating to body language and
other elements can be encouraged, but if a conductor already has these attributes, so much
the better. To what extent we can attempt to teach this and other problematic aspects of
Yes, conducting can be taught, to the extent that anything can be taught,
certainly any instrument. What you can do as a teacher is you can say - here
According to Thakar, conducting can be taught just as it is possible to teach any particular
musical instrument. One could argue certain aspects of musical performance that apply to
instrumentalists just as much as conductors, are unteachable, as is probably the case for
many artistic endeavours. However, the conductor, unlike the instrumentalist, must engage
with other human beings simply to produce sound. It is in this area of human interaction that
most of the questions arise as to the ability of the art to be taught. Thakar underlines that the
achievement of these goals is finally up to the students. He can point them in the right
direction, but it is up to them to make the journey. Perhaps the tertiary-level conducting
professor must often play the role of mentor, rather than the role of teacher as it might be
literally defined. Johannes Schlaefli of the Zürich University of Arts certainly holds this view:
If the role of the conducting professor is to act as a coach through the learning process, it
surely falls upon the school to provide the best possible environment for learning. Tertiary
music schools are well placed to educate an aspiring conductor in the ‘things around the
thing itself’, and should also be able to provide the aspiring conductor with the thing that they
structures and the resources required are far more complex than what is necessary to
educate an instrumentalist, and are therefore unique within the context of tertiary music
education. This study investigates the ways in which seven of the leading conducting
schools in the world have tackled these challenges, and details the learning environment
Research Questions
In order to clearly define the aims of this study, the following research questions were
developed:
1. Which are the leading tertiary institutions training orchestral conductors today?
2. Has it been demonstrated that conducting can be successfully taught in the framework
3. If so, which aspects of conducting can be taught in this context and which cannot?
4. What structures have leading music schools put in place to achieve their goals in
conductor training?
training?
implied that other forms of conductor training are of no consequence, or that a formal
developed their skills through a mentor relationship with a senior member of the profession,
or by learning through trial and error in the profession itself. The potential career paths for
12
the aspiring conductor are many. However, with 129 tertiary music schools offering degrees
in conducting in the United States alone, it is clear that this activity has proliferated in recent
The thesis engages with all aspects of the delivery of the conducting programs chosen
for investigation, with the primary emphasis resting on course structures and methods of
delivery. The specifics of how teachers deal with the physical aspects of conducting are
touched upon, and some specific approaches are investigated in more detail. It must be
acknowledged that a detailed analysis of how each individual teacher approaches the
physical aspect of conductor training is beyond the scope of this study. Whilst most
conducting professors have some basic principles regarding the physical aspect of
conducting, many specific issues are dealt with on an individual basis, as and when they
arise in the classroom. A thorough and detailed analysis of each pedagogue’s classroom
methods would therefore require several months of observation. Given the desire to present
a broad overview of practices in tertiary schools, it was not possible to spend this length of
time at every school. However, these issues were dealt with as much as possible in the
conducting is presented in Part One and examples of particular interest are highlighted in
Part Two.
Thesis overview
The thesis is divided into three main sections. Part One – Institutional Approaches,
discusses the challenges involved with conductor training, and sets forth the various
challenges which a tertiary music school aspiring to offer an advanced orchestral conducting
29
Brian Allen St John, A study of master's degrees in orchestral conducting in the United States
(DMA dissertation, Arizona State University, 2010), 4.
13
1.1 Undergraduate versus postgraduate programs
It presents the views on these key issues of many leading conducting pedagogues, including
conducting professors of the schools investigated, and details their thoughts and responses
This establishes the context for Part Two: Institutional Case Studies, which details the
institutions, and compares and analyses the information collected. The emphasis in Part
Two is placed on structures, curricula and methods of course delivery at these institutions,
and gives a detailed description of the learning environment which each school provides to
their conducting students. Each of the seven schools is given its own section as follows:
St Petersburg, Russia
These schools were selected based on their reputation within the conducting world, and the
fact that all seven can point to a demonstrable track record of successful graduates who
14
work at a high level in the professional conducting arena. The selection is intentionally very
international, and entails a number of different approaches to conductor training that are
pursued around the globe. Some of these schools, such as the Rimsky-Korsakov St.
training, adhering to long held traditions, whilst others, such as the Zürich University of Arts,
It must be acknowledged that other schools worthy of investigation have not been
included for various reasons, not least of all the need to contain the study to a realistic field
of view. The Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, for example, is a school with a long and
currently going through a period of transition with the recent retirement of Otto Werner
Mueller, and Mueller has a strict policy of not giving interviews. As such, it did not seem
appropriate to include the school in the present study. Other schools worthy of note that
have not been examined are the Paris Conservatoire, the Royal Academy of Music, London
and the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. The Royal Northern College of Music
in particular is well known for its Conducting Fellowship program, which gives the selected
Fellows stipends and a generous amount of conducting experience working with the
College’s orchestras and ensembles. However, this is not a degree program, and in many
ways can be viewed as a program bridging the gap between conventional studies and the
profession itself. As such it was felt that it did not fit within the designated boundaries of this
studies. Programs in these institutions are by and large quite similar, and are designed with
a view to providing students with an opportunity to develop their conducting and piano skills
before entering the German opera house system. At the present time, no one German
school stands out above the rest, and in general, there is a lack of orchestral time offered to
students, with most of the teaching done with two pianos. As such it was decided not to
15
It was originally intended to include the Toho School of Music in Tokyo in the
investigation. This school, founded by Japanese pedagogue Hideo Saito, has produced
many leading Japanese conductors over the last forty years, including Seiji Ozawa and
Tadaaki Otaka. Sadly, the conducting program of the Toho School has fallen into a state of
disrepair, with no students majoring in conducting when the present author visited Tokyo in
November 2011. The leadership of the Toho School indicated a desire to restart the program
in the future.
Part Three draws together the information presented thus far. Section 3.1 presents an
overview of the information gathered in Part Two, and a summary of what currently
presented. Section 3.2 then looks to the future of conducting pedagogy and identifies areas
requiring further investigation, which are currently neglected. Based on the investigations
undertaken up to this point, Section 3.3 presents a detailed proposed structure and
curriculum for a tertiary level orchestral conducting program. The author has attempted to
keep budgetary considerations for the proposed course realistic, so that this may act as an
Final conclusions and a summary of findings are then presented, and an assessment is
Methodologies
Due to the scarcity of literature on the subject of conductor training, the thesis is based
chiefly on primary source material. New primary source material has been generated in the
form of interviews with current and former conducting teachers of the seven institutions
selected for study. These interviews have been conducted in person, and the author has
travelled to the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Finland, Russia and
Japan in order to do so. Some follow up interviews have been conducted via Skype, and
16
circumstances dictated that one conducting professor was also interviewed using this
method.30 In all cases but one, the schools themselves have been visited by the author,
allowing the possibility to observe classes, and to interact with students and associated staff
other than the primary teacher.31 Selected conductors and conducting teachers not
necessarily associated with any particular institution have also been interviewed in order to
give a broader view of the challenges involved in conductor training, and to provide an
objective outlook on courses available. A list of all persons interviewed for the project can be
found in the Appendix. Existing primary source material in the form of course curricula has
also been used, including syllabi and pedagogical resources written and used by teachers
Though only occasionally drawn upon directly, the literature that does exist on the
subject of conductor training has served as a background for the entire thesis. This
literature, and the present study’s relationship to it, is examined in the following literature
review.
30Professor Uroš Lajovic of the Vienna University of Music and Arts was interviewed via Skype.
31The Zürich University of Arts was not visited in person as Professor Johannes Schlaefli was in
Helsinki at the same time as the author. Hence the interview was conducted in Helsinki.
17
Literature Review
The literature regarding high level orchestral conductor training is surprisingly thin. A great
deal has naturally been written about individual conductors themselves, as they have risen
to a place of central importance in the classical music world in the twentieth century, as
Since the conductor has become the most frequently publicized of all virtuosi,
there are many writings intended for commercial purposes, containing
information of only superficial value.32
Biographies, hagiographies, articles, abound on the subject of the ‘great’ conductors such as
Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Georg Solti and Simon Rattle. According to Finnish
The concepts of mythical maestros and great conductors that were invented
and developed further during the twentieth century, can still be detected
beneath the new, more critical surface of the writing about and discussion of
conductors. In a way conducting and conductors have been almost sacred
subjects, not even to be touched on a very profound level.33
As Konntinen points out, much of the existing literature regarding conductors simply
perpetuates the ‘maestro myth’, and rarely attempts to go beyond the external, glamorous
image of the conductor, analysing the processes which are involved in the art form, and
identifying what makes a particular conductor unique. Perhaps this is partly because of the
view widely held by the public (and encouraged by many maestros) that the art form is
unteachable and that they are only able to do what they do by some form of God-given
talent. Given the true complexity of the art of conducting, it is clear that there is much room
for further research and investigation into many aspects of the profession. The literature
32 Elliott W. Galkin, A History of Orchestral Conducting: In Theory and Practice (New York:
nature by established practitioners of the art also exist, giving advice on different aspects of
the profession.
In recent years, a number of texts have been produced which engage with the specific
challenges of training conductors. Whilst the handbooks mentioned above are aimed at the
student of conducting, these texts, which primarily take the form of doctoral theses or
research papers, engage with the subject from the point of view of the teacher. At the time of
writing the coverage of this area can be described as sporadic at best, particularly in relation
the present work is based largely on primary sources, and aims to make a significant
contribution to this area of research. Nevertheless, several texts of direct interest do exist,
In 2013, little has changed in this regard. At the highest level of conductor training, it seems
most teachers have only an approximate knowledge of what other schools and teachers are
doing, particularly in other countries. Heron continues to give a broad outline of structures
and approaches in various parts of Europe and North America, and then examines the
19
Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the St Petersburg Conservatory in more detail. Given
internationally. Unsurprisingly for a work of this scale, it lacks depth and goes in to few
details. No schools were visited, and much of the material was gathered through interviews
with recent students who remain anonymous. Nevertheless, it was the first work to take a
step back and provide a broad view of high-level conductor training activities. Heron also
raises the question of whether a tertiary education can provide sufficient preparation for a
conductor, and briefly addresses the issue sometimes referred to as ‘bridging the gap’
between the education of a conductor, and the requirements of the profession itself.
Brian Allen St John provides a similarly broad overview of conductor training activities in
his DMA dissertation, A study of masters degrees in orchestral conducting in the United
States.36 St John’s paper focuses entirely on the United States and identifies 129 Masters
level conducting programs throughout the country. He then summarises the curricula
offerings of three particular schools are then examined in isolation (Peabody Institute,
University of Michigan and the University of Texas), but only as far as their course outlines
training in America, and in particular, highlights the sheer number of schools where
conducting can be studied at this level. The list of schools in itself is a useful resource for
future researchers, and some of the statistics extracted from the data are of interest; though
as they are largely based on information sourced through the internet, their accuracy cannot
be guaranteed.
Also in the United States, Virginia Allen examines conductor education from a different
36
Brian Allen St John, A study of master's degrees in orchestral conducting in the United States
(DMA dissertation, Arizona State University, 2010).
20
orchestra conductors.37 Allen begins by emphasising the broad range of abilities expected of
today’s professional conductor, and points to a 2008 strategic plan written by the Curtis
Though some American conservatories would surely dispute this claim, Allen presents a
persuasive argument for broadening the content presented in many postgraduate orchestral
conducting programs. The study is based on seven in-depth interviews with professional
American orchestra conductors of varying levels, and aims to deduce what they perceive
their responsibilities as professional conductors to be, and where, when and how they
learned the skills necessary to deal with these responsibilities. In her conclusions, Allen
states:
…most of their critical learning experiences occur in college and in the early
career years. These are challenging times when conductors need the most
support, yet they no longer have the support system of teachers, colleagues,
and friends they had in college… Another challenge during this time occurs
when conductors begin to realize that gaps in their academic training have
left them unprepared for many responsibilities they assumed in the
workplace.39
Much of Allen’s work is aimed at addressing this issue of ‘bridging the gap’, as raised by
Heron. She recommends that music schools should help students to develop the self-
learning skills that they will need upon entering the profession, and that curricula should be
rehearsal skills and social skills. Some of these recommendations (such as fundraising and
social skills) are of particular relevance to conductors working in the American market, but
21
Continuing the theme of possible new directions in conductor training, Alan Baker Lee’s
higher education, is an oft-cited work in the conductor training literature.40 The title, however,
is somewhat misleading, in that Lee does not conduct an investigation and analysis of
and well-argued, with a particularly interesting section on the internal and external
motivations of conductors, and provides suggestions for improving conductor training based
on the teachings and writings of singer/actor trainer, Wesley H. Balk. This work is one of
several that have appeared over the last thirty years, arguing that conducting pedagogy
should look to other disciplines, such as acting, dance or theories of movement, when
exploring possibilities for the teaching of the physical aspects of conducting. Two works that
stand out from this group due to their high quality are Charles Gambetta’s, Conducting
Outside the Box: Creating a Fresh Approach to Conducting Gesture Through the Principles
movement and non-verbal communication can enhance expressive conducting at all levels
conductor training could benefit significantly from adopting Laban Movement Analysis, a
system ordinarily used in dance, to describe and inform the movements of conducting
students. However, one wonders if adopting such a system might ultimately place an extra,
and unnecessary, impediment between the student’s gestures and the intentions of the
composer. Mathers, on the other hand, takes a broader view, examining the movement
theories of Laban, Dalcroze, Delsarte, Alexander and Feldenkrais, and suggesting potential
Gesture Through the Principles of Laban Movement Analysis (DMA dissertation, University of North
Carolina, 2005).
42 Andrew Mathers, How theories of expressive movement and non-verbal communication can
enhance expressive conducting at all levels of entering behaviour (PhD dissertation, Monash
University, 2008).
22
applications for conductors. The section examining the issue of kinaesthesia in general is
particularly interesting, and this study would be an excellent starting place for anyone
interested in this particular field of research. While of limited use in the core of this study, the
potential of some of the ideas expressed, in particular the idea of looking to other disciplines,
will be discussed in Part Three, ‘Potential new directions for conductor training.’
Two European studies are of particular relevance to this study, as they investigate
Germany and Finland, with a view to discovering what the German Hochschulen can learn
from the Finns.43 Hammerschmidt argues that German schools should offer their students
more time conducting orchestras (like the Finns) and that there are ways to achieve this
which need not be prohibitively expensive. He maintains that the Kapellmeister system,
whereby young conductors learn by starting as a repetiteur and rising through the ranks
through the opera houses is not as relevant as it once was, and Hochschulen should be
more open-minded about the future career-paths of their students, and place less emphasis
on them having keyboard skills. It is difficult to argue with Hammerschmidt’s first point
regarding the lack of direct orchestra contact in many German programs. However, his other
findings are likely to have been controversial in Germany. The study seems to begin with the
premise that conductor training in Finland is intrinsically better, and of course, making
comparisons between one school of a dozen students and the twenty-four schools of a
much larger country, is problematic. Whether one agrees with the final conclusions arrived at
or not, a large number facts and statistics are presented in the argument, detailing the
approaches taken to conductor training in both countries, particularly from a structural point
of view.
insights into the specific timeframe when Jorma Panula was professor of conducting at the
Sibelius Academy.44 A significant portion of the work is based on interviews with Panula
himself and many of his most successful students, and there are many details sourced from
this material that have given the present work an extra level of depth, particularly in matters
relating to Finland. As well as examining the practices of Jorma Panula, a large part of
Kontinnen’s thesis examines conducting from a sociological point of view and engages with
the mythology surrounding the ‘great conductor’. The other side of the thesis examines
conducting from a practical point of view, with a stated ultimate goal of analysing the
physical gestures of a conductor and in so doing, ‘to look for the practical core – here
understood as the reverse side of the myth – of the profession.’45 Kontinnen’s work is
thought provoking and raises many important issues along the way. Ultimately though, her
aim of providing a meaningful analysis of the physical gestures of conductors proves too
ambitious. Written in 2008, the study virtually ignores all activities at the Sibelius Academy
after 1993, and only seeks the views of Finns who studied with Panula during this period,
despite numerous foreigners also being present, giving the study a monocultural feel. It
seems that the works of both Hammerschmidt and Kontinnen suffer to a certain degree from
a lack of critical objectivity towards conductor education in Finland, and are too ready to hold
The bulk of the established literature on the subject of educating and training conductors
consists of instructional manuals aimed at the aspiring conductor, or in some cases, aimed
at the author’s less well-informed colleagues. Whilst these works are only occasionally
24
referenced in this thesis, they provide a wealth of background information on the subject in
general, and represent the bulk of the published literature dedicated to the study of
conducting. Two of the earliest examples of instructional manuals of this kind are L’art du
chef d’orchestre by Hector Berlioz46 and Richard Wagner’s Über das dirigieren, both from
the second half of the nineteenth century.47 These relatively brief works (that of Berlioz was
first published as an extension to his orchestration treatise) give a fascinating insight into the
culture of orchestral music at the time and are of significant historical interest. Berlioz gives
much practical advice, much of which is still relevant today, whilst Wagner’s essay concerns
itself mostly with issues of interpretation, philosophies of music making, and the political
situations in German opera houses at the time. Felix Weingartner, one of the leading
conductors of his era, published his own essay entitled Über das dirigieren, in 1895.48 This
text concerns itself mostly with issues of interpretation and style, with particularly interesting
critiques of his well-known contemporary Hans von Bülow, whom Weingartner felt took too
many musical liberties with the scores he was conducting. Weingartner himself was one of
the leading teachers of conducting in the early 20th century, having taught Hans Swarowsky,
As the profession of conducting became more established in the first half of the twentieth
century, more detailed and substantial works began to appear. Perhaps the leading work to
come from this period is Hermann Scherchen’s seminal book Lehrbuch des Dirigierens, first
published in 1929 and since translated into several languages.49 This book examines the
technical aspects of conducting and goes into significant detail regarding the workings of a
modern orchestra, and what skills a conductor must possess to be successful. Of particular
the whether or not conducting can be taught, and presents a strong case for the active
training of conductors. He discusses common attitudes of the era to this question in his
introductory remarks:
How does one learn to conduct? The current answer is by ‘acquiring routine'
– which means, by being let loose, without technical knowledge, on works,
orchestra, and audience, in order to acquire through 'experience', in the
course of long years of anti-artistic barbarity, the tricks of the trade.50
Of course, there may be some skills that a trained conductor still needs to acquire through
experience, but hopefully, the years of ‘anti-artistic barbarity’ will be few. It seems Scherchen
found little support for his views amongst his colleagues at the time:
Scherchen states in clear and simple terms that conducting can and should be taught.
Having been one of the leading teachers of the time, he felt his own experiences
It is clear from Scherchen’s writing that his approach to teaching conducting was to play the
score at the piano himself, following and interpreting the student’s gestures, and that this
was considered the norm.53 That this would today be considered inadequate as a basis for
50 Scherchen, 3.
51 Scherchen, 3.
52
Scherchen, 4.
53
Scherchen, 20.
26
tuition demonstrates how far the education of conductors has developed, particularly in
It is also interesting to observe the differences between Scherchen’s book and its more
recent equivalents. Whilst the former does discuss the physical aspects of conducting in
some detail, a great deal of it is spent examining the workings of the orchestra in an
extended section entitled ‘The science of the orchestra’. This is in contrast to today’s
textbooks, which usually spend a great deal of time investigating the physical movements of
the conductor, but only touch upon the workings of the orchestra. This work is still
considered an important reference for students of conducting and remains widely available.
Nikolai Malko’s The Conductor and his Baton (1950), on the other hand, is one of the
first to go in depth into technical details, and like Scherchen, makes the case that conducting
should be taught:
Malko goes into far more detail than Scherchen in his suggestions for physical movement,
and gives exercises designed to assist the student in achieving a well-balanced technique.
The work is of particular interest as Malko is an important figure in the history of conductor
training, having been the founder of the conducting school at the St Petersburg
Conservatory in the 1920s, and having trained key pedagogical figures such as Ilya Musin
and Nikolai Rabinovitch. This is an excellent book, but it is unfortunate that it is currently out
of print. Perhaps because of this, it has not received the full attention it deserves. He states
in his conclusion to the work that it is part one of a larger work, The Fundamentals of the Art
of Conducting, but sadly, he did not live to complete the second volume. However, the parts
54 Nikolai Malko, The Conductor and his Baton (Copenhagen: Wilhelm Hansen, 1950).
27
of the work he had completed were gathered after his death and published in 1975 in The
A shift in tone is discernible in the texts written in the second half of the twentieth
century. This is perhaps due to the study of conducting becoming more formalised, and
beginning to appear regularly on the curricula of music schools throughout the world. One
such university oriented text is The Modern Conductor: a college text based on the principles
of Nicolai Malko, by Elizabeth Green, first published in 1961.56 Green, herself a recognised
teacher at the University of Michigan, studied with Malko and assisted him in the final editing
of his work. Her own book has undergone several revisions since its initial publication and is
currently in its seventh edition. It is worth noting that the work bears little resemblance to
Malko’s, though some of the underlying technical principles may be the same. The text has
become ubiquitous in tertiary music schools, and is a reliable resource for an undergraduate
non-major conducting program. Green differentiates between the science of conducting and
the art of conducting, and firmly believes the former can be taught.57
One of the texts that dominates this period is Max Rudolf’s The Grammar of Conducting,
first published in 1950, and revised in 1980 and 1995.58 Like Malko’s book, it explains the
standard beating patterns, and lays out approaches to many of the technical challenges that
a conductor will face in the established orchestral repertoire. Rudolf also goes on to discuss
balance issues, working in opera, and general musical challenges. It is clearly written with a
classroom setting in mind, and remains at the forefront of texts relating to conductor
education today, over sixty years after its initial publication. It can comfortably serve as a
background text for teaching at all levels, but is particularly suitable for more advanced
55 Elizabeth A. H Green and Nicolai Malko, The Conductor and His Score (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1975).
56 Elizabeth A. H Green, The Modern Conductor: a college text based on the principles of Nicolai
50-56.
58 Max Rudolf, The Grammar of Conducting: A Practical Study of Modern Baton Technique, 3rd
The book can be considered then as a guide for a student who is at the beginning of a long
journey, with their formal education being just the beginning. Rudolf’s writings read as if this
In 1956, Hideo Saito published his treatise, The Saito Conducting Method, published in
its English translation in 1988.60 Saito was a leading figure in Japan’s musical life following
the Second World War. A cellist and conductor, he founded the Toho Gakuen School of
Music, and taught many of Japan’s most famous conductors including Seiji Ozawa, Tadaaki
Otaka and Hiroshi Wakasugi. Saito’s book articulates a highly detailed technical approach to
conducting, which is primarily concerned with the motions of the right arm and hand. Whilst
diagrams of ‘beat patterns’ are common in conducting treatises, Saito was the first to include
the velocity of the baton at any given moment of the beat through the use of thinning and
thickening lines. This is of crucial importance to the ‘Saito method’, which is largely based on
the changing velocities of the conducting arm. At the beginning of the 21st century, the
method is rarely taught in its entirety, although it is widely known thanks largely to Seiji
Ozawa’s classes at Tanglewood. Many teachers adopt certain techniques from it for
illustrative purposes.
One of the most influential teachers in the history of conducting to date, Ilya Musin,
taught at the St Petersburg Conservatory in Russia from 1932 to 1999. A former pupil of
Malko, Musin developed his own distinct, methodical approach to the technique of
conducting as well as most other aspects of the art. 1967 saw the publication of the first
59 Rudolf, 412.
60 Hideo Saito, The Saito Conducting Method, Wayne Troews (ed.) (Tokyo: Min-on Concert
Association, 1988).
29
edition of his magnum opus, The Technique of Conducting, which underwent further
development throughout his life.61 In the book he lays out his approach in exhaustive detail,
with particular emphasis on his thoughts on the role of the upbeat in conducting. The depth
and detail of material presented is such that many students may find the work somewhat
found in the form of a DVD, filmed in the last years of his life. In the opening segment of the
video, Musin says, ‘Beating time is simple, however expression is important and adding it is
difficult.’62 This simple sentence says much about Musin’s approach, as the video
demonstrates his continual searching for expressive possibilities in the music being
performed. The DVD contains six hours of footage, much of which is Musin explaining his
method directly to the camera, interspersed with examples of him teaching in his studio. The
his key writings. Whether a student is wishing to learn the ‘Musin method’ per se or not,
there is a treasure trove of information and advice to be found in this resource. Sadly the
DVD is no longer in print, although it can be found in many university libraries. To date,
Musin’s writings have not been published in English and, as a result, have been unjustly
pupil, Oleg Proskurnya, and the current author is thankful to Mr Proskurnya for allowing him
access to this text. Other notable works by Musin include The Education of a Conductor 63
Also worthy of mention is Score and Podium by Frederik Prausnitz, published in 1983.65
Prausnitz was an important teacher in the United States, and taught at two of the schools
investigated in this study: the Juilliard School in New York and the Peabody Institute in
Baltimore. The book is unique in its content and, as its title suggests, is devoted as much to
61 Ilya Musin, Tehnika dirizhirovaniia [The Technique of Conducting] (Leningrad: Muzyka, 1967).
62 Conducting lessons of Professor Musin, dir. Vitaly Fialkovsky, DVD (St.Petersburg: Compozitor
Publishing House, 2006).
63 Ilya Musin, O vospitanii dirizhiora [On Educating a Conductor] (Leningrad: Muzyka, 1987).
64 Ilya Musin, Lessons of Life (St. Petersburg: Muzyka, 1995).
65 Frederik Prausnitz, Score and Podium (New York: Norton and Co., 1983).
30
how a student should learn and digest a score as it is to the physical aspects of conducting.
The most important objectives in our study will involve those disciplines which
enable you to absorb and work with information available in the score; and
the development of simple physical skills which, with a clear understanding of
the principles governing the beat, enable conductors to maintain a flow of
signals from the podium.66
Whilst the book is in many ways a personal statement of one man’s view of the art, it
provides advice on a blend of skills that cannot be found elsewhere. Regrettably, it is not in
print at the time of writing, and one hopes that Norton will re-issue it at some stage in the
future.
In 2009, the successor to Prausnitz at Peabody, Gustav Meier, published his own book
entitled The Score, The Orchestra, and the Conductor.67 Meier’s contribution to the
discipline, however, is very different from that of Prausnitz. Meier’s work can be said to be a
highly detailed guide to all practical aspects of conducting, from approaches to score study
and preparation, seating arrangements, through to technical issues, and advice on handling
tempo changes. It also includes an extensive appendix detailing all manner of instruments
which a conductor may encounter in an orchestra. Due to this technical emphasis, and the
A number of books of note exist aimed at the aspiring conductor that cannot be classified as
Orthodoxy for Musicians remains a classic of the conducting literature and essential reading
66Prausnitz, 3.
67Gustav Meier, The Score, the Orchestra, and the Conductor (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2009).
31
for any conductor.68 Leinsdorf does not engage with any of the physical aspects of
consequence’.69 Rather, the book is about the score and how it should be interpreted, and
advocates the importance of musical literacy. It is a wonderful insight into the thinking of an
old world maestro, and his insistence on a disciplined and respectful approach to the score
Less well known is The Psychology of Conducting by Peter Paul Fuchs.70 Fuchs was
born in Vienna and emigrated to the United States shortly before the Second World War,
joining the music staff at the Metropolitan Opera. It is not a book on psychology in the
modern sense of the word, but rather details a working conductor's experiences in the
profession, and his subsequent reflections on the most challenging aspects of it. It covers
many areas and includes practical advice for conductors embarking on a career of the sort
Though not necessarily aimed specifically at students (or teachers) of conducting, this book
has much to offer the aspiring conductor. It is divided into three distinct sections - in Part I
Schuller imparts his philosophy of conducting, and also advocates a thorough course of
Talent may be innate, inborn, even inherited; but talent, no matter how great,
needs to be developed, nurtured, and honed.72
Schuller goes on to give fascinating insights as to what the role of a conductor should be.
Part II examines the history and development of conducting as an art form from the early
eighteenth century to the present day. Although not nearly as detailed or extensive as Elliot
68 Erich Leinsdorf, The Composer’s Advocate: A Radical Orthodoxy for Musicians (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1981).
69 Leinsdorf, 168.
70 Peter Paul Fuchs, The Psychology of Conducting, (New York: MCA Music, 1969).
71 Gunther Schuller, The Compleat Conductor (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).
72 Schuller, 3.
32
Galkin’s landmark work on the subject, Schuller gives the subject his unique perspective.73
Part III which forms the main body of the work, takes a selection of pieces from the standard
repertoire, and then dissects the recordings of these works made by many leading
conductors. Whilst this final section may at times seem like a diatribe against conductors
more successful than Schuller, the student of conducting can learn much from his reasons
Summary
All of the above-mentioned textbooks, and more general books aimed at the student of
conducting, have been written by experienced conductors. In some cases the authors have
dedicated their professional lives to teaching and have presided over prestigious tertiary
level conducting programs. Despite this, the authors rarely delve into the challenges of
teaching conducting, and the texts remain firmly aimed at the student thirsty for knowledge.
Issues relating to the delivery of a conducting program, such as course structure, length of
studies, the appropriate age for studies, and approaches to classroom teaching, are not
discussed. While each book gives us a picture of what the author believes a young
conductor should be striving for, none of the texts advise the teacher of conducting or a
school of music how to set up a program that will help the student achieve these goals. This
The proliferation of doctoral studies over the last thirty years has led to this issue gaining
some attention in the academic literature. The surveys of Heron and St John provide a
cursory overview of conductor training activities, but do not examine any school’s
approaches in real depth. Kontinnen has investigated Jorma Panula’s tenure as conducting
strategies adopted for conductor training in Finland and Germany. However, no study to
73
Elliott W. Galkin, A History of Orchestral Conducting: In Theory and Practice (New York:
Pendragon Press, 1988).
33
date has analysed the challenges confronting a tertiary level conducting program, and
schools. This study fills this gap, and in so doing, provides a valuable resource for any
34
Part One: Institutional approaches
The challenges facing a music school wishing to offer an advanced conducting program are
numerous. Such schools normally have established programs for instrumentalists. However,
the structures and resources required to implement a successful conducting program differ
substantially from those of other music students. Part One identifies these specific
challenges, and presents the thoughts of leading conducting pedagogues regarding potential
solutions. As well as being valuable in their own right, these discussions also serve to
provide a context for the case studies of specific schools presented in Part Two.
35
1.1 Undergraduate versus postgraduate programs
One of the first issues a music school designing a conducting program needs to address is
whether the course should be offered at the undergraduate level, postgraduate level, or
both. In the English speaking world, tertiary level conducting programs are almost
conducting programs are common, with postgraduate options often being offered as an
extension. Underpinning this question of the level of studies is the issue of what age is the
most appropriate to study conducting intensively, and whether there is such a thing as being
The other question that needs to be considered is the length of studies. A Bachelor
degree will ordinarily be three or four years in length, whereas a Masters degree may only
be two years in duration. For Lutz Koehler who leads an undergraduate conducting program
in Berlin, this is an important issue, and is one reason why he favours the undergraduate
approach:
I want to give them a chance to study for a long time, there’s the repertoire [to
learn]. The Masters is only two years, you can’t build up a repertoire in two
years.2
The standard repertoire that a conductor should at least be familiar with is enormous and the
two year duration of a Masters program, as Koehler points out, does not give much time to
digest a broad and encompassing repertoire. Mark Stringer also presides over an
The younger the student for me the better, if they’re talented, because there’s
real potential there. It’s practical – the profession prefers younger people. By
25 in this profession you are fairly over the hill, and yet we are letting people
in at 25 and I keep saying, ‘What’s the point?’ They are not going to get the
beginning jobs in the opera houses.3
more exaggerated in recent years. Jorma Panula, Professor of conducting at the Sibelius
Academy in Helsinki from 1973-1993, is famous for taking this youth approach to extremes
and is actively involved in training Finns still in their early teens through his ‘Noordisokappu’
or youth class. This is an official class at the Sibelius Academy which high school students
can apply for, and meets for three hours on most weekends. Students are encouraged to
bring their instruments and play for each other, while Panula plays the piano. As far as
Panula is concerned, the only pre-requisite for joining is that they are highly proficient on an
instrument and have experience playing in an orchestra or ensemble.4 The advantage of this
approach is that the students can be encouraged to develop good habits on the podium at a
young age. The very existence of this class also sends out a message to young Finns that
conducting is something that can be considered as a potential career option, and gifted
students can be identified at an early stage of their development. These gifted students can
then be guided towards the Sibelius Academy’s full time conducting program, which is
offered at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Leif Segerstam, Professor of
conducting at the Sibelius Academy from 1997-2013, agrees with Panula’s youth approach,
The other issue Segerstam points to is the student’s level of musicianship. Regardless of a
and be in the process of developing their own, distinct, musical point of view. However, not
everyone in Finland agrees with this ‘ultra-youth’ approach. Atso Almila, Panula’s long-time
4
Jorma Panula, interview by author, Helsinki, 3 November 2012.
5 Leif Segerstam, interview by author, Helsinki, 30 September 2011.
37
Jorma – and I understand him – wants to give as young as possible these
basic skills and I feel that you should be the same age that you can drive a
car. So it’s a question of this maturity with other people… I’m not sure if he’s
right or if I am right, but I haven’t taken to my courses anyone who is under
eighteen, unless there is a really good reason.6
Almila’s analogy with being, ‘the same age that you can drive a car’, is an interesting one.
responsibility to that of driving a motor vehicle and the aspiring conductor must be ready to
I see his point because he is very worried about the future of the whole
teaching and so worried about if the right musicians understand early enough
that they would have possibilities this side. But I also see sometimes that
people might come from these directions and then they have to face a very
different and dangerous world and they are still like children. Then it’s a huge
responsibility for us who take care of them later, to make them understand
that this is not playing anymore. This is for real and people might eat you
alive.7
Panula’s idea seems to be to plant the seed of interest in conducting early, whilst
has to be said that this approach has been successful at producing many young talents, with
conductors such as Mikko Franck, Pietari Inkinen, Santu-Matias Rovali and Eva Ollikainen
all entering the profession at a notably young age. But there are significant dangers, as
Almila points out. The world of professional conducting can be a brutal one and any
conductor entering it in their late teens or early twenties will need to possess unusually thick
skin for their age to survive. Classical music agencies are famous for thrusting young artists
into challenging situations and then stepping back to see if they sink or swim. If they swim, a
great career may beckon, but if not, a talented musician’s career may be over before it has
begun. As Almila says, it’s not child’s play once things reach that level, and negative
student that lasts for many years. This may be particularly so if he or she has spent their
advantages to giving young teens some tuition, caution must surely be exercised, and
James Ross, who co-directs the Juilliard School’s postgraduate conducting program in
I think for the particular qualities that leadership of orchestras requires, it’s
kind of a rare person who’s younger than about twenty who can take that on
in such a way that they’re able to play or experiment with that side of the
role… Until you’ve already excelled on an instrument or made music with
other people at a high level and really, I think we’re looking for people in our
program who play something really well. So for me, twenty is early enough.
That’s a good age. It’s OK to be interested in it prior to that and to get excited
by it, but actually when you’re up doing stuff much before nineteen or twenty,
I’m not sure it does you so much good.8
Twenty is probably the youngest age that a student would normally enter a postgraduate
instrument first is a good idea. Few students will have the possibility to make music, ‘with
other people at a high level’, before entering an undergraduate program.9 It seems that Ross
is also looking for a certain level of personal maturity when he speaks of the leadership
qualities necessary for the job, and again, this points to a postgraduate level program.
Kenneth Kiesler teaches such a program at the University of Michigan, where a Masters
degree and Doctor of Musical Arts are offered. He also believes postgraduate studies are
preferable:
There is a certain level of maturity that comes with pursuing an education for
a while and growing up a bit, becoming socialised, becoming aware of so
many other issues that are extra-musical and non-musical, that are so
important to conductors.10
Kiesler speaks of ‘growing up’, ‘becoming socialised’ and ‘issues that are extra-musical and
non-musical’. It is a common view that the student should have had time to become a well-
39
rounded human being with a variety of experiences, as this perhaps will aid them in having a
Johannes Schlaefli’s program at the Zürich School of Music is unique in the sense that it
offers studies at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, but the emphasis is very much
on the latter. In most German speaking schools this emphasis is reversed. He explains why
this is the case and how he has approached the problem of undergraduate studies:
Effectively then, a Bachelor level conducting student in Zürich will do a ‘double-Major’ and
have two areas of specialisation for three years. This seems to be an attractive compromise
for the student who has the ambition to enter a conducting program straight out of high
school, and allows their general musicianship to develop alongside their formative attempts
at conducting.
Much like Lutz Koehler, Schlaefli sees the problem of just doing a Masters degree,
believing two years is not enough time. In Zürich this problem is solved by offering a second
‘specialised’ Masters degree to students who need more time. In the United States it is
relatively common practice for students to pursue a doctorate in conducting for another three
years following on from a Masters, usually in the form of a Doctor of Musical Arts
(abbreviated and henceforth referred to as a DMA). Of the schools investigated in this study,
both the Peabody Conservatory and University of Michigan offer DMA programs.
Is there then an age at which it is too old to begin studies? Alexander Polishchuk of the
Polishchuk sees some physical obstacles for late starters. Markand Thakar has similar
views:
There is that expression: ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.’ I have found
that the more solidified someone’s habits are and understandings are then
the harder it is for them to change... Physically because in very real terms, it’s
about releasing tensions. But the older you are, the more tensions that you
have ingrained, the harder it is to release them. I think musically it’s similar.13
Whilst an older student may bring a wealth of experience to the podium in a variety of areas,
developing good physical habits (and undoing bad ones) may be a challenge. Polishchuk
mentions the age of thirty-five and this does seem like a reasonable age to suggest as the
outer limit for obtaining a formal degree in conducting. Of course, there will always be
exceptions to the rule and the lack of a formal qualification in no way precludes somebody
made the switch from soloist to conductor at a relatively late age, bringing with them their
heightened musical sensibilities and established reputation with the concert-going public.
However, it is not unusual for these musicians to struggle with the physical aspect of
conducting, and have difficulties finding appropriate gestures to communicate their musical
vision.
course, will depend on several issues, including the quality of potential applicants at a
particular age, and the potential career paths students may follow upon graduation. It seems
the general consensus is that somewhere around twenty is an ideal age to begin studies
seriously, with the possibility of beginning studies at a younger age under the right
fierce, with the ratio of applicants to students accepted sometimes being 15 to 1 or more.14
Which prospective students the school decides to accept will have a significant impact on
the kind of conductors that graduate from the institution. Some institutions place the primary
emphasis in the audition on skills such as score reading at the piano, ear tests and general
knowledge, with the actual act of conducting playing a relatively minor role in the selection
process. Other schools are more interested in the skills of the candidate displayed whilst
conducting, while at the same time taking into account other background skills. Thus the
skillset of new students can vary enormously from one school to another. This will naturally
have repercussions for the program itself in terms of what skills students need to develop
through their studies, and also says something about the basic ethos of the programs
themselves.
Each of the schools investigated in this study has an extensive audition procedure for the
selection of students, these processes being detailed in Part Two. Whilst the mechanics of
this procedure are certainly of interest, perhaps of greater importance is the question of what
qualities the teacher is looking for in the candidates throughout this process. Kenneth Kiesler
I think the number one thing I’m looking for is potential. Often there are
people who conduct reasonably well and they want to come to a school, not
really to learn, but for affirmation, confirmation. I’m not too interested in that.
I’m more interested in people who will work, who show all of the attributes in
terms of skills that one would expect from a conductor.15
more interested in people who may have specific qualities, even if they need a good deal of
I’m looking for people who embody the music when they conduct. I find it very
difficult to teach certain things. If someone is completely detached and
completely cold and the face never moves and the body never moves and
they’re making motions in the air, they’re not going to get in to this
institution… It could be just a seed that I see or a kernel, but there has to be
something.16
As will be discussed, Kiesler has a unique approach to encouraging students to ‘be the
music’ and develop this emotional contact with the music. Nevertheless, he feels the need to
see some form of involvement and empathy that he can begin to work with. Kiesler is very
candid in saying, ‘I find it difficult to teach certain things.’ He implies that in those areas
which are difficult to teach, he would like to see some evidence of talent or ability already
visible in the potential student. Perhaps what each teacher looks for in the audition process
is in a way a reflection of their views in regard to which aspects of conducting are more
teachable than others. Leif Segerstam expresses similar views in terms of connecting with
the music:
There has to be the personality that you see in front of the orchestra, do you
see the music in the person? But mostly they perform and they conduct and
we see how the hands go and if it is really terrible then you can leave them
out.17
Segerstam is looking for a degree of physical co-ordination as well as seeing ‘the music in
the person’. When pressed on the issue of whether he feels you can teach this latter quality
he replies:
No. This is what we do when we take them in… You have to see that the
wonder of music is in that personality, which is not yet ripe and has not
studied, but this… the glow, the musical forces which come in different
repertoire and is supposed to then be ignited and inspired from the podium
place, then we have to see that there is potential for it.18
16 Kiesler.
17 Segerstam.
18 Segerstam.
43
Much like Kiesler, Segerstam needs to see potential or a ‘kernel’ of this particular quality.
Additionally, he acknowledges that this is largely because he can’t teach it, if it does not
It’s a mixture of things. Of course I like a very good honest personality, a very
good musician and that there is this urge within him or her, all these things,
but that’s very natural. And then in terms of conducting, I would call this thing,
‘if somebody is able to touch the sound.’19
Schlaefli is not the only interviewee to use the term ‘touch’ in relation to sound. Much as a
pianist is often said to have a good ‘touch’, a similar thing can be said for conductors.
Essentially, a conductor can be said ‘to touch the sound’ if his or her gesture has a strong
connection to the sound produced by the musicians. The word ‘touch’ implies that this
relationship with the sound may occur on a very subtle level and also suggests some level of
Markand Thakar from the Peabody Conservatory also speaks of the candidate’s
I look for someone who responds to sound… I mean is open to sound, allows
the sound to enter, connects to the sounds and resonates with the sounds
and thus can have some value added. In other words, it goes through the
conductor and the net result is something more musical, something helpful to
the musical process. Rather than someone who’s not listening or not
open…20
This developed relationship with sound is something that many teachers are looking for in
potential students. A student who is not listening will obviously struggle to have any kind of
interaction with the sound that the orchestra or ensemble is producing. To an extent, this
may come from the student’s feeling of being overwhelmed at the first encounter with an
problem lies deeper than this. Lutz Koehler in relation to this issue comments:
Sometimes you find people who have practised it enormously, but that they
don’t react to what they hear from your little orchestra.
19 Schlaefli.
20 Thakar.
44
There is always a possibility that a student may come with a thoroughly rehearsed
executed regardless of the results the orchestra is producing. The relationship between
conductor and orchestra, however, should be a reciprocal one. Whilst the conductor must
realise their inner vision of a particular piece of music, that does not mean he or she should
simply extrapolate that vision into gesture and then conduct with the expectation that the
orchestra will fully realise that interpretation. The conductor must engage with the sounds
James Ross of the Juilliard School gives his thoughts on the audition process:
When a conductor stands on the podium, the observer should have a clear picture of what
they stand for as a musician and their ’vision’ of the work being performed. Someone who
has ‘musicianship in their belly’ as Ross puts it, will be able to give life to the music in a way
that another, who is simply going through the motions, cannot. This inner musical impulse is
The people who didn’t make it… for one reason or another, we could feel like
we were just a little bored with how it sounded after five or ten minutes of
them being up there and if we’re bored with them in an audition setting when
they’re heightened and when everybody’s going like this, that’s not a good
sign for how we’ll feel about working with them over a course of a year.22
Ross wants to be drawn in and engaged by a student on the podium, much as an orchestral
21 Ross.
22 Ross.
45
Some professors are looking for a quality that they feel is very hard if not impossible to
define. Imre Pallo, formerly of Indiana University and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music is
one of those:
A person whom I see that by his or her standing up there, something changes
in the orchestra. Not even that they know how to do it. I am not awaiting if
there is such a thing as conducting technique which I very much question…
what I’m looking for is the inexplicable I think. That there is something that
they are doing there which I feel as I said that the musicians react differently
than just, they start playing because. Sometimes it is because that person
confuses them, but if I see that there is a will behind it which causes that
confusion, then I say, ‘I can fix that’, but I see something there which I believe
makes a conductor.23
This ‘inexplicable’ thing is something most conductors and conducting teachers can probably
identify with. Pallo says, ‘something changes in the orchestra’. This change is most easily
discerned when a number of conductors come to the podium to do the same piece of music
between conductor and orchestra, and the potential reasons for this are numerous. It may
be due to the student’s personality, body language, gestures, use of the eyes, musical
imagination, willpower, or some combination of all of these things, and perhaps others as
well. Some have even suggested that the best conductors are in fact psychic, though
a conductor is of someone who is an extrovert, outgoing and oozing confidence. But as any
orchestral musician will attest, many conductors are not like this at all. If there is such a thing
as an ideal personality for a conductor, then surely this is something that must be kept in
mind during the audition process. Johannes Schlaefli gives his thoughts on the issue:
More and more I start to believe that there is not an ideal personality. It can
be so amazing. We had one of my students when he came, he was really a
shy personality… you would have said he is a very good musician and he has
a very good feeling for the sound, but I think he doesn’t have this certain thing
in his personality we expect a conductor has to have. He would have been
23
Imre Pallo, interview by author, Sydney, 7 July 2011.
24
The Art of Conducting: Great Conductors of the past, dir. Gerald Caillat, Videorecording
(Hamburg: Teldec Video, 1994).
46
the perfect example for this. Nowadays he is a G.M.D. [General Music
Director] and everybody likes him.25
Perhaps the young conductor does not have to have the exuberance of a Bernstein or the
natural authority of a Karajan to be successful in this day and age. Indeed, many maestros
can come across as shy and even introverted away from the podium. However, Schlaefli
There must be somehow an urge, a fire. In German we say, ‘es brennt unter
den fingernägeln’ [it burns under the fingernails] … I think that’s maybe the
nucleus that somebody has this fire, this longing for a sound that is written
down in a score, that this sound, this piece should have this and this sound
concept and the urge to hear it like this and because of this, you have to
conduct until you hear what you heard inside….if that’s not the case then
nobody should become a conductor.26
In other words, a burning passion for the music itself and an unrelenting desire to hear this
music played as the conductor has imagined it. Christopher Seaman concurs with the
A bit of hellfire in the guts, as it’s called, that has to come out. And
temperament. Most people have temperament, but not everyone can access
their temperament, and in teaching I always try and get them to access their
temperament.27
This is an important point and an area where the teacher can be of assistance. A student
may have very strong feelings for the music and possess the inner fire which Schlaefli
speaks of, but it may not be apparent to the orchestral musicians. The student may not be
showing these things in their own subtle way, but needs to be more demonstrative.
Undoubtedly, even students who might describe themselves as shy or reserved can develop
and overcome any issues in this area, should the fire and passion for the music which
25 Schlaefli.
26 Schlaefli.
27 Christopher Seaman, interview by author, Hobart, 10 February 2012.
47
Jorma Panula suggests that a conductor should be modest, perhaps not always a quality
The best qualities are modest, but decisive. Modest and honest. And
pleasant, never negative. Positive way. This is most important.28
Here Panula is referring to modesty in the context of the conductor’s relationship with the
composer and the music itself, believing the conductor should put the voice of the composer
before their own. This may also come back to a question of motivation and why the student
wishes to become a conductor in the first place. Certainly the general consensus amongst
conducting pedagogues seems to be that the conductor should be there primarily out of love
for the music and the art form itself. Students who are there purely and simply for an ego trip
will not last long. Panula also speaks about being positive rather than negative and here he
psychology of rehearsing.
Ultimately, we are who we are. As Fuchs states, ‘For better or for worse, a conductor has
his own personality, and that is the only one he can work with.’29 But it would seem that any
itself, the main pre-requisite being simply a passion for the music and an ability to
communicate it. Indeed, perhaps a diversity of personalities is a healthy thing for the
profession, as Almila says, ‘It’s a richness that the personalities are different and it also
Clearly there is much for a teacher of conducting to consider during the audition
procedures, and the importance of making the right decisions at this stage cannot be
underestimated. A school may only accept two to three new conducting students every year,
and it is therefore vital that all students have the right ingredients to grow in that particular
conducting program. It should also be remembered that high-level conducting programs are
28 Panula.
29 Peter Paul Fuchs, The Psychology of Conducting, (New York: MCA Music, 1969), 58.
30 Almila.
48
resource intensive and the school is therefore making a significant investment in each
student.
Ultimately, it seems that most teachers are looking for students who are able to connect
with the music in some way, have clearly formed musical ideas, aren’t afraid to be
themselves on the podium, and are able to influence the sound of the orchestra for the
better.
One of the greatest challenges facing aspiring conductors is the lack of ready access to their
instrument: the orchestra. Whereas a violinist or pianist can practise and interact with their
instrument at any time of their choosing, the conductor is often forced to make large
compromises and make do with whatever resources might be available. As Stringer points
out:
Leading Australian conductor and educator Graham Abbott concurs with this view:
Something that’s audible that will respond to the gesture is what you need.
Conducting in silence is good, in my opinion, to a point, because to develop
clarity of gesture is very important. But then you need to quickly get to the
point where you have to get some reaction to those gestures. You’ve got to
find out what works.32
small chamber orchestra still requiring the gathering of around twenty instrumentalists.
Professional orchestras of any size are unlikely to take a chance on a conductor who is
unproven and is still very much a student of the craft. Putting student conductors in front of a
31 Stringer.
32 Graham Abbott, interview by author, Adelaide, 3 November 2010.
49
student orchestra is also problematic, as these students have an understandable
For any conductor training program, the issue of what to give conducting students to practise
on is a huge one and is without doubt one of the fundamental challenges facing a
conservatory or music school setting up such a program. However, all of the institutions
examined in this study have been able to find some form of solution to this issue. The ideal
solution, of course, is simply to give the students a full-sized professional orchestra with
which to work, as suggested by Ginsberg above. However, this is naturally very expensive,
and in today’s budget conscious tertiary education sector, an extremely rare thing indeed.
Perhaps it is not surprising that the only school that comes close to this is in Russia, where
labour is still relatively cheap and unions are not as well established. The St Petersburg
Conservatory has provided a professional orchestra for the use of conducting students since
the 1960s.34 ‘The conductor’s orchestra’, as it is known within the school, plays for three
hours in the morning, six days a week during term time. A more common approach is that
which is found at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. There, a chamber orchestra of around
twenty-five players is formed from current and recent students, with those students being
paid an honorarium. The orchestra is thus less expensive than a fully professional orchestra,
but still provides the conducting students a good level instrument on which to practise. For
the instrumentalists playing in the orchestra, this is an activity that falls outside of their
curriculum and is not a part of their studies, but nevertheless also gives them the chance to
expand their repertoire. A similar system exists at some other schools around the world,
including the Juilliard School in New York, the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore,
33 Elizabeth Green, ‘On the teaching of conducting’, Music Educator’s Journal 47/6 (1961), 56.
34 Leonid Korchmar, interview by author, St. Petersburg, 25 October 2011.
50
and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Australia. In German speaking countries a
common solution is to hire an existing professional orchestra for short, intense periods of
work on an occasional basis.35 The regularity of this contact, however, can vary significantly
Even at the very best schools in the world, a conducting student should be very happy to
have forty minutes of orchestra time a week. These minutes spent with an orchestra are
therefore very precious, and most schools look for ways to prepare their students before
they stand in front of the orchestra itself. For as long as conducting has been taught, the
most common way of doing this has involved the student conducting two pianos, usually
playing from a special arrangement of the score for four hands. Lutz Koehler, Professor of
This session with the two pianos is their first meeting conducting-wise with
certain pieces, because then they can try out all of their mistakes - to do that
with an orchestra is too expensive. For example, the fundamental questions
of upbeat, or which upbeat for that or that or that. This is a preparation for
conducting an orchestra, it’s not a replacement.36
This more informal setting with two pianists as opposed to an orchestra is therefore a good
place to experiment with different approaches, both technical and musical. Time is less of an
issue, and there is the possibility of going into detailed discussions on certain points that
may not be appropriate in a situation where twenty-five paid musicians are present.
However, as Koehler implies, there are limitations to what can be achieved in this setting
and the degree to which two pianos can simulate an orchestra. Christopher Seaman, Artistic
We can do quite a lot, but two pianos is a very different form. In a small
ensemble there are a dozen musicians, or a big orchestra, 50, 70 or 80
musicians. You’re lifting a heavier animal, and therefore different skills are
needed and you have to project further. You have to throw your personality
over a longer distance. So you can only get so far, but you can still achieve a
lot.37
35 Koehler.
36 Koehler.
37 Seaman.
51
As Seaman points out, the weight of the sound of an orchestra is a difficult thing to simulate
with two musicians and the sensory experience of conducting two pianos, as opposed to an
orchestra, will inevitably be very different. Seaman also talks about having to ‘throw your
personality over a longer distance.’ This can involve the physical aspects of conducting, but
Whilst two pianos may ultimately be a rather poor substitute for an orchestra, this
configuration is the most common found in conducting classes around the world today, as it
is practical and affordable. However, who is playing those two pianos does vary from school
to school and this can have a large bearing on the quality and value of the experience for the
students. Some schools, such as the St Petersburg Conservatory and the Juilliard School,
have two professional pianists who play for all of the conducting classes, and this brings
obvious advantages. These pianists are of a high technical level, are accustomed to
following a conductor, and may even have developed the ability to ‘play like an orchestra.’ In
other words, they are able to simulate the weight of the sound of an orchestra and its
inherent lag in response. In Vienna, however, the students of Mark Stringer play the piano
for each other. A regular class will involve five students, and at any given time one will be
conducting and four will be at the piano, in this case playing from full score rather than a
piano reduction. The advantage of this system is that the students are learning how it feels
to follow a conductor, and at the same time are deepening their knowledge and familiarity
with the score through playing it. At Juilliard a hybrid approach is taken, with two
professional pianists playing an arrangement, whilst two students join them at the piano
playing from full score adding extra layers of texture, perhaps bringing together the best of
both worlds.
Some, however, reject the concept of working with two pianos completely, as they feel it
is inadequate or, worse still, encourages negative habits. Professor Johannes Schlaefli of
the Zürich School of Music is one of those who no longer believes in working with two pianos
alone. He explains:
52
Even if the piano player is very much aware of how an orchestra sound
reacts to the beat, even then the sound is too direct. It just gives the hand [of
the conductor] the wrong information. When we have strings and winds and
then also pianos to fill out [the score], still the main sound is gestrichen und
geblasen [drawn and blown]. It’s such a different concept of how the sound
reacts to the hands, and that’s what they have to get used to.38
This issue of the directness of sound that Schlaefli refers to is one of the fundamental
problems of the piano as substitute for an orchestra. The piano produces sound through a
hammer strike and therefore generates an essentially percussive effect. Though this can no
doubt be tempered in the hands of a talented player, it is a far cry from the many possibilities
that an orchestra is capable of producing. In short, the sound of a piano will always begin
with some form of attack, whereas the sound of an orchestra will more often than not have a
It’s very limiting because we can’t deal with so many issues, you know,
balance and blend and intonation and all sorts of things that we can’t do
fully… everything’s percussive, there’s no sustaining, there’s no line or little
line. Not very productive. When I teach in programs where they use
exclusively two pianos, I find they don’t know very much about string colour.
They’re not aware of breathing issues and articulation and how intonation
effects balance and how balance effects intonation, all of these things that we
can do with different players.39
guest are interesting. The implication is that these students are losing a large part of the
picture of what it is to be a conductor and what their full responsibilities are on the podium. In
a situation where a school relies solely on pianos, great care must therefore be taken to
ensure that students are fully aware of all the issues involved in the functioning of an
orchestra that they are not able to experience directly. Perhaps with careful guidance and by
attending orchestral rehearsals as observers, such students can overcome at least some of
these problems. Both Zürich and Michigan instead use a small ensemble of five to ten
38 Schlaefli.
39 Kiesler.
53
In Helsinki, the Sibelius Academy also avoids having two piano sessions. Instead the
students all bring their respective instruments to a special preparatory session and play for
On the piano with two players or four players, the sound is a dead sound. Is it
a string sound or winds together? A small ensemble is much better. Three
different instruments playing is better than four people playing the piano.
Having strings is most important.40
In addition to working with some form of small ensemble, the student may spend some
time with his or her teacher conducting in silence, simply imagining the music in their heads
and moving their arms without having anything in front of them with which to interact.
Opinions are divided as to whether this is a worthwhile exercise or not, but most teachers
seem to feel that something can be gained, particularly if the student in question is
encountering specific challenges relating to the physical aspects of conducting. This work
tends to be done on a one to one basis, as circumstances require it. Markand Thakar
observes, ‘What you can do in silence is gain physical control.’41 The acquisition of physical
control is of course hugely important to a conductor’s work. In order to develop this control,
many pedagogues give their students short exercises or drills which they can practise in
their own time on a regular basis. These exercises may develop the student’s flexibility and
awareness of their limbs and fingers, or may develop their ability to utilise their two hands in
Ultimately, most schools deliver their teaching through a combination of work with two
pianos or small ensemble, and work with an orchestra of some form. However, the balance
and specifics of how these are combined does vary significantly from school to school, as
will be detailed in Part Two. Once the student is standing in front of a gathering of musicians
40 Panula.
41 Thakar.
54
1.4 The physical aspect of conducting
It is the physical aspect of the conductor’s craft which is most apparent. Musicians playing
under the conductor need to know when and how to play through the information given in
the conductor’s gestures and, ideally, they should be drawn in to the atmosphere and
general mood of the piece as a whole. Whilst verbal instructions may be given to the
musicians in rehearsal, in performance, all the conductor has to communicate with the
musicians is their physical presence. Over the years a system of beat patterns has become
the established norm and these basic beat patterns are where the absolute beginner
conductor normally starts his or her work. These can be used to establish tempo and give a
pulse enabling the musicians to play together. But as Christopher Seaman states:
Moving your hands around with the right patterns in the air is not
conducting. The feelings in your heart, the rhythm in your guts and the
knowledge in your mind have to get in to your hands.42
Beating time in itself says absolutely nothing about the music, and so the conductor must
develop a gestural vocabulary with which to communicate their innermost thoughts and
feelings, hopefully, in a way that the players will be able to read instantaneously.
A common school of thought defines the right hand as being the ‘time keeper’ whilst the
left conveys more musical qualities, but even this is at best a gross simplification, if not a
thing to learning a musical instrument. According to John Carewe, English conductor and
The great error which most musicians make is that they think of conducting in
the same way as they think of their instrument. An instrument is a dead,
inanimate object, and you have to master it. And because all instruments are
more or less designed the same way, there are techniques which are
universal. You can show a violinist how to use the bow. You can show a
pianist how to use the fingers, always within certain parameters… but
conducting has absolutely nothing to do with a physical technique in that
42 Seaman.
55
respect. I mean, we have to use our bodies because that’s our only means of
communicating, but there is no such thing as a technique.43
A violinist or a pianist is interacting directly with a physical object that has a standardised
size. A pianist will always have to stretch the same distance to play a particular interval no
matter which piano they happen to be sitting at. The conductor’s challenge is altogether
different and the physical possibilities he or she can use to communicate are essentially
infinite, bound only by their own physical limitations. There are no keys to press –
conductors must simply find a way to communicate with the musicians in the most effective
way they can. How a conductor interacts with an orchestra is ultimately rather personal and
conducting teachers:
rare to have the opportunity to hear the same music performed by different conductors with
the same orchestra in a short period of time. The majority of the differences in sounds
produced in this setting are of course perfectly explainable, but there can also be some
surprises – the conductor who produces the best results with two pianos may not be the one
who produces the best results with an orchestra. No doubt the fact that at some level the
interaction between conductor and orchestra is almost indefinable is one of the things that
has led people to say that conducting cannot be taught. Nevertheless, conducting is taught
at a very high level around the world and it is worthwhile to take some time to examine how
conducting pedagogues approach the physical aspect of conducting. Now that the student
work with the young conductor to heighten their ability to communicate with them?
approaches at opposite ends of the spectrum. Musin and Panula have been two of the most
successful conducting pedagogues in the last fifty years. Coincidentally perhaps, they were
virtually neighbours as they taught their courses in St. Petersburg and Helsinki respectively.
However, their pedagogical approach to the teaching of the physical aspects of conducting
Musin taught at the St Petersburg Conservatoire for over fifty years, teaching many of
the most famous Russian conductors alive today in the process. Although he passed away
in 1999, Musin’s legacy and teaching methods are continued by former students, such as
Alexander Polishchuk and Leonid Korchmar, and internationally people often refer to the
‘Musin School’ or ‘Musin Method’. Over his years of teaching in St Petersburg he developed
a very specific system of conducting, largely based on a very detailed analysis of the
function of upbeats. His system is unique in the history of conducting and is one of the few
examples where a detailed, prescribed physical system has created a long list of high-
calibre performers such as Yuri Termikanov, Semyon Bychkov, Valery Gergiev and Tugan
Sokhiev, to name a few. Musin believed the ultimate challenge of conducting was to
combine expressivity with rhythmic precision, believing the two often get in the way of each
other.45
Panula, on the other hand, takes a very free approach to the physicality of conducting
and according to many of his former students, has no particular method.46 Whilst Panula has
a few basic rules, such as good basic posture and making sure gestures are not larger than
necessary, he prefers to use the student’s natural instinctive way of moving as a starting
point and helps them to develop that in such a way that they retain their own unique
45
Conducting lessons of Professor Musin, dir. Vitaly Fialkovsky, DVD (St.Petersburg: Compozitor
Publishing House, 2006).
46 Anu Konttinen, ‘Conductor Education in Finland’, Finnish Music Quarterly, 3 (2006), 50-53.
57
I treat everyone as an individual. They have different nervous systems –
some are quicker, some slower. So they should not beat like me. Not at all,
but clear. What is two what is three? Everyone has their own style little by
little and should not copy or imitate big maestros.47
Another feature of the Panula approach is the extensive use of video as a tool for analysis.
In fact, most of his teaching is done after an orchestra session watching the video with the
student, rather than while they are in front of the orchestra. The use of video as a tool will be
discussed in detail later as indeed will Panula’s claim to having ‘no method’.
For most teachers, the best approach seems to lie somewhere in between the detailed
approach of Musin and the level of freedom espoused by Panula. Schlaefli comments on his
approach:
On the one hand I try to be free and I take it as a compliment that sometimes
people say that my students look very different from each other in the way
they conduct. But on the other hand there are things that I believe are the
same for everyone. It’s part of a body language that the left hand palm up is
always an inviting gesture. And if someone is not aware that if he tries to
encourage a group to play louder and the palm is down, that this doesn’t
speak. It’s like the wrong vowel in a word. That’s for everybody.48
This gesture to which Schlaefli refers is a form of basic body language, and it will carry the
same connotations on the podium that it would in any other situation in society. Hence,
these universally understood gestures could be said to be ‘for everybody’. Of course, how
they are used and in what context could be very personal. Schlaefli gives another example:
If someone conducts very small and goes down with his beat a lot, then he is
so much out of the contact field of his eyes that the musicians will not pay
attention to the beat anymore... That’s for everybody. I believe there are
principles which apply to everyone. But for me, this is the challenging and
interesting aspect of this profession. To find this line between the principles
that the student has to learn and understand and the individual way of this
student. That’s for me the really fantastic and fascinating thing about teaching
conducting.49
47 Panula.
48 Schlaefli.
49 Schlaefli.
58
This dichotomy between building a disciplined structured technique that will work for
everyone, whilst at the same time nurturing the student’s unique musical personality and
methods of communicating that personality, is surely one of the great challenges facing the
advanced teacher of conducting. There is always a risk that by insisting on some technical
indefinable something that gave the observer a window in to what kind of a human being
that conductor is and what they feel about the music at that particular moment. This could be
as subtle as those aspects of body language which help an orchestral player empathise with
the conductor and make a connection on a human level. This is an issue far more important
with their instrument, given that it is an inanimate object. Ultimately, this is something that an
astute teacher must judge on a case by case basis, and as Schlaefli alludes to, there are
One such universal issue that most teachers seem to agree upon is that the student
should have a grounded stance and not move around too much, so that the focus of the
players remains on the hands and the eyes rather than the torso. Mark Stringer elaborates:
I’m very strict that they stay fairly still. I say at some point: yes, use everything
you have and do move around, you’re not going to be a soldier, but before
you move around you have to have a sense of grounding, because the more
you move around the more diffuse your centre is… Bernstein – people say
that he moved around a lot. Not true. He was like a dancer. Simon Rattle also
uses his body like a dancer, he’s always conscious of where his pivot or
fulcrum is, the centre of his weight.51
Whilst some famous conductors may seem to be highly mobile and not at all grounded, they
may in fact be in complete control of what they are doing. At any given moment they are
able to be completely still and focused should the situation demand it. This is in stark
contrast to a student whose extraneous movements are uncontrolled and are not
contributing anything to the music, but are instead diluting their own musical message. Mark
51 Stringer.
59
Stringer, himself a protégé and student of Bernstein gives us a fascinating insight into the
Bernstein, when he taught, hated his own technique. He knew what was good
about it, but as a teaching tool, he hated it... He said, ‘Don’t imitate me, it
works for me and it just doesn’t work for you.’ And what he was always
teaching was the Fritz Reiner technique, in a really bizarre way, completely
channeling Fritz Reiner. Everything was small, everything was minimal,
everything was with the eyes, everything was very cut and dry. And now
twenty one years later I realise why he had to teach that – he was going back
to his ground work. The kind of thing that he could pull out of thin air if he
wanted to.52
Fritz Reiner was renowned for his focused, workmanlike technique, whilst Bernstein will long
be remembered for his active podium presence. But as is alluded to above, underneath the
flamboyance (and indeed grounding it) was a solid, conventional, clean technique, and this
is what the student must have in his or her possession before allowing themselves complete
freedom. Panula also speaks of keeping things small and focused and reminds us of another
…watch how you can make more clear and smaller… Never bigger! It’s not
necessary. Old maestro Szell was very small. You can see this year after
year – what is necessary, [but] what is NOT necessary – even more
important.53
George Szell had a similar reputation to Reiner for his clarity, precision and economy of
gesture. Many young conductors bring a great deal of energy to their work, but through
trying to do too much at once, inevitably lack focus. Hence, students may need to go through
necessary’ and ‘what is not necessary’; taking all of the excesses away until what is left is
Much of the discussion in a class naturally focuses on the conductor’s hands. Generally
speaking, the hands are the focal point of the conductor’s energies, but how the two hands
should work together is an important point for discussion. When the two hands are both
52 Stringer.
53 Panula.
60
simply beating and offering the same information, this is referred to as ‘mirroring’. For many
expressive possibilities of the conductor. Musin was certainly against this approach:
Musin’s comparison with the world of dance illustrates the point well; if the soloists move in
the same way as the rest of the company, they in fact will not be soloists at all. If the
movement is different, on the other hand, it grabs our attention. A common view is that the
right hand should provide the beat in the form of the conventional patterns, whilst the left is
free to be expressive and shape the music. Segerstam gives his views on the different roles
I hate to see right hands that are not calligraphically natural and looking like a
piece of nature, like a tree… I expect that the left hand is not waving
symmetrically in the same movements as the right, it is almost like a monitor,
that you feel the atmosphere, the motivation, the mood or… of course it can
also be a warning thing – not yet, but now! Giving entrances and so on. The
left hand can be really versatile, but the right hand has to be as calligraphic
as the Chinese characters.55
Segerstam’s is a commonly held view. He is renowned for expecting his students to have a
very ‘correct’ right hand in terms of the beat patterns, and it is this to which he is referring
when talking about the need to be ‘as calligraphic as the Chinese characters’. Seaman has
You know the story of the boy who cried wolf? That story applies to the left
hand. If the left hand is moving around all the time and doubling the right, no-
one’s going to look at it. But if you can find somewhere to park it and use the
right on its own some of the time and then when you want something, bring
the left in to action, the orchestra will notice it and react to it.56
61
Less can sometimes be more when it comes to using the left hand effectively, and indeed,
many inexperienced students try to do too much, and end up simply overloading their
However, not everyone agrees with this division of the roles of left and right hands,
some find this approach rather simplistic and limiting. Kiesler takes a less rigid approach
I’m not dogmatic about the left hand, I don’t say it must be independent, you
never mirror with the left hand or anything like that. There are times that
mirroring is very effective. It feels more solid because it’s symmetrical and it
feels good and it looks good and there are times when it’s completely
inappropriate and you need the independence of the left hand. So we work
on the independence of the left hand.57
This issue of independence of the hands is of course not exclusive to conducting, but a
common issue for many instrumentalists, as any elementary piano student can attest to.
Much like a pianist, this independence may take some time for a conductor to develop and
become natural. Kiesler also has a more flexible viewpoint regarding the precise
When I was growing up I learned, be really clear with the beat pattern in the
right hand and be expressive with the left hand. I don’t believe that. I think we
should fill the right hand with as much music and shape and line and colour
as we can, and we use the left hand to either add more or to do something
different. You can do more than one thing at the same time.58
Kiesler clearly sees a danger in prescribing a specific role for either hand. Whilst the right
hand may be the primary way of indicating the pulse of the music, it can also express a great
deal about the character of the music at the same time, and be an expressive instrument in
itself.
Of course, the roles of the hands in communicating musical expression is just one
aspect of conducting technique. The hands and arms are part of the complex physiological
57 Kiesler.
58 Kiesler.
62
system that is the human body, and the body can in no way be left out of our discussion. On
a basic level, we must acknowledge that any movement of the hands or arms must
ultimately originate from the body itself. As such, it is essential that any negative issues
relating to the body must be addressed. Many teachers speak of body tension and the need
The first thing is be relaxed. Second, if you are relaxed, have enough musical
tension inside, but don’t be tensed body-wise. This is, I think, the secret of
conducting.59
The body needs to be in a position to take on various states of musical tension as required
by the music, and in order to achieve this, its most basic state must be one where the
muscles are relaxed. When one is relaxed it is possible to add tension, but if one is naturally
tense then it is extremely difficult to relax voluntarily. The issue of musical tension and the
Many teachers talk about ‘being the music’, with conductors such as Claudio Abbado,
Carlos Kleiber and Carlo Maria Giulini often cited as being good examples of this. These
conductors seem to radiate the music from their physical being. This has long been thought
of as an indefinable quality, and therefore very difficult, if not impossible, to teach, and is
perhaps one of those abilities that conductors are expected to be born with. Some teachers
simply encourage their pupils ‘to be the music’ or say things such as, ‘I want to see the
music’. This makes the student aware of what is lacking, but many may need more help than
this to overcome the problem. One teacher who has a very specific approach to tackling this
The face is usually an outgrowth of what we’re feeling inside. So you first
have to feel something, and then the body shows what you feel – this is the
way it is in real life – and then it comes on the face. And that could be nearly
instantaneous, but it has to be in the body. I learned a huge lesson about this
– actually it was a confirmation – at the Rodin Museum in Paris. In the back
59 Koehler.
63
of the Museum there are these huge gardens and all of his outdoor
sculptures are there. Almost none of them have heads and the ones that
have heads have no faces. You know exactly what each one of them is
feeling, and you know that by how the body is. The contortion, the muscle
tension, the stance, the weight – extraordinary. So the body has to be
involved and it’s a big part of what we do here: to become aware of how the
body’s put together, how it works.60
Kiesler stresses the importance of the body, not only as the source of movement, but as the
origin of physical manifestations of feelings and emotions. He describes how he works with
his students to encourage these feelings to emanate from the right place:
In order to feel something you have to at first be vulnerable. That means you
have to stop putting on a show. You have to stop having mental chatter. You
have to become available to what the music says to you… so there’s practice
to be done off the stage… We do quite a bit of work at the keyboard where I
play, I improvise certain things and people are free to respond how they wish
with the body and the face, and feel, before there’s any gesture. And then to
have the gesture grow from the connection.61
Kiesler’s approach in this area is unique and is certainly a departure from the more
conventional approaches found in most European schools. We are now crossing in to the
realm of psychology, and the issue of how and what we feel and how this manifests itself in
both our emotional and physical beings will vary from individual to individual. Can we teach
someone to feel an emotion? The answer to that question lies beyond the bounds of a mere
To allow ourselves to give in to the music is not always an easy thing to do when our
minds are so busy dealing with the other aspects of conducting. In the moment of
performance these other issues must become so superfluous that only the music is present.
Of particular importance, is the conductor’s knowledge of the score being performed. Not
only must the conductor be well aware of what the composer wrote, but how and why it was
written in this way and what the composer was trying to say. In other words, as well as
60 Kiesler.
61 Kiesler.
64
knowing the score the conductor must have a fully developed interpretation or ‘vision’ of the
According to Tanglewood legend, Serge Koussevitsky was often heard to preach: ‘To
become a good conductor you have to do three things: study scores, study scores, study
scores.’62
For most musicians, the first time they open an orchestral score there is a sense of being
overwhelmed. Instrumentalists are accustomed to reading from one or two staves of music
at a time. However, an orchestral score can easily contain thirty staves, intended to be
digested and understood simultaneously. The conductor has the additional problem that the
preparatory work must all be done before giving the first upbeat, and at this point the music
must be fully absorbed. Panula is clearly an advocate of the Koussevitsky position on this
point:
Most important: study the score, study the score. If you can do this and you
know it by heart, then you can have contact with the orchestra.63
Much like the physical side of conducting, different teachers take varying approaches to
how they encourage their students to approach a score. Some simply leave their students to
find their own way through trial and error, whilst some insist on a systematic approach that
may involve various forms of analyses. Others vary their approach completely from student
to student, as each individual will possess a different set of tools to tackle this challenge.
I try to go through that [score study] with every student, but more on an
individual level because they are so different and they bring such different
experiences. So with some it’s a chat of five minutes and I see, ‘Ahh you do
62
Schlaefli.
63 Panula.
65
that way, this way, this way…. that’s all fine. Go ahead.’ I know then that he
has his tools to discover a score and they are good tools. And with others I
see they know some things to a certain point, but with other things they need
some advice on how they should go on in studying the scores, and then we
take more time… but I don’t do score study as a general thing: everybody
comes to that class, we have five classes and then you know the five steps
how to learn your score. I don’t do this.64
Schlaefli has a relatively small class in Zürich consisting mostly of postgraduates, with
students coming from many different parts of the world. Given this diversity, a flexible,
individual approach makes much sense. James Ross from the Juilliard School Music in New
York also has the luxury of a small class of students, and accordingly allows his students a
A couple of my colleagues I know, actually I admire them for that, have the
twenty-five steps you have to take in order to know a score. You go once
through like this and once through like that, check the instrumentation etc etc.
Wow, OK! And maybe if that does work, it’s the result of twenty-five times
through anything is probably going to be helpful to you in a certain way. But
I’m a little bit more along the lines of Celibidache saying – You just start
reading at the beginning and you get to the end, and you’ve missed most of
what the piece has said. But the next time you go through you start to notice:
‘Oh yeah, there’s that little articulation point, I think this is the same thing that
happened back there.’ And like a string that vibrates as one, it starts to also
vibrate in little smaller parts and then you start to drink in and look at a more
minute level and you find this moment where what’s happening on the minute
level seems to have something to do or play a role with how the structure is
swinging at the largest level, and you know at that point when you’ve got the
small stuff and the big stuff aligning or mirroring each other, as long as it’s a
good piece of music that has those kind of relationships, that you’re actually
understanding what the piece is doing. And I subscribe to that without being
more specific about what they have to do.65
For Ross the most important thing is to spend a good deal of time with the score, and to be
alert and attentive to what the composer has written and is trying to achieve. The emphasis
here is on the need to read and be observant, and to gradually digest more and more details
as the work gradually imprints itself on the individual. Of course, the stronger the general
musical education and background of the student, the more they will be able to digest. In
contrast to the relatively intimate working environment at Juilliard, Stringer has a very large
64 Schlaefli.
65 Ross.
66
group of students under his tutelage in Vienna, and although the age of students varies, the
program is at the undergraduate level. As such, many of his students may be of a relatively
young age and the range of abilities he is working will inevitably be broad. He therefore
takes a more disciplined approach and has a system that he recommends to his students:
You ask the score four questions. First of all you ask what is on the page.
What is there, when it was written or what keys or what instruments or… just
seeing the piece with your eyes as opposed to seeing it with your ears… is
there a dance form behind it? What kind of dance was it? The second
question is something that I picked up from Bernstein and MTT, is looking at
it as a composer – why is it there? Why did the composer choose that note as
opposed to this note? Parallel to that is the third question - what makes it
special? Why do we have to perform the Haffner symphony some 200 years
after it was written. Why do we have to perform that music but we couldn’t
really care less about the Christian Bach symphonies. Is there something that
makes it unique, is there something that speaks for all eternity there? The
fourth question, that you dare not forget before you go in front of an
orchestra, is how does it function. How does it work? Is it in four is it in eight –
the practical things.66
Although it may be time consuming, there can be no doubt that the right time in a
conductor’s career to do this in-depth work is at the beginning, when they are devoting all of
their time and energy to studying the art form. A student who graduates with a thorough
knowledge of the core repertoire will be well equipped to tackle the challenges of the
profession. Certainly, the student who is at the beginning of their journey and finds
themselves unsure how to go deeper in to a score could do far worse than to adopt
Stringer’s method as a starting point, and to develop and refine it over time to suit their own
particular needs. Other students who come to a conducting program with more experience
may have already developed their own approaches, and thus not need such a system.
Kiesler likewise believes in a rigorous approach to score study and takes a keen interest
in how his students approach that. He recalls his own experience as a student:
A huge influence on me, and on many conductors, was Julius Herford, who
was a great pedagogue of not just conductors but musicians at Indiana
University for decades, who taught Foss and Bernstein and Robert Shaw and
many, many others. And that’s centred in score study, that’s centred in a real
66 Stringer.
67
patient, in depth, in between the notes, under the notes kind of study and
that’s a crucial part of what we do here.67
A fairly common piece of advice given to students is to start with the big picture of a piece
and to gradually break it down in to smaller details. To start with the larger framework and
deal with issues such as form and slowly work back to the functions of individual chords.
This would be a normal approach in an analysis class, and indeed most of the schools
examined as part of this study insist on their students taking some form of analysis class as
part of their course, thus equipping the student with some very useful tools to work with.
However, formal analysis is just one part of the process of score study, and cannot give the
conductor everything he or she needs to know. Kiesler likes to take a different approach to
his study and work from the details outwards to the bigger picture.
You hear this frequently – you look at the big picture and then you divide it up
in to the equivalent of plays, in to acts and scenes and monologues and
dialogues and so forth, so you get smaller and smaller. That’s one way to do
it. I actually prefer to start with the detail and work out from that. So, not too
detailed, but phrase structure – is it four bars, is it four times two, is it four
plus four is it varied, is it the same – comparing things… I mean, any
repetition is always helpful to us, it gives an insight and then adding it up and
looking at the bigger picture, then I see these eight phrases add up to this
section, and so forth. And then I think there’s no question that it includes
harmonic analysis. Maybe not functional always, but to always know the
chord and what the chord is... To sing or play every note. If one can do that
all at once, fine. If three parts, two parts…. horizontally as well as vertically,
just so you sing or play the flute part all the way through, patiently even
though you really want to be playing more parts.68
Kiesler says, ‘to sing and or play every note’. How a student achieves this will depend very
much on their abilities as an instrumentalist, and in particular how developed their piano
skills are and whether or not they are masters of the art known as ‘score reading’. This is the
art of rendering a piece of music at the piano in real time, reading from the full orchestral
score, rather than a piano reduction. Stories abound of musicians, particularly in opera
houses, who can play complex scores by the likes of composers such as Richard Strauss
with seemingly little or no effort. This is a special and unique talent that not every student
67 Kiesler.
68 Kiesler.
68
can be expected to possess. However, even for a student with relatively poor piano skills it
can still be beneficial to sit at the piano and play things from the score in whatever way
possible. This helps to develop familiarity with the different clefs and transposing instruments
that exist in a score, and can help the mind to think polyphonically. Obviously, being a good
score reader can be a useful tool in the score study process. But it is no silver bullet, and
some believe there are dangers in relying on this approach too heavily. Pallo comments:
I find that the piano can also get between you and the score, because you
are so worried where your fingers go. I personally believe that you should
learn a score by sitting down in your chair and reading it, hearing it and
learning it. That’s how I learnt and I think this is the thing. Don’t play a
recording, don’t put a technical problem between you and the score… you
can go to the piano, if it seems to be a difficult chord and you think your ears
don’t give it back exactly: ‘Aha! that’s how that chord sounds.’69
It is worth noting that Pallo makes these comments as a pianist who was schooled in Vienna
and came up through the German opera house system. Another point that Pallo makes is:
‘Don’t play a recording’. This is an important and at times controversial point. We live in a
technological age where media of all kinds, including recordings, are freely available. In the
time of Mahler, if you wanted to hear a piece in the comfort of your own home you had to
either sit with the score and ‘visualise’ it in your mind or play it yourself at the piano. Today,
we simply have to press the play button, an infinitely simpler thing to do that requires no skill
whatsoever. If used appropriately recordings can perhaps be beneficial, but there are
dangers facing the student who relies on them too heavily. Opinions amongst conducting
pedagogues differ as to the optimum use of this resource. Panula comments on the
dangers:
Individuality is most important. Do not listen too much to records and dvds
and so on. The score, also one hundred years ago, the score was the only
thing. It was all. Don’t imitate people. Not at all. This is most important.70
One of the dangers in relying on recordings too much is that not only will the student
learn the score itself from the recording, but will learn somebody else’s interpretation along
with it, whether he or she is conscious of it or not. The other, perhaps even more
fundamental danger, is that students will be tempted to make recordings their only study tool
and therefore fail to discover the benefits of digging deeper in to the score in a search for its
inner meaning, and from these discoveries, develop their own personal view of the piece. It
seems fair to say that every conducting teacher has encountered students like this at some
I just find so many people who are just quickly learning a piece and who are
learning it now with their iPhones, not even iPods… and no-one knows what
a CD is anymore…. And so they’re learning it from that.72
The temptation to use recordings as a crutch or a shortcut is not just limited to students. .
Erich Leinsdorf in his highly respected book The Composer’s Advocate begins his text by
telling the story of how he discovered that a well-known American Music Director was
We talked a great deal, and when we retired after luncheons I could hear
through the wall the music from his portable phonograph. Often the same
side (four minutes and twenty seconds in those years) was repeated over and
over. By the time my neighbour departed I had figured out that these
sessions with the Victrola were preparation for his winter season's repertoire.
I was twenty-two, green and provincial, and yet my original awe at having met
a real chief conductor of an American orchestra turned into puzzlement. Why
should a man of such eminence need to learn his music from repeated
71 Ross.
72 Stringer.
70
hearings of other performers? Forty years later such a discovery no longer
surprises me.73
But surely we cannot ignore this resource completely. Whether teachers like it or not,
today’s students have ready access to a vast number of recordings through websites such
as Youtube, Naxos Music Library and download services such as iTunes. So what is the
most constructive way to make use of this library of performances past? Schlaefli gives his
views:
At the beginning I think it’s a good thing that we have this nowadays
[recordings]. Even if you have a very good eye and can read the scores well,
it’s good to have a klingendesbeispiel – an example that sounds. It’s a good
thing at the beginning. And then I think there should be a time with absolutely
no recordings and then the student should make the piece his own. It has to
be eaten and digested and then it has to be in the body somehow. So when
you start to feel that now the piece starts to speak to me, and now I discover
it has to be like this – Then is the interesting moment to go back to
recordings. Then it’s about what other solutions do we have in the world.74
For Schlaefli the recording can be a useful tool to introduce us to the piece, and to help us to
get to know its sound world. However, there then comes a period where serious study must
be undertaken without this aural aid in order to become more intimately familiar with the
material presented by the composer. Schlaefli’s advice to listen to recordings after this
intensive study process is quite common, and often comes with the proviso to listen to a
large and varied selection of recordings. Kiesler relates that during his studies with Carlo
Maria Giulini he asked for his view on this point, and his response was, ‘Absolutely [you
should listen], it’s like having a masterclass with all these great conductors’.75 Larry Rachleff
I try to get them to be very strong with their own analysis, score study, image,
point of view, and then maybe to listen to lots and lots of recordings, rather
than just one or two to emulate.76
73 Erich Leinsdorf, The Composer's Advocate : A Radical Orthodoxy for Musicians (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1981), 1.
74 Schlaefli.
75 Kiesler.
76 Larry Rachleff, telephone interview by author, 19 January 2012.
71
It is safe to say that the vast array of recordings that exist today can be of great use to the
aspiring conductor, but only if used in the right way and at the right time.
One final issue worth considering in relation to recordings is rather particular to the
twenty-first century. Whereas the twentieth century saw the development of high fidelity
recording and playback equipment, our current century is notable for the return to ‘lo-fi’
consumption of audio media, particularly for the younger generation. This is a direct result of
the dissemination of music recordings via the internet, and the rise of devices such as the
iPod. Today even the iPod itself seems like yesterday’s idea and many students turn to
resources such as Youtube when they want to hear something. Mark Stringer makes an
important observation in pointing out the trend towards low fidelity listening and how this is
Students who develop in such a lo-fi environment will have a poorly developed sound
palette, and will not have ears sensitive enough to be aware of subtle changes in texture. Of
course, the best way for them to develop their palette is to regularly attend performances
In addition to this loss of a sound culture, Youtube comes with the added complication
that it provides easy access not just to recordings but also to videos of performances. Thus,
there is not only the temptation to inherit somebody else’s interpretation, but even their
physical gestures.
77 Stringer.
72
Whilst the increasing availability of audio and video recordings of performances may be
a double-edged sword for the aspiring conductor, the affordability and availability of video
The existence of the video camera gives the student an opportunity to view their conducting
from an external, objective point of view that would otherwise not be possible. Panula was
the first major conducting teacher to introduce this technology to his conducting class and
use it as a pedagogical tool. To this day, video analysis is a fundamental part of the teaching
process at the Sibelius Academy, with Segerstam continuing Panula’s approach in this area.
Almila speaks of his years in the conducting class using what was then primitive technology:
It was about ’75 when the videos came and of course the system was very
different, you could watch them only in the Sibelius Academy, you needed
lots of lamps, it was black and white, it was clumsy, it was very difficult to
use…. But Jorma’s basic ideas about videos were that if there’s an argument
that, ‘no I didn’t do’… ‘let’s watch’… Anyone who sees themselves in a video
is a little bit ashamed or afraid - ‘Oh, do I look like that!?’ But then when you
get used to it you can start to use it analysing properly. You can listen to it at
home or watch it with the sound off and see if you still understand where you
are… or if you are an orchestra musician, put it on and try to play one part,
and you notice very quickly where it’s hard to see.78
Almila raises a number of interesting points here, not least that Panula was so keen to
embrace this technology even when it was in its infancy. He relates that if there were ever a
disagreement between teacher, student and orchestra about what was really happening in a
given situation, the video would show the truth to all. It often happens that a conductor feels
they are showing what they want, but does not get the result from the orchestra that was
desired. It could be that the conductor’s intentions were very clear and the orchestra simply
didn’t respond for whatever reason. But more likely, it may be that whilst the conductor felt
78 Almila.
73
they were showing something very clearly, in actual fact that particular gesture or impulse
was not readable for the orchestra. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for a conductor
Almila points out, the first time a conductor sees themselves in action is usually a shock
and can be hard to watch. But the serious student can quickly get over this initial shock and
begin to use it as a tool to see what is really working and what isn’t. It can be used to
address purely technical issues, and also to see whether things like atmosphere and the
conductor’s own feelings in relation to the music are something with which the orchestra can
It’s important to watch yourself on the tape, therefore video is more important
than teacher. So it means you can yourself watch. Critically watching your
own conducting. Therefore sometimes we only have 15 or 20 minutes with
orchestra, so I don’t make some lecture and use people’s time. Conduct,
conduct! Only some 2 seconds… hey watch there. Letter C is wrong - listen.
And later on the tape, we see.79
To say that ‘video is more important than the teacher’ is a very strong statement indeed and
gives us a fascinating insight into the way Panula views his role as a teacher. Panula also
refers to the preciousness of this time working with an orchestra and his preference not to
give a ‘lecture’ which would take up valuable time. For him most of the teaching occurs after
the rehearsal whilst watching the video, leaving the student free to interact with the orchestra
for the maximum time possible. This method has the added advantage of allowing the
student to develop a relationship with the orchestra in a similar way to what they may
encounter in the profession. This is an important point as the relationship between conductor
It is more important that they really have the free time to be in front of a living
orchestra and that’s where they actually learn… this interplay of breathing,
looking, interacting with the body language and then it is so sensitive, you
feel the difference immediately, depending on who stands there in the front.
So having the video allows them to see for themselves, what I am quickly in
not very many seconds… I say one, two, three things and I don’t interrupt
79 Panula.
74
them even if they are really bad, because then we can see here [in the
video].80
Segerstam also prefers not to interrupt too much when students are working with the
orchestra. Another advantage to the teacher taking something of a back seat in these
sessions is that the orchestra themselves may begin to view the person on the podium as
simply, ‘the conductor’ as opposed to, ‘the conducting student’. This again can lead to an
experience for the student which is closer to what they will encounter in the profession.
However, not everybody shares Panula and Segerstam’s enthusiasm for the video
recorder and its active use in class. Whilst at the Sibelius Academy every orchestral session
study uses video to such an extent. Indeed, some teachers prefer not to use it at all as they
believe it over-emphasises the visual aspect of the art. Pallo is one such individual:
I have a problem with mirrors and videos because it’s not a ballet. It is there
[on the podium] that you have to see what you are doing, because that is
what you are doing. You can’t pose. If you are videoing and looking at the
mirror you will pose…. How do I look? Do I look pretty? Is it OK? Does it do
this? While I think it’s action – reaction. And that’s the only way you can
practice that, neither in the mirror, nor with video.81
Pallo is correct to point out that one shouldn’t conduct for the camera, and that there is a
matters. Stringer is another who prefers not to use video as a pedagogical tool. He explains:
When they’re being filmed, it’s like having a second professor in the room,
and giving contradictory advice usually. They will never see the same student
that I see. And so they start making diagnoses and they start fixing things on
their own – not necessarily with the same diagnosis that I would make, and
so I find myself then correcting their corrections as well as the original
problem, and I just find that it slows the work down as opposed to speeding it
up.82
80 Segerstam.
81 Pallo.
82 Stringer.
75
This is a very interesting viewpoint, and Stringer acknowledges his stance is unusual.
Panula himself believes that the act of watching the video and learning from it is a skill in
itself that requires practice, and this is probably why he insists on always being present for
It seems fair to say that the majority of teachers either use video as a pedagogical tool
approach somewhere between that of Panula and Stringer. Christopher Seaman is one of
those who uses it occasionally and insists on having all orchestral sessions recorded, but
There’s one little caveat I have on videos. There are certain things that make
you really you. And they are the very things that when you see them will
probably embarrass you the most. And the danger in looking at a video is that
to make yourself satisfied with what you see of yourself, you throw away
something that is essentially you and in your personality and you can slightly
water it down to a bland acceptability to yourself. We’re all quirky, and when
we see our quirks we don’t like them usually.84
Just as the teacher who takes an overly dogmatic approach to the physical aspect of
conducting may undermine the individuality of the student, the latter watching a video may
be tempted to do the same. Schlaefli uses video in his classes in Zürich, but takes a more
When I started I did [use video regularly], but nowadays I don’t use it so
strictly. Because sometimes I discovered for some students there are periods
where it’s better not to be confronted too much with this image…. On the one
hand it’s a truth, but to go down a new path, to really change into something
new, can mean that in the first moment it doesn’t yet feel good, and it needs
time to grow. And if in that moment the student is confronted with the video….
I also encourage students to watch the video with some distance. Sometimes
I also say, ‘This doesn’t look good on the video, but I remember in the hall,
musically, it was right.’ So don’t worry too much about how it looks. I think
there is a certain danger.85
76
Whilst Schlaefli feels there are times when watching the video may not be helpful, he still
On the other hand, sometimes we also speak a lot about rehearsal technique.
How to prepare an orchestra, how to rehearse. And sometimes I really ask
them – now watch your half an hour rehearsal time from this morning, and
don’t leave out any minute. It will be hard and sometimes you would like to
just fast forward, because you are talking too much, but go through it and
really experience it now from the other side and there I think they can learn
so much. Where is the moment where I interrupted again and again and
where should I have let them play? Where is the moment where I become
unclear because I said the same thing two times, three times? Where is the
moment they don’t understand me because I talk too early? There I think the
video is fantastic.86
teachers choose to actively use this resource or not, nearly all of those interviewed for this
study allow students to record their sessions with orchestra and review them in their own
time. This is a common practice amongst students. Indeed, Thakar observed that his class
at times ‘looks like an Obama press conference’, due to the profusion of recording
equipment in the room.87 James Ross and Alan Gilbert at the Juilliard School take this
approach of leaving video review largely in the hands of the students. This is particularly
This approach of DePriest’s is broadly the same as the approach taken at the Sibelius
86 Schlaefli.
87 Thakar.
88 Ross.
77
Alan and I are interested in a much more active relationship where there are
no holds barred, all the information is public and the orchestra needs to
understand what their role is as well. So it’s not just criticising the conductors
and pretending the orchestra is perfect. But we’re both talkers and sitting
around just watching people not having a good time or flounder or have an
orchestra not know quite what role they’re playing seemed more dangerous
to us... we want to make it fun for the orchestra too. I’d say that’s right there
underneath, we’d like our conductors to improve, and we want the orchestra
to have more fun playing lab orchestra than they ever have doing normal
concerts.89
Ross says, ‘We want to make it fun for the orchestra too’. In principle, of course, one would
always hope that people will enjoy the act of music-making, whatever the context of that
music-making may be. However, a conducting class is an unusual situation for an orchestral
musician to be in. A regular rehearsal has the clear objective of a public performance at the
end of it, so there is a clear purpose for all involved. For a conducting class, however, that
particular rehearsal exists in isolation, with no further goal other than giving the conductors
in training an opportunity to practise their craft. Ideally, the orchestra will feel engaged in this
process and feel they, as orchestral players, have something invested in the potential
benefits of this training. However, there is a danger of the musicians losing interest if they
feel that problems are going uncorrected, or if they are unsure of the exact purpose of these
sessions and have doubts about whether or not anybody is really benefiting from them. For
any orchestral rehearsal, psychological and motivational issues inevitably come in to play
and the conducting class is no exception to that. Additionally, the nature of the orchestra
engaged to play for the class will undoubtedly affect the way this potential problem is
approached and the way the class is run. Of course, if the conducting students are at a very
high level there may be no issues at all in the first place, which is the ideal situation. In the
case of the Juilliard School which Ross speaks of, the orchestra consists entirely of students
and there is clearly a desire to educate these students as well as the conductors
themselves. A professional orchestra, on the other hand, will not appreciate any attempts to
be educated, but may quickly lose interest if they feel they are not being engaged on some
level. There is an increased risk of this if the teacher is saving all comments for the video
89 Ross.
78
session that follows, and if musicians see many errors going uncorrected, they may become
frustrated by the situation. Ultimately this is an issue that the students and teacher together
need to keep in mind as everybody involved will benefit if energy levels can be maintained at
a high level throughout a class. This issue of maintaining energy and concentration levels is
just one of the many skills that students will need in the real world when they must not
One of the most important functions of the conductor is that of leader during the rehearsal
period, and many different skills must come together during these vital hours of preparation
leading up to a performance. Now that the conductor has thoroughly learnt the score, and
developed a vision of the work, he or she must realise that vision with the orchestra, whilst
also helping the musicians to overcome any technical hurdles that are presented. This is not
an easy thing to do well, particularly for a student who is just beginning to work with
orchestras. Australian conductor Graham Abbott goes as far as to say, ‘Performances are
dead easy, it’s rehearsing that’s hard. That’s in the profession the really tough thing.’90
During the rehearsal period all of the conductor’s various skills must come together to make
the most of the time available, and not least of all, his or her particular qualities as a
One of the most fundamental things a conductor must be able to do is to listen attentively
to the sounds that the orchestra is producing. In order to develop the level of playing, areas
requiring improvement must first be heard and identified. For the novice this can be
Why does it happen that a conductor who, if he were sitting in the auditorium
with his score listening to an orchestra, would say at a certain point, ‘The note
in the second clarinet should be C, not C #’, and that the same conductor
remains unaware of this discrepancy when he stands on the podium?91
observer, than it is when you are actually standing on the podium directing proceedings.
According to Fuchs, Erich Leinsdorf used to explain this oft-observed occurrence as follows:
There are many reasons for a young conductor to be ‘overwhelmed by the situation’ as
Leinsdorf puts it. To begin with, a young conductor who has spent most of his time up until
this point conducting two pianos or a small ensemble may understandably find these early
encounters with a full size orchestra intimidating and suffer from nerves. Even for the more
experienced conductor, there is an enormous amount of information which the brain is being
orchestra. At the beginning of the first rehearsal, a large percentage of his or her mental
resources will probably be directed to how the orchestra reacts to the beat and how this
basic relationship between conductor and orchestra is functioning. In order to be able to give
command of their other responsibilities (such as communicating their wishes through their
own physicality). In particular, a thorough, deep-rooted knowledge of the music itself will
prove invaluable, whatever else may occur in the rehearsal. Indeed, Wilhem Furtwängler is
quoted as saying;
Whilst many would take issue with the first part of this statement (that there is no such thing
as a good or bad ear), Furtwängler’s message is clear: a thorough working knowledge of the
92 Fuchs, 55.
93 Fuchs, 56.
80
score and how it should sound is essential. This cannot be emphasised enough. So how can
the conducting student be assisted to overcome this initial feeling of being overwhelmed?
Obviously, it is partly a question of experience and the more chances a student has to
conduct a real orchestra in a conducting program, the more the student will adjust to the
pressures of the situation, and the sheer dynamism of the experience of conducting an
orchestra. Equally, how students use their time on the podium during a class is very
important and must be monitored by the teacher. If only twenty minutes or so is available per
student (as is common), the temptation is to simply play a piece through, without stopping to
work on things. There will be times when this is appropriate, but the student must also be
encouraged to use their time to rehearse. Almila suggests, ‘If you really exaggerate, make
eight or sixteen bars good music, and not just run through and try to see if you can conduct
The most important thing is that the student’s ears are open and active whilst
masterclass situation:
The first fault you notice is that the conductor is so preoccupied with himself
that he doesn't hear what is happening. Conducting is not just a question of
giving initiatives but also of being receptive to what the orchestra does. If
there is not this reciprocity, a conductor will fail. You notice immediately those
who conduct mechanically 'for themselves' and who are not receptive to what
they hear.95
The student conductor must control the situation sufficiently to be able to listen, and must be
beyond the stage of having to think too much about his or her own physicality when in this
rehearsal situation. It is worth noting at this point that the aural skills of a student can of
course be developed through ear training programs, and that most of the courses examined
in this study have some strategy for the aural development of their students.
Let us suppose the student has reached a good level and can hear very clearly what is
going on in the orchestra whilst conducting. Depending on the level of the orchestra, the
94
Almila.
95 Pierre Boulez and Cecile Gilly, Boulez on Conducting (London: Faber and Faber, 2003), 6.
81
student will probably hear some technical errors, and will almost inevitably hear some things
which do not fit his or her ‘vision’ of the score. The question now is how best to help the
orchestra overcome these technical problems and how best to communicate their musical
conception of the work. Professional orchestras will correct many of the technical problems
themselves as they will hear them immediately on the first read through. If the young
conductor steps in to correct something that the orchestra can deal with itself, he or she will
have wasted time and may also lose some of the trust of the orchestra, thus damaging the
working relationship. However, if the conductor lets something pass that the musicians
themselves cannot solve, the musicians will become frustrated and feel the conductor is not
fulfilling the leadership role entrusted to them. On the finer points of interpretation there will
be many things that the conductor can simply show through their hands or physical being,
whilst other things may require some verbal communication. The conductor has to be careful
not to talk too much, however. As Leinsdorf puts it, ‘Speeches are heard but seldom listened
to.’96 Being able to express oneself clearly and succinctly is a valuable quality for a
conductor to have in order to maintain concentration levels in the orchestra. Here of course
we are also entering the realm of psychology, and it is often not just a question of what is
It’s like a doctor developing a bedside manner, you need to develop a way to
tell someone certain things, or to elicit certain information, or to obtain a
certain result and you have to choose your words carefully.97
Exactly where the right balance is on all of these issues will vary hugely depending on
the expertise of the orchestra. What a professional orchestra needs in rehearsal will be
completely different to what a youth orchestra requires. All of this is a huge challenge for
young conductors and is often the area where they fall down when entering the profession.
Giving an energetic read through of a major work is relatively easy in comparison to knowing
how to draw the best out of a group of musicians over an extended rehearsal period. Several
96 Erich Leinsdorf, The Composer’s Advocate: A Radical Orthodoxy for Musicians (New Haven:
82
of the conducting professors interviewed for this thesis felt that this was an area that could
I would say right now from our first year, we would have more success
throwing our guys up in front of an orchestra, making things fly, even a big
orchestra, and it’s like - ‘Oh, it’s a pretty good conducting program.’ But I
would be less sure that throwing our guys up in front of a week or two of
preparation with an orchestra in a couple of different pieces - I’m not sure that
we’re giving them help to figure that out.99
professional experience. Nevertheless, there are things that can be done to help the
students develop in this area. One of the simplest things for an aspiring conductor to do is to
observe the rehearsals of experienced professional conductors. Music schools who have a
good relationship with their local professional orchestra are obviously at an advantage here
in being able to provide access for the students to these rehearsals. A good example of this
is the Juilliard School, which has a strong relationship with the New York Philharmonic
through Alan Gilbert, and which requires its students to attend certain rehearsals at the
Philharmonic. The Sibelius Academy strives to maintain good relationships with the many
regional orchestras in Finland, and has been relatively successful at organising low-profile
engagements for students of the program. Almila, himself the chief conductor of one of these
orchestras, says:
I have myself tried to invite four top students at a time to my orchestra to give
them a possibility to make a concert together. Everyone gets half an hour
from the program. And this is what Jorma is also trying to encourage Finnish
orchestras to do, to take more of the students, to try small things.100
98 Almila.
99 Ross.
100 Almila.
83
This can be an enormous help in giving students a taste of the profession beyond the
sometimes all too comfortable confines of a conducting program. When the student
conducts in class, or with the ‘lab orchestra’, everybody in the room is on their side and
wanting the best for them. This may or may not be the case in a professional situation where
professional musicians are justified in having high expectations of the individual who has
been chosen to lead them for a particular project, and for a public performance in which their
The way in which a conductor interacts with the musicians of an orchestra on a human
level will have a significant impact on the success or otherwise of the final performance and,
with that, the likelihood of a return engagement. Here we are entering an area which many
How to know how to behave with an orchestra – you can give some advice
but it’s hard to change a person into a good leader in front of many people, if
there is not the right kind of idea in their head already.101
conductors such as Benjamin Zander having been very successful giving seminars in this
area. Kohut and Grant recognise that this is a significant challenge, but believe that it is
101 Almila.
102 Daniel L. Kohut, and Joe W. Grant, Learning to Conduct and Rehearse (Englewood Cliffs:
Prentice-Hall, 1990), 73.
84
Good habits can be nurtured and students can be encouraged to speak clearly, concisely
knowledge of the score, and some level of gestural ability, the musicians of the orchestra are
sure to respect the person standing in front of them. Whether a student is able to
successfully modify their own behavioural habits will depend largely on their level of self-
discipline.
Very much linked with the concept of leadership is charisma. Again, conventional
interviewees for this thesis stated that one thing they could not teach or give to a student
was charisma. However, recent research in the behavioural sciences has indicated that, to
some extent at least, charisma can be taught. Whilst nobody would claim to be able to
‘teach’ a young conductor to have the charisma of a Leonard Bernstein, it seems logical that
a conductor’s natural abilities in this area can be improved upon over the duration of even a
relatively short postgraduate degree. This is an area of research with which conducting
pedagogy currently has little engagement. Given it is a quality that is often expected of a
conductor, it is logical for the conducting fraternity to have a better understanding of what
exactly charisma is and how it functions, rather than simply referring to it as an indefinable
(but desired) quality. This issue will be further explored in Part Three.
85
Part Two: International Case studies
Part Two presents case studies of seven of the world’s leading tertiary level conducting
programs. The studies detail a broad range of aspects of the conducting programs,
examining the types of degrees offered, curricula, student numbers, the functioning of the
conducting studio, audition and graduation procedures, and other issues as appropriate to
each school. As part of the investigations into these schools, the methods and legacies of
three of the key conducting pedagogues of the twentieth century are examined: Jorma
86
2.1 The Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, Finland
The Sibelius Academy is Finland’s leading tertiary institution for music training. Originally
founded as the Helsinki Music Institute in 1882, it took on its current name in honour of
Finland’s most famous composer in 1939. With approximately 1,400 students enrolled at any
one time, it is one of the largest institutions of its kind in Scandinavia.1 2013 saw the Sibelius
Academy merge with the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and Theatre Academy Helsinki to
become the University of Arts Helsinki, though each institution retains its individual identity.2
Historically the Academy has been highly regarded for its excellence in the fields of
Church Music and Music Education, as well as general performance studies. More recently,
it has developed a reputation as a leading centre for conducting studies, with a large number
of graduates having gone on to have high profile international conducting careers from the
1980s to the present day. The most famous of these graduates, Esa-Pekka Salonen, has
recently finished a seventeen year period as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
graduates who have followed in Salonen’s path include Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Sakari
Oramo, Osmo Vänskä, John Storgårds, Susanna Mälkki, Hannu Lintu, Mikko Franck, Pietari
Whilst conductor training was first offered at the Sibelius Academy in 1943, it was not
until Panula became Professor of Conducting in 1973 that the conducting class began to
develop a reputation beyond the borders of Finland. Panula remained in the position for two
decades, not retiring from full-time teaching in Helsinki until 1993.3 Estonian conductor Eri
Klas then took the reins for a relatively brief period until 1997, when Segerstam began his
sixteen year tenure, retiring in June 2013. Thus, the majority of teaching over a forty year
2012
3 Anu Konttinen, ‘Conductor Education in Finland’, Finnish Musical Quarterly 3/2006.
continuity. Adding further cohesion to the program has been the presence of Almila, who
held the position of Assistant Professor from 1978-2006 and has continued to be involved in
the course up to the present day. Following Segerstam’s retirement, Almila will act as
caretaker professor until a new appointment is made. As a result of its enviable track record,
the Sibelius Academy is today seen as a desirable destination for many aspiring conductors,
and gaining a place in the conducting program is highly competitive. The Academy offers
conducting courses at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level, with students going
through the same audition process regardless of which degree they are applying for.
Audition procedures
Approximately forty to fifty students apply to study conducting at the Sibelius Academy
annually.4 Applicants are first required to send their curriculum vitae and a recent video of
themselves conducting, with approximately half of these applicants being selected to attend
a live audition in Helsinki, spread over two days. The audition process begins with all
candidates sitting for an aural examination, usually taking the form of an advanced dictation.
A typical test might involve a live chamber ensemble playing a section of a piece, with the
applicants then being asked to transcribe it. This is followed by a private session with the
jury where they are asked to demonstrate their skills as an instrumentalist, perform
elementary score reading or transposing at the piano, conduct a pianist playing one of the
selected audition pieces and answer some general questions regarding their musicianship
and motivations.5
The results of this first round are then analysed and twelve students are put forward to
the second round where they work with the Academy’s ‘conductor’s orchestra’ for the first
time. Two contrasting pieces are selected for the candidates to conduct, the 2013 selection
Debussy’s Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.6 Six of the candidates are then selected to
progress to the final round where they have more time to work with the orchestra and are
encouraged to rehearse as well as playing through. The number of students who are then
accepted into the class can vary considerably from year to year. This depends on a number
of factors, including the standard of the applicants and the exact number of students already
in the class at that time. At the end of the audition, the jury ranks the finalists from one to six,
and makes a recommendation to the Rector of the Sibelius Academy as to how many
applicants are accepted. Officially, the final decision as to the number of students admitted
rests with the Rector, though the recommendations of the conducting professor are
The Sibelius Academy offers a three year Bachelor of Music degree and a two and a half
year Master of Music degree in conducting.8 In practice, however, the length of time taken to
complete a degree can vary considerably in either direction, depending on the student’s
abilities and ambitions. It is normally assumed that a student embarking on Bachelor studies
will continue directly to the Masters, in what is sometimes unofficially referred to as the five
and a half year degree. Students who undertake this plan of study are not required to re-
audition or re-apply to progress to the Masters level. This structure presents students with a
variety of options which can be further tailored to their own personal needs and
circumstances.
All students study conducting together in a group class, regardless of the degree they
are working towards, and are treated as equals when they are on the podium. The only
differences between the two levels lie in what classes they are required to take outside of
89
their core conducting studies. Generally speaking, most foreign students undertake the
Masters degree, which is focused on the practical aspects of conducting. Students of this
program participate in the conducting classes and take lessons on an instrument other than
their primary one. These classes are delivered in English, removing the potential problem of
a language barrier. Indeed, Finnish students are themselves encouraged to speak English at
subjects such as history, harmony and ear training, in addition to their conducting studies. It
is worth noting that these are subjects provided for all music students, and are not at all
specialised for conductors, as they are at some other institutions. As such, most of these
classes are given in Finnish. Students at both levels receive credit for playing in the
orchestra of the conductor’s class, study a second language and enrol in electives as
required. At the beginning of studies, each student meets with the administrative course
director, Juhani Poutanen. Together, they decide what electives may be appropriate for the
student, and design an overall study plan. Poutanen stresses that flexibility is key to the
Academy’s approach:
It is possible to build a totally personal kind of study plan with them; the student
may want to do more theoretical studies or histories or the student may want to
play more instruments or chamber music. We want to give a freedom and
motivation for students to find their own way to do music.9
Table 1 provides an outline of the ECTS points required and the various options for study
available.10
Music history 9
Source: Personal communication with Juhani Poutanen, Director of conducting studies, Sibelius
Academy of Music.
Many students enter the class at the Masters level, and as such, may not study any
supporting subjects such as music theory, history and ear training. Segerstam
acknowledges that things could be better in this area, but says things like ear training and
..in the situation [when they are conducting], they find that they should do it
because we demand that they hear and they understand the form. If they are
out of it, then we will analyse it here in the video session.11
Segerstam tries to deal with these issues in class where possible. At the very least,
deficiencies can be identified and the student can be directed as to what areas they need to
improve upon. Almila agrees with Segerstam and clarifies this aspect of the Finnish System:
If you would ask Jorma or me, you would really have much more [supporting
subjects]. But then there is the thing that makes it blurry, because you expect
people to be almost professional musicians when they come to the class. So
they have sort of done it before, but then you notice big lacks in some
abilities… there should be also possibilities to combine this kind of teaching
Almila acknowledges a desire to do more in this area and agrees that some of these issues
can be incorporated into the conducting class. Of particular interest is his comment that
students should be ‘almost professional musicians when they come to the class’, and
therefore will already have well developed aural skills and general musicianship. This is a
key point, as historically, the Finnish system has relied on a high general level of
musicianship upon entry to the conducting program. It is telling that several of the most
successful graduates from the class were highly respected instrumentalists prior to studying
conducting.13
In the 2012-13 academic year, the Sibelius Academy had twelve conducting students, which
can be said to be representative of a standard class size. The male to female ratio in the
class was 50:50, which seems a healthy indicator for future gender equality in the
profession. This ratio is, however, more evenly balanced than the recent norm, which has
been around 60:40 for most of the first decade of 21st century.14
The ratio of Finnish students to foreign students is also split evenly at present. This has
been a source of some contention at various times in the Finnish musical scene, particularly
as there have been periods when the Finns have been very much in the minority in the
class. In the early years of Panula’s professorship the majority of students were, of course,
Finns. However, as the reputation of the class has developed it has become an attractive
destination for foreign students, particularly as the education is provided free of charge to
92
A normal week for the conducting class involves five three-hour sessions, during which
one or two orchestral works will be examined. The first session, usually held on a Thursday
morning, is a preparatory session for the week’s repertoire. This involves all students
bringing their instruments so that they can play for each other, there being no hired
instrumentalists in attendance. Some students also play the piano, so as to fill out the
inevitable missing parts. A guest teacher is usually present to supervise, and together, the
class can discuss the particular challenges involved in the music being studied, and have a
basic physical contact with the music as conductors. This session is informal in nature and
often involves as much discussion as music making.15 Fridays and Saturdays are where the
serious work occurs, with a session with the conductor’s orchestra or ‘Kapubandi’ each
morning, followed by a full three-hour session of video analysis on both afternoons. These
two days are the core of every conducting student’s training at the Sibelius Academy.
Segerstam has led these sessions when available, although as he still has an active
The structure of these days is unique in the world of conductor training, combining the
use of a highly skilled practice orchestra with the systematic use of video analysis as a basis
for tuition. This has been at the core of the Sibelius Academy conducting program since the
days of Panula’s professorship. In theory, every moment of the morning’s rehearsal can be
revisited in the afternoon, with the students being able to analyse their interactions with the
orchestra from an external viewpoint. In practice, some of this time is also used for
discussion of whatever issues may arise, but generally, more watching is done than talking.
The bulk of the teaching can be said to be delivered in this afternoon session, giving the
teacher more freedom as to how the orchestra session itself is approached. Panula and
Segerstam both prefer not to interrupt too much whilst the orchestra is present. Segerstam
comments:
…if I then start interrupting very much then they don’t come more than thirty-
six bars and then they feel that they were spoiled, because to for a moment
Panula introduced video analysis as a pedagogical tool as soon as the technology became
available in the 1970s, despite the challenges that the early forms of the technology
presented, and this has remained central to the teaching process in Helsinki ever since.
Emphasising this point, the newly completed premises of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki’s
Musiikitalo includes a room designed specifically for the purpose of watching conductors’
videos.17
Equally as important as the use of video has been the regular presence of an orchestra
of sufficient quality and size to be able to realise the students’ vision of the work they are
studying. Again, Panula realised early in his tenure that the presence of an ensemble was
essential:
Panula acknowledges that the idea for having at least a small group of strings to work with in
class derives in part from his own experiences as a pupil of Leo Funtek at the Sibelius
Academy from 1951-1953. Funtek also strove to provide his students with a small ensemble
to work with, but it seems this practice did not continue after his retirement in 1955. The size
and quality of Panula’s orchestra gradually increased during his tenure, though it seems an
official permanent orchestra was not established until sometime around 1987.19
Today, the Kapubandi has a standard size of twenty-six players, comprising double
winds, one horn, one trumpet, one percussionist and fifteen string players. Most of the
players are current or recent students of the Sibelius Academy and they are remunerated at
16 Segerstam.
17 The Musiikitalo was completed in 2011 and is Helsinki’s primary concert hall.
18 Jorma Panula, interview by author, Helsinki, 18 October 2011.
19 Anu Kontinnen, Conducting Gestures: Institutional and Educational Construction of
Poutanen oversees the selection process for the orchestra, and works to ensure a
consistent standard is maintained.20 Conducting students are also encouraged to play in the
orchestra when not conducting, and any missing instruments are played at the piano by a
student. Whilst not a fully professional orchestra, the general standard of playing can be said
to be high, and gives students a realistic sense of what they will encounter in the profession.
The cost of running the orchestra has occasionally been a contentious issue within the
Academy and its existence has had to be defended from time to time. Clearly, it is an
essential part of the Finnish formula, and the program could not maintain its international
The repertoire studied in the conducting class consists mostly of orchestral repertoire
ranging from works of the classical era through to the music of today. Occasional
collaborations with other departments in the Academy add some extra variety, with an
annual session working with a baroque specialist on early music, and some joint lessons
with the choir conducting class, examining established works for choir and orchestra. The
class has also been known to collaborate with the composition department, reading through
new student works, and every year an intensive opera project is included, focusing on one
particular opera together with students from the opera program. However, compared to a
continental European training program, opera plays a small part of the students’ studies and
aspiring opera conductor. Thus, the focus of the program can be said to lie firmly in the
symphonic realm.
The repertoire for the class is chosen and published at the beginning of each semester,
giving students ample time for preparation. Whilst there is normally no discernible pattern to
the repertoire chosen in terms of chronology, style or orchestration, repertoire choices have
sometimes coincided with performances being given in Helsinki by Segerstam. This gives
20
Juhani Poutanen, email to author, 19 October 2011.
95
students the opportunity to see their teacher working in the real world with the same musical
Finland is a relatively small country of 5.4 million people and typically for a country of this
size, has a very close knit musical community.21 This is at least partly due to the fact that
most musicians have studied at the same institution – the Sibelius Academy. Considering its
small population base, Finland is blessed with an abundance of professional orchestras, with
fourteen separate professional orchestras operating around the country. During Panula’s
time as Professor, he worked to forge connections with the many regional orchestras in
Finland, and encouraged them to look on the class as a resource for young, affordable,
conducting talent. As a result of this initiative, many students began to receive professional
engagements whilst still students at the Academy. The benefits for the students chosen for
this work are clear – a chance to practise in a real world environment, without the pressures
of a high profile debut. Since Panula’s retirement this practice has diminished to a certain
extent, but it is not uncommon for the more conspicuously talented Finns in today’s class to
be granted such chances. Additionally, there have often been strong links with one of the
two symphony orchestras in Helsinki. At various times the Helsinki Philharmonic has had
ties with the class, and more recently the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra has become
involved, hosting a masterclass for the Sibelius Academy students once a year22. These
links are undoubtedly a strength of the Helsinki program and give the young conductors a
window into the profession itself. One assumes that these ties will strengthen further, now
that the Sibelius Academy, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Helsinki Philharmonic
96
Graduation
At the conclusion of their studies, students are required to give a final recital which takes the
form of a full concert program with orchestra. Students may present their program with the
Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra, but more usually, the student will have the
graduating students conducted their final concerts with the orchestras in Lahti, Pori, Vaasa
and Kuopio. This practice gives many students the valuable opportunity to perform a serious
program with a professional orchestra. Whilst it provides a vehicle for assessment, perhaps
more importantly, it also gives the student a chance to showcase their talents in the
professional arena. It has not been uncommon for these concerts to lead to ongoing
conducting career.
In the past, students have also been required to conduct a full opera performance as part
of their graduation. Providing an appropriate setting for this exam has proved challenging, as
since the Sibelius Academy appointed a resident conductor to their opera department, it has
within the school. Opportunities are sought with some of the smaller opera companies
around Finland, and some flexibility is taken in this area, with an opera rehearsal also now
Jorma Panula’s name is synonymous with the conducting program of the Sibelius Academy,
having been its founder and teacher for two decades. Twenty years after his retirement, the
basic structure of the program that he created remains the same. Whilst Panula has become
one of the most renowned names in conducting pedagogy over this period, the man and his
23 Poutanen.
97
methods remain something of an enigma. Given the long list of successful conductors he
can claim as his former students, one might expect that he long ago arrived at the point
where he is universally respected. However, this is not entirely the case. As Sakari Oramo
points out, he has long been ‘splitting opinions’.24 Almila also acknowledges that some have
...there are big names who might say, ‘Is there anything? Is it just a bubble?’
And I remember these discussions that we had with an exchange student
from Germany, and he said, ‘I was in a class in Germany with Jorma and he
didn’t say anything’. And then all of us said, ‘That’s it!’25
The comments attributed to the German exchange student here are certainly not atypical of
students who have encountered Panula for the first time. He is a man of few words, and an
outsider eavesdropping on a class could be forgiven for wondering if any teaching is going
on at all.26 This is in stark contrast to Segerstam who can at times be extremely verbose and
doesn’t hesitate to take aim at a student’s perceived weaknesses. Mark Stringer has had
I’ve never seen him, but from all my students who’ve studied with him… he
doesn’t say very much and makes very few comments and gives you the
feeling that you can pretty much get away with murder and then you realise
that: No, you did learn something. So that’s a master. A very zen approach.27
It seems clear that at no time has he set out to establish any form of orthodoxy for
conductors or conductor training. And yet, he can claim amongst his former students some
of the best conductors in the world. In some circles this is regarded as something of a
According to Finnish academic and broadcaster Anu Konttinen, who has interviewed
98
between the teacher and his students.’28 This collegial approach is a theme that comes up
regularly when talking to former Panula students, particularly those who studied with him
during his years as Professor at the Sibelius Academy. This collegiality did not simply apply
to his relationship with the students, but was something he actively encouraged amongst the
students themselves, so that the class was also a kind of ‘family’, and constructive
discussions could be had outside of formal school hours. Kontinnen makes an observation
During Panula's period these discussions continued after the class was over,
collegiality and the idea of a ‘fair play’ being central. What Panula wanted
was to create an atmosphere in which one could get professional feedback
from one's colleagues.29
Panula’s aim was to create a positive environment, where students can help each other, and
the teacher takes on a role perhaps more akin to that of a senior colleague. In Almila’s time
as a student, the formal lessons at the Sibelius Academy were merely a focal point for the
whole experience:
He was totally ours when he was in Helsinki and we spent also lots of our
free time with him. So it was living a life, not only the lessons. We went to
restaurants together or to his home. We cooked, we spoke and all of these
things which would need more concentrating on, then we had time for that,
because we spent so much time [together]. And following his rehearsals and
other people’s rehearsals. It might be that we went to see someone rehearse
in the Finlandia House, so he came with us and we could immediately
discuss the whole thing with him.30
Thus, for Almila and his fellow students, the learning experience was a continuous process
without a clearly defined beginning or end. It would be highly unusual for a busy, practicing
conductor to have the time to devote to his students in the way that Almila speaks of. From
1963-1976 Panula was chief conductor of three successive orchestras.31 From this time
99
onwards, however, he never took on another principal conductor role with an orchestra and
The absent conducting professor is surely a common occurrence in many institutions around
the world, but it is interesting to observe that most of the courses examined in this study
have a professor at their head for whom teaching is their primary activity, rather than
discussion sometimes went beyond the subject of the art of conducting itself, or even music-
making in general. Indeed, Panula has been quoted as saying that he ‘taught Salonen not
only music but also to read novels, appreciate art, and drink wine’.33 This suggests that he
was encouraging a rich and well-rounded approach to life itself, as well as music-making,
Versatility and open-mindedness were also traits that were appreciated in the class itself.
composer and a horn player. Salonen says this multi-faceted approach was encouraged by
Panula and described it as, ‘Everyone is doing everything.’34 In other words, all students
should be able to fulfil such tasks in class as playing missing parts at the piano during a
rehearsal, be able to play their own instrument in the orchestra (and preferably a second one
as well), and where necessary, make arrangements for ensembles where the full
instrumentation is not available. In this way, the student is engaged not simply with their own
conducting, but with the entire music making process. In another example of Panula’s open
approach, various guests from other professions were invited to the class from time to time,
some of these being featured in YLE’s eight part television series on Panula’s class at the
32
Almila.
33Richard S. Ginnell,’International Youth Orchestra Festival: Jaw-Droppers from Finland,
Venezuela and Switzerland,’ American Record Guide, 71, (Jan/Feb 2008): 19.
34 Kontinnen, Conducting Gestures, 110.
100
Sibelius Academy.35 Featured guests in the series included an actor, a choreographer, a
psychologist, and a sketch artist, all giving their thoughts on the role of the conductor, and
the student conductors themselves, from their own specialist viewpoint. The actor talks
about role-playing and what it is to ‘become’ someone else, the choreographer about
movement, and the psychologist discusses general leadership issues. Perhaps the most
surprising choice of guest, the sketch artist, produced drawings that highlighted each
physical podium presence. This drew attention to the substantial differences in body
language between the students, which in turn reflected their contrasting personalities.
This is a cornerstone of Panula’s approach to teaching conducting: each student must find
their own way using their own tools. It is notable that, in terms of conducting styles, no two
Panula students look alike, and despite having a distinctive conducting style of his own,
none of his successful students resemble him either. Sakari Oramo comments on this point:
Panula never wanted to push his own ways on the students and those
students who tried to imitate him never got anywhere. What he gave was a
way for the personality to speak for itself: certain technical backgrounds and
psychological backgrounds, how to prepare and how to treat soloists and
musicians; that I found was the most valuable thing.37
These ‘technical backgrounds’ that Oramo refers to are the basic technical rules that Panula
does insist upon, and these can be summarised relatively briefly: the student should not
35 Kapellimestarikurssi I–VIII [The Conducting Course I–VIII], dir. Anna-Kaarina Kiviniemi, DVD
(Helsinki: Yleisradio, TV1 Taideohjelmanlinja, 1992).
36 Cori Ellison, ‘Making Maestros for the World,’ New York Times, 22 February, 1998.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/22/arts/classical-music-making-maestros-for-the-
world.html?pagewanted=3&src=pm (accessed 12 August 2012).
37 Nickels.
101
move around too much and must be well grounded; the orchestra must always be able to
see which beat is the first in the bar; the beat should always go down rather than up (Panula
refers to this as ‘fishing’); the left and right hands should be independent; the wrists should
be flexible; and the gestures of the conductor should be focused and never larger than
necessary. Additionally, Panula always insists that students should not talk too much when
rehearsing, and make their comments ‘to the point’ as much as possible. Otherwise, the
student is free to follow their own gestural instincts. It must also be emphasised that while
Panula will point out certain things from time to time, he rarely insists on anything in the way
that some other teachers might. As Osmo Vanska points out, ‘He’s no schoolmaster.’38 In
Panula’s eyes it is up to the students to take on any advice given, and not his responsibility
to insist on anything. The onus and responsibility to develop lies with the student at all times,
and Panula is merely there to give assistance. Salonen suggests Panula is interested in
‘raising curiosity, and encouraging the students to ask questions, instead of explaining
dogma.’39 Panula never says, ‘It has to be like this…’, but instead, works towards creating an
atmosphere and environment where the students can learn for themselves and each other,
During his time as professor at the Sibelius Academy, Panula worked towards creating
what he saw as the ideal learning environment for his students. This was an environment
where students could learn and absorb information from a wide range of influences –
colleagues, observing rehearsals, the rehearsal orchestra, video, and finally himself. In this
environment, Panula was a facilitator and mentor, more than what some might view as being
38 Nickels.
39 Kontinnen, Conducting Gestures, 165.
102
Summary
A key feature of the Sibelius Academy conducting program is the flexible and open approach
taken in many areas. Evidence of this can be seen in the relatively loose structure of the
approach is a philosophy that every student is unique, with different strengths and abilities,
and therefore, should be encouraged to find their own path on the journey to becoming a
professional conductor.
At the core of the program lies the twice weekly orchestra rehearsals followed by video
analysis. As has already been noted, this systemic use of video analysis is unique amongst
the schools investigated, and is a key feature of the program. It allows the conducting
professor flexibility as to how they approach the rehearsal session, often leading to a
situation where students can conduct with relatively few interruptions. This can be said to
bring the artificial situation of the conducting class closer to the environment that students
will encounter in the profession, as well as providing an opportunity for regular self-analysis.
The Sibelius Academy also benefits from the strong network of professional orchestras
in Finland. These links provide students with an opportunity to bridge the gap between
studies and the profession, either through their graduation concerts, or by doing smaller
Finally, Helsinki itself provides a rich environment for a young conductor to study.
Though not a large city by world standards, it boasts a full time opera house, two large
symphony orchestras and a chamber orchestra. Thus, students have access to a large
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2.2 The Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory of
Music
Founded in 1862, the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory of Music has
played a central role in Russian musical life, educating leading figures such as Pyotr
Tchaikovsky, Dimitri Shostakovich and Sergei Rachmaninoff.40 At the beginning of the 21st
century, the Conservatory has over 1,500 enrolled students studying all aspects of classical
music performance and theoretical studies.41 Despite the fall of the Soviet Union, it remains
a bastion of old world culture, not just for Russia, but for Europe in general. Conducting has
long been an integral part of the teaching of the school and the list of successful conducting
alumni is impressive. Famous graduates from the conducting school include Evgeny
Mravinsky, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Neeme Järvi, Semyon Bychkov, Yuri
Temirkanov, Alexander Lazerev, Tugan Sokhiev, Vasily Petrenko, Martyn Brabbins, Sian
The beginnings of the conducting program can be traced back to 1925 when Nikolai
Malko became a Professor at the school and established a conducting class which he led
until his defection to the West in 1929.42 Whilst Malko’s tenure was relatively brief, he
nevertheless laid the foundations for a famous conducting tradition at the school, as his
pupils Ilya Musin and Nikolai Rabinovich would themselves go on to become key teachers in
the program. As early as 1932, Musin began teaching conducting at the Conservatory and
continued this activity until his passing in 1999.43 Such a long tenure is unprecedented in the
history of conducting pedagogy, and Musin’s name remains irrevocably linked with the
conducting school in St. Petersburg to this day. Since Musin’s passing, however, it is much
harder to identify a primary teacher amongst the various people teaching conducting in St.
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Petersburg. Alexander Polishchuk, a former Musin student, is no doubt one of the leading
teachers in the post-Musin era and rigorously upholds the teachings of his former mentor.
Other teachers of note at the present time are Alexander Titov and Leonid Korchmar, and,
until recently, Vassily Sinnaisky was also a respected member of the faculty. All are former
Musin protégés. Whilst the school has no doubt undergone some change since the days of
Ilya Musin and the Soviet Union, it continues to produce many fine Russian conductors and
The core conducting program of the St. Petersburg Conservatory is a five year course, and
is referred to as the ‘Graduate Course Program’. At the end of these five years, successful
students are awarded a Diploma of Operatic and Symphonic Conducting, which according to
program in the sense that students can enter directly from secondary school studies.
Essentially, it is a Bachelor and Masters degree combined.45 Foreign students who have no
Russian language skills and wish to do the full five year course are required to do a one year
preparatory course before entering the main diploma program. This course focusses
primarily on Russian language studies, but also includes conducting lessons, piano lessons,
and general harmony and aural training. However, the preparatory course is not necessarily
If we see that it’s not so bad [in the audition] and with a little more exercise,
more practice, so we have a preparatory department where we insist on a
very strong course, ear training, solfège, harmony and so forth.46
Union agreed to ratify their degree programs to a standard, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music
structure. However at the time of writing in 2013, no changes have been made in this direction in
Russia’s Conservatories.
46
Leonid Korchmar, interview by author, St. Petersburg, 25 October 2011.
105
For foreign students who do not wish to commit to studying for five years in St
Program’. This can be between two and ten months in duration, and the curriculum can be
tailored according to the student’s particular needs. Ordinarily, a student undertaking this
short course would receive eight hours per month of conducting tuition, eight hours per
month of theoretical subjects as chosen by the student, and six hours per month of Russian
language training.47
Students of the primary five year program study a large number of varied subjects over
the course of their tuition. Subjects studied aside from conducting include aural training,
harmony, analysis, piano, score reading, wind techniques, brass techniques, string
continue to study the Russian language throughout the degree, and students have regular
opportunities to work with the opera school as well. Table 2 shows an overview of the
Piano tuition features prominently for four of the five years of the degree, though
Polishchuk acknowledges that in the post-Soviet era, some flexibility is taken in terms of the
level of keyboard skills expected.48 Many of the subjects are designed with composers and
conductors specifically in mind. Harmony and aural training are two such subjects, and are
given particular emphasis in the early years. These classes are delivered with relatively
small class sizes of three to six students, with second year harmony students also receiving
additional individual tuition. Aural training is piano based, but also includes a substantial
amount of singing.49 In later years students also study non-musical subjects such as History
of Arts, Philosophy and Aesthetics, giving a broader context to their studies. One can only
agree when Polishchuk states, ‘We have a very deep, very wide ranging educational system
here.’50
106
Table 2. Graduate Course Program curriculum, Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg
Conservatory of Music.
Year 1 2 3 4 5
Semester 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Conducting tuition • • • • • • • • • •
Orchestra rehearsals • • • • • • • • • •
Theatre rehearsals • • • • • •
Piano tuition • • • • • • • •
Harmony • • • •
Aural Training • • • •
Score reading • • •
Polyphony • •
Wind/Brass techniques •
String techniques • • • •
History of Music • • •
Orchestration • • • • •
Analysis • •
History of Arts •
Musical Psychology •
Philosophy •
Aesthetics •
Opera/Ballet Repertoire • • •
Source: Degree Plan, Operatic and Symphonic Conducting, Department of Conducting, St Petersburg
Conservatory, 2012.
107
Costs for foreign students range from 180,000-200,000 rubles (US$5,700 − $6,400 as at
December 2013) per year for the five year Graduate Course, depending on the year of
study. The short term Special Training course costs 18,000 rubles (approximately US$580
as at December 2013) per month.51 Most Russian students receive a scholarship which
covers their fees, as the Russian constitution guarantees students a free education if they
are accepted. However, a student who is not accepted as a scholarship student may under
The audition
All candidates are required to sit a written examination which involves completing an
extended four part harmony test, an analysis of a short piece, and various aural tests. They
must also sing basic sight-singing tests and play harmonic progressions at the piano. This is
considered an important part of the audition, and can play a significant role in the final
Candidates then conduct two pianos in a movement of their choice, choosing from a list
of standard orchestral repertoire. For foreign students, the audition ends here, and if
successful they will normally be admitted to the one year preparatory course. At the end of
this preparatory course they may enter the five year Graduate course, providing they pass
another brief conducting examination.53 For Russian students who wish to enter the
Graduate Course directly (and receive a scholarship covering tuition), the audition continues
with a 20 minute rehearsal with orchestra, for which they must select one movement from a
list of eight works. This is then followed by an interview where they must display a wide
108
knowledge of the orchestral repertoire, a brief score reading test at the piano, and finally, a
performance of a classical sonata and fugue at the piano.54 It should be noted that fee
paying students (normally foreigners) have a good chance of acceptance if they show a
reasonable degree of competency. For local students, however, the audition process is
extremely competitive.
In the 2012-13 academic year, twenty students were enrolled in the five year Graduate
Course Program. Twelve of these were Russian, whilst eight were foreigners. Three
students were female (two foreign and one Russian). These numbers are considered fairly
normal for the school, though there have been times in the past where there has been
most schools examined in this study, and it is notable that there was only one Russian
female student. Russia has produced a long list of conductors of international stature,
however, we are yet to see a female Russian conductor working at this level.56
As has already been mentioned, the structure of the conductor training program in St
Petersburg is somewhat complicated by the fact that there are a large number of teachers
on the conducting faculty, and indeed, the faculty list seems to be in a continual state of flux.
For the academic year of 2012-13, the school officially lists six conducting professors as
Alexander Alekseev, Vladimir Altschuler and Mikhail Kukushkin.57 Though not appearing on
the official list of conducting teachers at the St Petersburg Conservatory, Anatoly Rybalko
and Leonid Korchmar also teach conducting, though primarily to foreign students.58 This
gone on to make successful careers, most notably the British conductor Sian Edwards.
57 ‘Conducting faculty,’ St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music, http://www.conservatory.ru/node/71
109
approach of having a relatively large number of teachers on faculty at any given time is
standard practice in St Petersburg, and has been established for a long period of time.
Polishchuk observes:
It’s another system, because normally in the West you have one professor or
maximum two professors, like in Vienna. We have had here since the Soviet
time another system.59
This system of multiple teachers seems to date back to the 1930s and is unique amongst
the schools investigated in this study. The obvious advantage to this approach is that the
conservatory itself can educate a large number of conductors, whilst maintaining relatively
small class sizes. In the Soviet era, the conservatories of St Petersburg and Moscow were
the two leading centres for conducting studies, and may have been under pressure to
produce a substantial number of students who could then work throughout the Soviet Union.
Another advantage of the Russian system is that students have some choice in who they
study with, and can also watch other teachers’ classes for alternative points of view.
Estonian conductor Arvo Volmer studied with Ravil Martynov in St. Petersburg in the 1980s
I spent a lot of time sitting in Musin’s classes and trying to get tips, how to
help myself in my way of trying to construct my own way of conducting. When
it was possible, I also always went to Jansons’ classes.60
This cross-pollination of conducting ideas between teachers is still encouraged today. Ilya
Musin and Nikolai Rabinovitch, arguably the two leading teachers in the school’s history,
were far from rivals, and encouraged this open learning, as Polishchuk underlines:
Musin and Rabinovitch were friendly, and so it was like two professors but
one class. The pupils of Rabinovitch sat in Musin’s class and watched and
digested some things, and Musin’s pupils attended the Rabinovitch class and
listened to his ideas, to his lessons. So it was interwoven, a collaboration.61
59
Polishchuk.
60 Arvo Volmer, interview by author, Adelaide, 22 June 2011.
61 Polishchuk.
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The period in the 1970s when both Musin and Rabinovitch were teaching at the
conservatory, seems to have been a golden time for the institution. The only other school
investigated in this study with more than one distinct conducting class is in Vienna, where
two professors operate. This merging of ideas, however, is not encouraged in Austria.
The majority of conducting tuition is delivered with students conducting two staff pianists
from the Conservatory. This was Musin’s preferred method of teaching and has been the
norm in St Petersburg for many generations. As a result of this tradition, the school is in the
fortunate position of having a pool of pianists at its disposal who are accustomed to the
special requirements of playing in the conductors’ class: they are able to follow well and, to
the extent that it is possible, able to simulate the weight of an orchestra. Students are
entitled to two individual lessons a week of around forty minutes working with this two piano
formation. Though these are officially referred to as individual lessons in the curriculum, it is
common for the entire class of a particular teacher to be present, thus creating an
atmosphere not dissimilar to a masterclass. Like many other current practices in the school,
this can be traced back to Musin, who insisted on having all students present at all times.62 It
is also worth noting that there is often a great deal of flexibility in the exact duration of these
In addition to the classes with piano, a student can expect an average of about forty
minutes of podium time with orchestra per week.64 The Conservatory is in the unique
position of having a resident professional orchestra primarily for the use of the conducting
students. This ensemble, usually referred to as the ‘Conservatory Symphony Orchestra’, has
full wind, brass and percussion sections, and a complement of approximately twenty-five
string players.65 Although the rate of pay is not considered high compared to other
works six days a week, for three hours in the morning. Thus, students have a generous
62 Polishchuk.
63
Sakai.
64 First year students can expect less than forty minutes per week, but this is made up for later in
their studies.
65 Timothy Buzina, email to author, 16 October 2012.
111
amount of time available to practise with a real instrument throughout their studies. Records
are unclear as to the exact date this orchestra was formed, but it seems to have come in to
existence at some point in the 1950s.66 Despite being the only full time professional
orchestra in existence for the express purpose of training conductors, its existence is not
well known outside of Russia. Certainly the Soviets did little to publicise its existence,
perhaps preferring to keep their methods for training their cultural ambassadors to
themselves.
Repertoire studied in the course begins with works from the classical era and extends to
the present day. However, the primary focus of the course is on the established classics of
the orchestral repertoire. One aspect that does make St. Petersburg’s approach to repertoire
unusual is that each student has their own personal repertoire plan. This is in contrast to
most conducting programs, where students study works that have been pre-selected by their
teacher together as a group. One advantage of the St. Petersburg approach is that
development. But this is not the only positive, as Polishchuk observes, recalling his own
It was not possible, even after five years of conducting, to conduct in front of
Musin all repertoire myself. Not possible. But I watched a lot. For example I
never conducted [for] Musin the first symphony of Beethoven. Never myself.
But during five years [of study] I watched maybe three or four times.67
Students observing the lessons are being continuously exposed to a broad repertoire, well
beyond what they themselves are studying and presenting. They are thus able to learn
about their teacher’s approach to a particular piece even though they may never conduct it
Throughout their studies, students have a conducting exam with orchestra at the end of
every semester (with the exception of the end of first semester which is with pianos). This
culminates in their final year of studies with what is known as a ‘state examination’. The
examination is in two parts, and consists of a public performance of a complete opera with
public symphonic concert, normally with the Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. If students
already have professional engagements outside of the school, these external performances
Any investigation into the conducting program of the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music
would be incomplete without detailing the enduring influence of its longest serving and most
Due to the political circumstances in the Soviet Union, Musin (who was Jewish), never
embarked on a fully fledged conducting career of his own, but instead devoted his life to his
pupils, and to a detailed analysis of the art of conducting and how it should be taught. We
are fortunate that Musin chose to document his quest in the form of several books published
during his lifetime, as well as a six hour video documentary made a few years before his
death.72 The most important of these books, The Technique of Conducting, was initially
published in 1967, but underwent several transformations before appearing in its final form
published in 1995.73 This book goes into a remarkable level of detail in all aspects of
72 Conducting lessons of Professor Musin, dir. Vitaly Fialkovsky, DVD (St. Petersburg:
philosophy was his belief that the greatest challenge for a conductor is to ‘overcome the
conflict between giving a beat and giving clear indications of musical expression.’74
According to Musin, the addition of musical expression to a beat all too easily distorts its
rhythmic precision, whilst a clear beat in itself is in danger of destroying this same
understanding of the role of the upbeat, with a range of different kinds of upbeats being
defined and given specific musical functions. Musin speaks of each beat of the bar as having
The within the bar upbeat is a gesture that connects the beats of a bar. It’s the
main means of communicating the conductor’s ideas about the music to the
orchestra.75
For us it is very important what is between the beats. How we feel this - it’s
very important. The second thing is, we can say we prefer not to beat sound,
but in some way just to take it. This supports the breathing apparatus.76
Korchmar talks here of ’taking the sound’ and the Musin approach is very much concerned
with quality of sound production, through well prepared upbeats and the ‘breathing
apparatus’ referred to by Korchmar. Musin’s system is also unique in that it takes into
account the delay in sound production that is often observed in the playing of professional
orchestras, and incorporates this in to the conductor’s technique. This involves what he calls
a ‘reverse upbeat’:
If someone is always fifteen minutes late for appointments, just arrange their
appointment to be fifteen minutes earlier, and it will not count. In this case the
conductor should wait for the orchestra to come in not at the bottom of the
Effectively, he encourages the student to factor into his or her technique that the orchestra
will play not on the bottom of the beat, but somewhere on its upward progression away from
the ictus. Korchmar says, ‘It’s like you are a commander, a leader who is going a little in
advance of the troops. If you are with them, among them, so you are not leading.’78
During his lifetime Musin was often accused of being simply a teacher of technique, and
indeed, it is almost inevitable that a reader of his book will come away with the impression
that it is a technical manifesto, and an intimidating one at that. However, this does not seem
to be an entirely fair assessment. Musin himself states in the closing pages of the work:
Students who studied with Musin are consistent in their affirmation that Musin was not just a
teacher of technique, but also, if not primarily, a teacher of the music itself, with technique
playing a supporting role. Semyon Bychkov said of his experiences in Musin’s class:
He paid attention to everything, from your posture to the way your arms
moved and how your eyes looked. But the primary concern was the
expression itself.81
Musin did not hesitate to stand on the podium himself and demonstrate to his students
potential solutions to their problems, both technical and musical. Tuomas Hannikainen, one
He was a small man, but he was 50 kilos of music when he was conducting
and he demanded that from everybody. There was no time beating, he
115
couldn’t stand that. It was always very intense involvement in the music
making.82
One of the paradoxes of the Musin school has always been that despite his detailed,
descriptive approach to the way a conductor should move, very few of his students look alike
when conducting, or indeed look like their former teacher. Perhaps the most successful of
his pupils working today who retains many of the hallmarks of the ‘Musin technique’ is
Semyon Bychkov. However, if one then examines the conducting of Valery Gergiev and Yuri
Termikanov, one could be forgiven for being surprised that these three men all came from
the same system. Where a connection between the three can be identified is in their
intensity of music making, and it seems that this is the hallmark of a mature Musin student,
rather than any particular physical mannerisms. Equally, the application of his system seems
to have varied to a certain degree from student to student, and in any case, was less
dogmatic than one might suspect after reading The Technique of Conducting. According to
Bychkov:
…he still took into account that every person has their own physique and
personality… He was able to appreciate the capabilities and the mental
constitution of a particular student. And then he could help this person to
achieve what he or she wanted, as opposed to producing another model
off the assembly line.83
Musin himself affirmed this when referring to a conductor’s ‘distinctive gestural handwriting’:
Such differences are not only possible but desired. It is precisely this
originality of the manual resources applied by each conductor which makes
an impressive and potent impact on the performers.84
Nevertheless, beginning students in Musin’s class were thoroughly drilled in the basic
technical principles of his method, and there can be no doubt that he was a very demanding
Conservatory, tells that in his first year as a student Musin would stop him in almost every
class a total of seven times before finally meeting Musin’s high expectations.85
For beginning students, he recommended the use of Beethoven Piano Sonatas for the
Interestingly, this is a similar approach to that taken by the Japanese pedagogue Hideo
Saito in his book The Saito Conducting Method, where short excerpts from the piano
repertoire are recommended for practising specific conducting techniques.87 Though Saito’s
book is probably the only comparable work in the conducting literature in that it presents a
themselves could not be more different. Given the complexities and specificity involved in
both schools, beginning with simplified musical material seems to be of some advantage.
framework for conductors to express their inner musical thoughts and impulses. Russian
conductor George Erzhemsky in his book, To the Conductor of the 21st Century, compares
the development of a conductor’s technique to a child learning to speak, and this seems an
appropriate analogy for the Musin method.88 A child may know exactly what they wish to
express at a given moment, but must first equip themselves with the complex physical
apparatus that is human speech before they can precisely communicate their thoughts. So it
is for the aspiring conductor, who may have strong feelings for the music and a well-formed
the orchestra. Ideally, this language will be as broad and well nuanced as any spoken
language, and this was clearly Musin’s aim. Though he did not have a major conducting
career himself, he wrote in his memoirs towards the end of his life, ‘I conduct at the Kirov
Summary
The current conducting program of the St. Petersburg Conservatory owes much to its long
history and rich heritage. It can readily claim to have been one of the world’s leading centres
for conductor training for the greater part of the twentieth century, with many leading
teachers having been faculty members, and the introduction of a professional orchestra for
students to work with at an early stage. The program continues to be attractive to students in
the twenty-first century, largely because of the continuing presence of this orchestra, as well
as the detailed broader curriculum which has been built over an extended period of time. In
many ways the conducting program as a whole can be considered to be a living relic of the
Soviet era.
After a tenure of over sixty years, perhaps it is inevitable that the figure of Ilya Musin still
casts a long shadow over the teaching of conducting at the conservatory. Having been one
of the few pedagogues to create a system of conducting and detail it in writing, this inevitably
serves as a context for all teaching that follows after his passing. Currently, the school has
many professors of conducting, but none that can begin to approach Musin in stature. One
hopes that this situation will change in time, and a new figure will emerge who can maintain
the proud traditions of the St Petersburg Conservatory and lead the school into the twenty-
first century.
89
Leach, 24.
118
2.3 The University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna
The Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts (Universität für Musik und darstellende
Kunst Wien) can trace its roots back to the formation of the Vienna Conservatory in 1817. In
1909, it became the Imperial Academy of Music and the Performing Arts, broadening its
scope to subjects beyond music. It officially became a University in 1998, and in 2013,
institutes, one of these being the institute for conducting.90 The school has a long history of
conductor training with a conducting course first being introduced in 1909, thus making it the
until his death in 1975. These years are generally regarded as being a golden era for the
school, with a significant number of students who studied under Swarowsky going on to
have major careers. Graduates of particular note include Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado,
Mariss Jansons, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Giuseppe Sinopoli and Ivan Fischer – all conductors
at the very top of the profession. Today, the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts
remains a popular destination for aspiring conductors. In terms of student numbers, it is the
largest tertiary level conducting program in the world by a substantial margin, with sixty to
The school has a policy of having two conducting professors on staff of equal rank, with
Mark Stringer and Uroš Lajovic currently filling these roles. In 2012 Lajovic officially retired
from the school after twenty-one years of service and at the time of writing, a search is
underway for his successor. However, he continues to teach his existing students until they
have all finished their degrees, and a replacement is not expected to be appointed for some
time. Yuji Yuasa and Simeon Pironkoff are also key members of the conducting faculty, and
119
act as assistant teachers to Stringer and Lajovic respectively. Other professors of note since
the time of Swarowsky include Karl Österreicher (1969-1992) and Leopold Hager (1992-
2004).
The conducting course is offered as a five year diploma program in two stages – the first
diploma stage being completed after two years, followed by a further three years of study for
the second diploma. Students who complete both stages are awarded the degree of
‘Magister artium’ (Mag.art), which can be said to be the equivalent of a Masters degree
elsewhere. However, students can enter the course directly after secondary studies, hence
the first diploma stage of the program can be considered to be at the undergraduate level.
As such, the previous experience of applicants to the program can vary widely.
Audition procedures
Approximately ninety aspirants apply to enter the conducting program annually, all of whom
are invited to Vienna to participate in the three day audition process. In contrast to other
Initially, prospective students sit for a comprehensive written exam covering areas such
as aural skills, music theory, analysis of musical forms and general repertoire knowledge. As
was the case at St. Petersburg, aural tests are often a weak point for students, as Stringer
observes:
Usually it’s the ear training that is the big grim reaper that wipes everyone
out, especially the test with the intervals and the twelve tone rows…. Some
of them have no idea what a Major third is let alone a Major seventh.93
On the second day, all candidates return for a vocal exam, which involves singing a
prepared vocal work and a range of sight-singing exercises. At the end of these two days,
twenty-five to thirty students are selected to proceed to the final stage. For this final day of
examination, a jury of ten people is present, which includes the orchestral conducting, choral
93 Stringer.
120
conducting and piano teachers, all of whom will have direct contact with the students during
their studies. The candidates select one piece from a short list of works to conduct with a
string quartet or other small ensemble. This is then followed by an interview with the jury on
general musical culture, repertoire knowledge and any other areas the jury may wish to
discuss. A Beethoven Piano Sonata of moderate difficulty must then be performed (or part
thereof), plus a second piano work at the discretion of the student. An opportunity is also
given for the student to perform on their primary instrument, should it not be the piano, and
finally, sight reading is given in the form of an excerpt from an opera vocal score, to be
played at the piano. Ordinarily, around fifteen students are admitted to the first year of the
program, and it is decided at this point who their primary teacher will be. It is worth noting
that all decisions are taken by the committee as a whole, and the conducting professors do
not necessarily have the final say in the process. Students are given the option of
expressing a preference for the teacher they wish to study from in their initial application,
and this is normally adhered to.94 For students whose mother-tongue is not German, a
‘Zertifikat Deutsch’ diploma must be submitted as evidence of their familiarity with the
German language, or they may choose to sit a German language exam as part of the
admission procedure.95
The curriculum
The first, two year diploma stage sees all conducting students (orchestral and choral) study
together in the same program and receive a broad general education. Core subjects for
students include basic conducting techniques, orchestral and choral conducting, piano
include score reading, vocal coaching, voice training, history, historical performance
practice, opera conducting and Italian language studies. Some subjects (such as history and
94
Stringer.
95Information Sheet, Diploma studies in conducting, University of Music and Performing Arts,
Vienna, 4.
121
analysis) are aimed at general music students, however, many are aimed squarely at
conductors. With such a large student body the costs of offering such specialised courses
Additionally, conducting students must sing in a choir, study a wind or string instrument,
and learn the rudiments of percussion playing. The curriculum for the first diploma stage of
Table 3. First diploma curriculum, University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna.
Year 1 2
Semester 1 2 3 4
MAIN ARTISTIC SUBJECTS ECTS ECTS ECTS ECTS
COMPULSORY SUBJECTS
Score Playing 1-4 2.5 2.5 2 2
Vocal Coaching 1-4 2 2 2 2
Aural Training 1-4 2 2 2 2
Voice Training 1-4 1 1 1 1
String or Wind Instrument 1-4 1 1 1 1
Percussion for Conductors 1,2 1 1
Choir 1-4 1 1 1 1
Opera and Oratorio 1,2 1 1
Opera Conducting 1,2 2 2
Music History 1 1
Music History 2 1
Music History 3,4 1 1
Introduction to Historical 1
Performance Practice
Italian 1-4 1 1 1 1
ELECTIVES 3 3 3 3
Total
TOTAL Required Courses 27
30 27
30 27.5
30.5 26.5
29.5
122
Table 3 clearly illustrates the remarkable depth and breadth of studies that conductors
studying in Vienna undertake. The number and variety of supporting subjects studied is
unrivalled amongst the schools investigated in this study, with the possible exception of the
Another feature of the Vienna system is the mixing of students studying orchestral and
choral conducting for their first stage of study. As a result of this approach, many of the
students are excellent singers, which can lead to extracurricular benefits for the students, as
Stringer explains:
Our choral conducting teacher is Edwin Ortner who is the Arnold Schoenberg
Chor’s director… They are fodder material for the Arnold Schoenberg Chor,
so they are constantly doing concerts with, for instance, Harnoncourt, or
opera productions in the Theater an der Wien. I find that wonderful, these
kids are singing in opera productions in costume, but a major one with people
like Domingo or van Otter.96
This practice of conducting students singing in the important choirs of Vienna is not a new
one, with Zubin Mehta and others often recalling occasions when they sang under the great
At the end of the first two years of study students must pass the ‘first diploma exam’ in
order to continue on to the second stage of the course. Students sit exams for the subjects
of historical compositional practices, analysis, piano, vocal coaching, choral conducting and
orchestral conducting.
The second diploma stage sees students focus on their chosen specialisation: orchestral
conducting, choral conducting or vocal coaching. However, those who choose to specialise
in orchestral conducting still study a relatively large number of other subjects alongside their
major for their third and fourth years. Subjects studied include choral conducting, score
reading, vocal coaching, aural training, orchestration, opera conducting, a string or wind
instrument, historical performance practice and contemporary music. In the fifth and final
96 Stringer.
97 Zubin Mehta and Renate Matuschka, Zubin Mehta: the score of my life (New York: Amadeus
Press, 2009), 17.
123
year, students focus primarily on conducting itself, though piano lessons are continued right
through until the end of the program, as a piano recital is required at the end of their studies.
Table 4. Second diploma curriculum, University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna.
Year 3 4 5
Semester 5 6 7 8 9 10
MAIN ARTISTIC SUBJECTS ECTS ECTS ECTS ECTS ECTS ECTS
COMPULSORY SUBJECTS
ELECTIVES 3 3 3 3 3
Source: Information Sheet – Diploma Studies of Conducting, Department of Conducting, The Vienna
University of Music and Performing Arts, 2012.
It is notable that students who have chosen to specialise in orchestral conducting continue to
study choral conducting, as well as vocal coaching and piano studies. As a result of this,
students are well placed to enter the profession through the opera house, perhaps beginning
as a repetiteur or chorus master if this is the best option available to them. This is a common
124
Of particular interest amongst these various subjects is the aural training that students
receive for four of their five years of study. Designed specifically for conductors and
composers by the school’s aural training specialist Violaine de Larminat, the first two years
of the course involve piano-based aural training similar to that found in many schools. During
the second phase of studies, however, de Larminat increasingly uses examples from the
chamber music and orchestral literature as a basis for tuition, developing the students’
abilities to hear and analyse these more complex textures. Second diploma students also
have the option of taking a newly-designed two semester course focused specifically on
intonation and tuning. The first semester introduces students to the various systems of
tuning and the challenges they present from an acoustic point of view. The second semester
looks at specific problems for different groups (such as choirs, strings and winds) and
engages with issues relating to human perception of tuning. The school has made
exercises for the students, and the school has plans to dedicate a number of orchestra
rehearsals specifically to this challenge of tuning and intonation.98 These courses can be
considered cutting edge in terms of aural training for conductors, and put the Vienna
University of Music and Performing Arts at the forefront of conductor education in this area.
Many aspects of the course are new and de Larminat herself acknowledges that there are
several parts of the program which are experimental.99 The world of conducting pedagogy
should follow her work with great interest, as it seems there is room for significant further
research in this area. With analytical listening being such an important part of what a
At any given time, sixty students or more may be enrolled to study conducting at the Vienna
University of Music and Performing Arts, making it the largest concentration of conducting
students in the world. In the academic year of 2012-13 Professor Stringer had twenty-one
students under his tutelage, whilst Professor Lajovic had thirty-nine students (this figure
includes students officially enrolled with his assistant Simeon Pironkoff).100 According to
Stringer the custom of having large class sizes largely stems from the practices established
by Hans Swarowsky during his tenure following the Second World War.101 In 2012-13
thirteen women were enrolled in the course, giving a male to female ratio of approximately
five to one.102
As a result of having two orchestral conducting professors of equal status at any given
time, there are two distinct classes within the Institute. In Mark Stringer’s opinion, there is
Each professor is free to design his own course structure and approach to the practical
training of his students. As is clear from the audition procedure, students are expected to
have at least a reasonable level of competence on the piano. Though students who are not
strong on piano skills can be accepted into the program, those students will be expected to
We have several students who are not pianists, and don’t particularly play
well. But for these five years, they are put to the mill and they have to come
out with a test for the jury at the end of their studies.104
100
Bernhard Radschiner, email to author, 15 July 2013.
101 Stringer.
102
Radschiner.
103 Stringer.
104 Stringer.
126
This emphasis on keyboard skills can be said to be typical of most university conducting
programs in the German speaking world.105 One of the benefits of this is that students are in
a position to play for each other and this is the approach that Stringer takes with his
conducting class. He divides his class into units containing five students, each unit having a
three hour conducting class, twice a week. These groups are generally organised by year
group within the program. At any given time in a class, four students will be sitting at two
pianos, playing from orchestral scores, and one will be standing on the podium conducting.
These sessions naturally include discussions about conducting technique and interpretation,
but may also extend to discussions of general musical issues and issues related to score
preparation. Sessions with small ensemble or orchestra are scheduled in addition to these
piano based classes at the discretion of the professor. A typical semester might see a total
of twenty ensemble/orchestral scheduled over a fifteen week period. First and second year
students tend to work with an ensemble, with sessions focused on one particular year group.
Orchestral sessions for those pursuing their second diploma tend to pool all those students
together and are concentrate on more substantial repertoire. Once a semester a guest
teacher is also invited by Stringer to work with his advanced students for an intensive period
of several days.106
Professor Uroš Lajovic takes a very different approach to the structure of his class.
Rather than dividing his class up into smaller units, he prefers to have all students together
at one time for periods of intensive work. He begins these periods with one or two sessions
discussing the works to be played with his students, analysing the works, and discussing
According to Lajovic:
The composer had to come a long way from the idea to the realisation [of the
piece], the realisation being the score. We have the score and must go the
Lajovic’s approach to the score can be characterised as a form of reverse engineering that
the student must undertake to fully comprehend the composer’s intentions. It seems the
strength and depth of the Vienna school’s supporting subjects involving theory and analysis
education.
These sessions for theoretical discussion are then followed by two three hour sessions
with two pianos, where at any given time four students are reading the work from full score
and one is conducting. Again, all students are present, and the pianists and conductors are
rotated. Though students are conducting in these sessions, much time is again given over to
Keyboard sessions are then followed by two sessions with orchestra, with all instruments
being covered where possible. The focus of these rehearsals is now very much on the
conducting itself. Lajovic’s assistant, Simeon Pironkoff, also works with the students in
between these intensive periods, in particular with students in the earlier part of their studies.
The difference in approaches between the two teachers can perhaps be explained by the
fact that Uros Lajovic was a pupil of Swarowsky, and his practice of teaching large groups of
there is a positive sense of competition between the two classes: ‘It’s a healthy competition:
The ensemble that students work with periodically over the course of their studies is
known within the school as the Pro Arte Ensemble. It consists mostly of current students
128
who are paid for their services, and is often supplemented by graduates of the school and
some professionals, often from Bratislava. The ensemble is very flexible in size and can be
anything from a small chamber ensemble to an orchestra big enough to play a Mahler
symphony. In the 2012-13 academic year the overall budget for the ensemble is around
80,000 euros (approximately US$109,000 as of December 2013), with the two professors
dividing this amount equally between them. This money can be spent as they see fit, so they
can choose to have a small number of sessions with a large orchestra, many sessions with
an ensemble, or take a balanced approach over the course of the year. Mark Stringer takes
the last approach with a combination of large orchestra sessions, and small ensemble
work.110
approach to repertoire progression for students can be taken over the course of their
studies. Whereas Lajovic pools all of his students together for conducting tuition, Stringer’s
classes are divided into year groups, especially in the first two years of study, providing
more flexibility. In these early years, emphasis is given to works from the Baroque and
Classical period, with a particular engagement with works involving text (though other works
are of course included). Repertoire for Stringer’s students in their second period of study
varies more widely, and is not dissimilar to the repertoire selection found at other schools,
The repertoire covered by Lajovic, much like other schools investigated in this study, is
inevitably less structured in terms of when students encounter particular repertoire, given
that different year groups are studying together. However, he takes great pride in the
amount of repertoire his students learn during their period of study, and aims to cover
approximately thirty major works with his students per year, all of which are encountered
with orchestra. He estimates that students will cover at least 120 work major works over the
110 Stringer.
129
course of their studies, which means that they will be well versed in all standard repertoire
pieces.111
Graduation
At the end of their five years of study, students must sit for a final examination in order to be
awarded their degree. This examination is divided in to two parts, one open to the public and
one held behind closed doors. The latter includes a performance of two varied works on the
piano, a wide-ranging interview with the jury on various musical subjects, and a rehearsal
session with orchestra. For this rehearsal the candidate must choose twenty pieces from a
list of repertoire containing thirty works. From this list, the jury selects two works to be
rehearsed. The candidate makes his or her selection at the end of the fourth year of study,
and the final selection of the two works is made one week in advance of the actual exam.
Thus a substantial amount of time is available for preparation. Should the student
successfully pass this closed exam, they may proceed to the final open examination with
orchestra. From the twenty works the candidate has chosen, the school chooses one work
which is then presented in a public performance. The students are informed of the work to
be performed at the end of their second to last semester of study. Additionally, students
must submit either an Artistic Diploma Thesis, or present a concert that is supported by an
Despite the passage of nearly forty years since the end of his tenure, the name of Hans
Swarowsky still resonates strongly within the walls of the Vienna University of Music and
Performing Arts. Swarowsky was a well-known and respected conductor during his lifetime,
but is today primarily remembered for his teaching in Vienna over a twenty-nine year period.
111 Lajovic.
112 Stringer.
130
Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado and Mariss Jansons, three of the biggest names in conducting
Vienna. The ’50s and ‘60s were a golden era for Vienna’s conducting class, just as they
were for Vienna’s musical life in general, with conductors such as Fürtwangler, Karajan,
Böhm and Solti all spending significant periods of time in the city. As has already been
observed, Swarowsky had a policy of having a very large conducting class, and as such
taught an enormous number of students during his reign. Given this large body of former
pupils, some have questioned whether Swarowsky was indeed a great teacher, or whether it
was simply inevitable that there would be some success stories amongst all of these
You see the names who came from Vienna who have in their CVs that they
studied with Swarowsky. Because that’s what you read, you don’t read the
other 36 who say I studied conducting with Swarowsky and became a
computer programmer.113
As Pallo points out, whilst there are many pupils of Swarowsky who made successful
careers, a large number of his students went in other directions after their studies. Naturally,
we hear only of those who were successful. Vienna itself has long been a mecca for all kinds
of students of music due to the city’s rich cultural history and high level of music making, and
it is logical to assume that many conducting students made their way there for this reason,
as much as for the teachings of any particular pedagogue. Pallo certainly holds this view:
It was a great place to be… Karajan being the director of the opera, all of the
great conductors coming through Vienna, Wiener Festwochen with Böhm and
whoever else. That was a great place, that’s where we learnt, what to do or
what not to do… Vienna in the late fifties into the sixties and seventies was
really the place to be, to see all the great conductors.114
This factor is probably still a significant attraction for students today, in addition to the
reputation of the school and its professors. Stringer himself openly admits that this is the
case:
As Stringer observes, to be able to walk the same streets and, more importantly, engage in
the same culture as some of our greatest composers, can only be beneficial to a music
student, and Vienna is one of the few cities in the world that can offer this.
Perhaps it is this combination of a good school and these uniquely rich cultural
surroundings that has made Vienna a centre for conducting studies. Zubin Mehta, in his
Here, Mehta points to both his formal training and his musical surroundings as the reasons
why Vienna made such a long-lasting impression on him. Professor Lajovic represents a
strong link to the Swarowsky era for today’s school and considers his teaching to be based
on the same principles and philosophies as his former teacher.117 According to Lajovic,
The people who did not know Swarowsky, they simply cannot know what
Swarowsky was. Because he was an absolute star, and represented
Viennese cultural life before the first world war. And Vienna was the centre of
culture in Europe before the first world war.118
This period of Viennese cultural life at the beginning of the twentieth century that Lajovic
refers to saw some of classical music’s giants co-exist in the same city. Mahler, Strauss,
Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, to name a few, all worked in Vienna at this time, and
115 Stringer.
116 Mehta and Matuschka, 21.
117 Lajovic.
118 Lajovic.
132
influenced each other, much as they would influence the path of music in the 20th century.
Swarowsky began his university studies studying the workings of the human mind with
Sigmund Freud, rather than music.119 He later studied art history before undertaking
conducting studies with Felix Weingartner, and at the same time studied composition with
Arnold Schoenberg, and later with Anton Webern. He sang in the premiere of Mahler’s 8th
Symphony in Munich, conducted by the composer, and knew many leading composers of
the time including Richard Strauss, Béla Bartók, Paul Hindemith, and Igor Stravinsky.
Lajovic says, ‘It was his world. And all he knew he gave us.’120
Despite his strong roots to Vienna’s past, Swarowsky was forward thinking in many
... he was a man of our times. His friendship with the members of the Second
Viennese School alone made him quite modern. He kept the flag of this
altogether new music flying very high indeed – and this was in the mid-1950s!
But as far as the classics were concerned, his unvarying credo was that
Mozart's andante could never be an adagio. He was all for quick tempi and in
this respect was completely different from many other conductors of his
time.122
It seems in fact that he was a man ahead of his time in several respects. Vienna in the
1950s was far from being a hotbed of modernism, and even the composers of the Second
Viennese School were neglected. His commitment to these works and others by living
composers made him a unique figure in Viennese cultural life at the time. Equally, his
preference for ‘quick tempi’ and a flowing Mozart andante, seem to point forward to the early
music movement which did not begin in earnest for another twenty years. This is particularly
so when one remembers his research into original manuscripts. Though not a pupil of
Swarowsky himself, Stringer has come to have a deep respect for what he stood for:
He was clearly an incredibly intelligent musician who was very far ahead of
his time in the forties and fifties musicologically. And his utter obsession with
manuscripts and what Schubert’s manuscripts look like and musicological
119 Hans Swarowsky, Wahrung der Gestalt (Vienna: Universal Edition, 1979). Dust jacket.
120 Lajovic.
122 Lajovic.
133
research and his knowledge of the renaissance music. Really far ahead of his
time.123
This respect for the score which was his trademark was also the starting point for the studies
of his pupils. According to Nicholas Braithwaite, who studied with Swarowsky in the early
1960s, much of his teaching was done in the form of seminars for the students (who
He’d take a piece of music and talk about how you approach it as a
conductor. First his mantra was the analysis, and he’d go on from there to
other things….He taught me to analyse music in terms of 8 bar structures,
and if it isn’t [8 bars], there’s a diminution or extension... that’s a great aide
memoire as well.124
During Braithwaite’s period of study (1961-63), these seminars were the only contact
beginning students had with Swarowsky, and the actual physical act of conducting was not
investigated thoroughly until the later years of study. Parallels can also be drawn between
Swarowsky and Lajovic in this regard, as students of Lajovic will likely spend more time
working on practical aspects with the assistant teacher at the beginning of their studies,
This emphasis on score analysis as a starting point is also something that Lajovic
It means very deep analysis of works. His method of teaching was absolute
knowing of the piece with all its elements – elements of construction,
periodics, elements of harmony, elements of counterpoint, elements of
knowing of composition itself.125
Swarowsky’s analytical approach to the score is summarised in the book, Wahrung der
Gestalt, a collection of his writing on the subject of conducting compiled after his death by
Manfred Huss.126 The book also covers issue of style, interpretation, and gives detailed
analyses of key works from the standard repertoire. Tellingly, very few pages are devoted to
123 Stringer.
124 Nicholas Braithwaite, interview by author, Adelaide, 15 April 2011.
125 Lajovic.
126 Hans Swarowsky, Wahrung der Gestalt (Vienna: Universal Edition, 1979).
134
the physical aspect of conducting, the emphasis being very much on analysis and the score
itself.
technique. A cornerstone of his teaching was the importance of the upbeat. Lajovic
comments:
With the upbeat you have to give the tempo, dynamic and character of the
note which is following. Upbeat is not only upbeat. It’s the whole information
about everything that you have to demand from the orchestra. So our
conducting is not beating, our conducting is really illustration of what has to
happen.127
It is not particularly unusual for a teacher to demand that a great deal of information is
communicated in the upbeat, but as Lajovic points out, Swarowsky insisted on ‘the whole
information about everything’, being communicated in this preparatory gesture. This can be
My colleague [Lajovic] says an upbeat has to have a click, you cannot get
an orchestra together without the click… what I call a click but what it is, is
a defined beginning of the upbeat, through the wrist. I will be the first one in
line to say - that really works. The orchestra plays so well together.128
This ‘click’ that Stringer refers to can be seen in the conducting of many former Swarowsky
students, a particularly good example being Mehta. Stringer wonders if this click may be
related to the Viennese approach to sound production, which often results in a delayed
sound:
I’m convinced that the reason they are so insistent on the click with the
upbeat is – here in Vienna if you don’t do that… they will play centuries
behind your beat and the click is like a lasso, it just pulls the orchestra
closer to your beat.129
127 Lajovic.
128 Stringer.
129 Stringer.
135
A click introduces more rhythmic definition and precision into a gesture, and an orchestra,
generally speaking, will respond sooner to a precise, well-defined gesture than to a rounder
gesture, which may open the door for an orchestra that is inclined to play late, to play very
late indeed. The exact mechanics and reasons for this phenomenon are worthy of a
Much like Musin, Swarowsky considered that every conducted beat had a preparatory
upbeat, and that this principle of giving all information to the orchestra in the upbeat applied
at all times. Hence the conductor has to think well in advance what he or she wants on the
We must think the score in so called ‘phase shifting’ – one beat ahead.
Because he [Swarowsky] said you have to show everybody in the orchestra
what you want from them in time, it has to be one metrical unit before it
should happen… we meet the orchestra at the last beat of the score. From
the beginning, through all the score, we are conducting one metrical unit
before the orchestra.130
If all information is to be given in the upbeat, then this information is given one metrical unit
before, as Lajovic suggests. The conductor is then in effect giving all instructions one beat in
advance, and the score has become, in the conductor’s mind at least, ‘phase shifted.’ This is
We are conducting from two scores, we are giving instructions from the
phase shifted score, and we are repairing from the real score. What already
happened. Professor Swarowsky said, conducting is a mental thing. It has to
happen at first in our mind, in our heads.131
The two scores that Lajovic refers to here are therefore the conductor’s image of the work,
and then the orchestra’s realisation of that image. The conductor must of course engage
with what the orchestra produces, in order make corrections and ‘repair’ what has
130 Lajovic.
131 Lajovic.
136
When you conduct, you should be, as leader, one step before the others.
When you are not one step before the others, you are not a conductor, but a
companion… conducting is much more than only beating the time.132
This seems to be the essence of the Swarowsky approach to technique – that all musical
impulses and wishes are communicated to the orchestra well in advance, thus giving the
orchestra time to digest the information, and react in good time. The musical impulses
themselves, of course, being based on a thorough analysis of the score, and a meaningful
after his passing. Whether the numerous famous graduates produced were as a result of
excellent tuition, or were simply a by-product of the sheer numbers of students and the
attraction of Vienna itself, is impossible to say. However, he was a key figure in the city’s
musical culture, combining strong ties to Vienna’s cultural heritage, whilst at the same time
looking forward to musical trends that lay well into the future. With Lajovic having retired in
2012, and his successor yet to be appointed, it remains to be seen whether the Swarowsky
Summary
The primary distinctive feature of the conducting program of the Vienna University of Music
and Performing Arts is the unusually large size of its student body, a feature that can be
traced back to the practices of Swarowsky, the father figure of the program. If one takes the
position that the key role of an institution training conductors is to develop skills and
knowledge in the areas of music theory, history, score analysis, aural skills, keyboard
playing, and other supporting subjects, then the Vienna approach makes sense. With such
large student numbers, it is feasible for the school to design these subjects specifically for
conductors, and to offer a remarkably rich and broad general musical education. For
132 Lajovic.
137
students in their early years of studies, these subjects make up the bulk of the education
itself, with the physical act of conducting being merely a focal point.
However, there are downsides to this approach. Students inevitably receive less
individual attention, and in particular, less time conducting an orchestra. Though the
program invests significant resources to provide a practice orchestra for students, this
investment is diluted by the sheer size of the student body. Students will therefore graduate
with less practical conducting experience than those of other schools examined in this study.
Also of note is the two teacher system employed, leading to two distinct and separate
classes within the one school. To a certain extent this may be a necessity given the number
of students, but it also creates an interesting dynamic within the school, adding a healthy
element of competition.
The Vienna school must be viewed in the context of musical life in the German-speaking
countries, and in particular, in the context of the German opera house system. For most of
the twentieth century this was the obvious career path for European conductors, and the
Vienna approach is clearly aimed at preparing students for this world. In comparison to other
schools in this study, the school can be said to take a very traditional approach, which might
be viewed as old fashioned by some. If the school is able to maintain its impressive regimen
of supporting subjects whilst reducing student numbers to some degree, the program may
138
2.4 The University of Arts, Zürich
The Zürich University of the Arts (Zürcher Hochschule der Künste) was formed on August
2007 as a result of the merger of the Zürich School of Music, Drama and Dance, and the
School of Art and Design Zürich. This merger created an institution that is one of the largest
art universities in Europe, with over 2,500 students studying music, design, film, art, media,
dance, theatre and art education. Prior to the merger, the Zürich School of Music, Drama
and Dance itself was a relatively young institution having been formed in 1999 as the result
of the integration of various organisations including the Zürich School of Music. Despite the
various name changes it has undergone in recent years, the music school has a long history
Immediately after the 1999 merger, a new conducting program was established, with
Johannes Schlaefli appointed as its director. Prior to this, the music schools in Zürich, Bern,
Basel and Geneva had run a joint conducting program known as ‘Kapellmeisterklasse’ under
the general direction of conductor Manfred Honeck. However, this system was abandoned
when the Swiss music school system was re-organised, as it was felt that a single school
approach was more practical.134 Under Schlaefli’s guidance, the reputation of the conducting
program has developed rapidly and it can now be said to be one of the most desired schools
at which to study in Europe. Compared to the other schools examined, it can be considered
to be in its relative infancy at fourteen years of age. Despite this, a number of graduates
already hold important positions. Young conductors such as Patrick Lange (until recently
Music Director of the Komische Oper Berlin), Philippe Bach (Music Director in Meiningen),
Nathan Brock (resident conductor of the Montreal Symphony), Leo McFall and Mirga
Grazinyte, can all be said to be leaders in their field. Schlaefli is also active as a teacher of
masterclasses outside of the school which are well attended. However, his focus remains
The conducting program of the Zürich University of Arts is unique in that it offers studies at
three different levels: a Bachelor of Arts in Music degree, a Master of Arts in Music
Performance degree. This provides students with a generous range of options in terms of
level and duration of studies. In theory, a student could spend a total of seven years
studying conducting if they enrolled in the Bachelor program and worked their way through
the available courses. Alternatively, a more experienced musician has the option to study for
just two years and graduate with a Masters degree, but also has the possibility of continuing
to the Master of Arts in Specialised Music, giving them a total of four years of study. Thus, a
As discussed in Part One of this thesis, there is some debate as to whether it is best to
study conducting at the undergraduate or postgraduate level, with some teachers feeling
that the student is better off doing an undergraduate degree on their primary instrument,
prior to beginning serious conducting studies. Schlaefli himself was initially sceptical of
It came with the Bologna system – we had to do it. But we are very careful
about students studying a Bachelor in conducting, because I think that the
best way is that someone becomes a musician first, and it’s very good to play
an orchestral instrument – it’s not necessary, but it’s very good, to know the
orchestra from the inside and then to do that step [of studying conducting].135
The Bachelor degree in Zürich is unusual in that the student effectively does a double major
degree, majoring in both conducting and their primary instrument. This gives the student the
develop their conducting skills and knowledge of the orchestral repertoire at an early stage.
Over a period of three years, students are required to collect a total of 180 ECTS points, with
instrumental lessons, conducting, and piano/score reading being at the core of the program.
135 Schlaefli.
140
The rest of the curriculum at the Bachelor level is identical to that undertaken by all other
music students. Supporting subjects such as history, harmony and ear training are also
required, and first year students also sing in a choir. The undergraduate program in Zürich is
notable for including some subjects not often seen on classical music courses, such as
physiology and good habits for the body. Though they only make up a small part of a
student’s studies (7 points out of 180), their inclusion points to an open-minded and forward
looking program, rather than one resting solely on traditional educational principles. A
common feature of all the degrees offered in Zürich is a grouping of subjects collectively
referred to as the ‘Individual Profile’ for each student.136 The areas of study for these
subjects are agreed upon between the student and the school, and allow the student to have
a focus on a particular area of interest through their degree. Table 5 presents an outline of
Though the Bachelor degree is not unpopular, most students enter at the Masters level,
and this is the focus of conducting studies at the Zürich University of Arts.137 At this level the
art of conducting itself is the focus and only supporting subjects that relate to conducting
directly are included. Over a two year period students must collect a total of 120 points, with
68 of these points coming from core conducting subjects. Students are also required to
study piano/score reading, aural skills, analysis, and attend a number of orchestra
rehearsals and concerts of professional orchestras. The supporting subjects offered are
designed with conductors in mind. The aural studies are aimed specifically at conductors
and the repertoire studied in the analysis program is aligned with the repertoire that the
students are conducting at that time, though other students may also take the subject.
Year
1 2 3 Total
Semester
1 2 3 4 5 6
Core Studies
Music history
2 2 2 6
Harmony, Analysis and Form
2.5 2.5 5
Harmony, Analysis – New Music
2.5 2.5 5
Ear training
2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 10
Theory
3 3 6
Practical Music Studies
Body development/Physiology
1.5 1.5 3
Choir
1 1 2
Group improvisation
1 1 2
Elocution
1 1 2
Individual Profile
Bachelor Project
3 3 6
Z-Module
1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 9
Learning agreement
2 2 4.5 6.5 3.5 3.5 22
(Lernvereinbarung)
Total
30 30 30 30 30 30 180
Source: Lehrplan, Bachelor of Arts in Musik, Zürich University of Arts, 2013. Translated by author.
142
It is worth noting that Schlaefli likes to take a flexible approach to these extra studies, as he
does not wish to overburden the student with studies that may not be necessary. Therefore,
in cases where a student already has advanced keyboard skills and is an adept score
reader, or has advanced aural skills, they may be exempted from these classes. Schlaefli
explains:
We decide when people do the audition. We decide they don’t need this,
they don’t need that and we just give the credit points, because conducting
itself is a thing that is so challenging – to learn so many pieces, so many
pages of scores... and that takes so much time, so much energy. So why
should somebody spend hours in an ear training class when they are already
fantastic? The ears are trained when they are conducting. But if somebody
needs help, then they should do it.138
This in turn allows the teachers of these areas to focus their energies on the students who
Just as in the Bachelor degree, the student agrees on an ‘Individual Profile’ with the
school, giving a personalised focus to the degree. Additionally, students gain credit for
working as assistants on two to three projects at some point during their studies. Table 6
138 Schlaefli.
143
Table 6. Master of Arts in Music Performance curriculum, Zürich University of Arts.
Year
1 2 Total
Semester
1 2 3 4
Core Subjects
Piano/Score reading
3 3 3 3 12
Ear training
1 1 2
Analysis
2 2 2 6
Concert and Rehearsal visits
4
Individual Profile
Elective
16
Assisting
4
Master project
8
Total
120
Source: Lehrplan, Bachelor of Arts in Musik, Zürich University of Arts, 2013. Translated by author.
At the level of the Specialised Masters degree, the focus of studies is tightened further
still on the core conducting studies, with supporting subjects such as ear training, analysis
and score reading, not appearing at all in the curriculum. As well as continuing general
conducting studies, students are required to develop a personal focus on a chosen area of
repertoire or type of ensemble. Students entering this degree may be continuing on from the
regular Masters degree discussed above, or they may enter directly. Like the regular
Masters, this is a two year program and students are required to collect 120 points. The
144
Specialised Masters is unique amongst the schools studied for this dissertation, and
Schlaefli acknowledges that its primary purpose is to give students the option of having more
The Masters degree is only two years - that is very short. We have people
who did not do the Bachelor in conducting, but with an instrument, so the
whole conducting thing is new to them. It is possible, because as we said the
thing the hands do is not so difficult to learn, but to be a good conductor in
the moment needs a lot of experience and then two years is very, very short.
Too short I think.139
The addition of this extra Masters degree therefore allows the student who has entered at
the postgraduate level the possibility of four years of study. Table 7 presents the Specialised
Masters curriculum.
Year
1 2 Total
Semester
1 2 3 4
Core Subjects
Electives
3 3 3 9
Assisting
5
Individual Profile
30
Total
120
Source: Lehrplan, Bachelor of Arts in Musik, Zürich University of Arts, 2013. Translated by author.
139 Schlaefli.
145
The audition
Every year the school receives around thirty applicants for the various levels of the
conducting program, with between one and three new conducting students being
admitted.140
For the Bachelor program, the audition is essentially identical to the audition process for
an instrumentalist or singer, but with the addition of a short conducting examination. This
consists of conducting an ensemble in one work which is chosen by the conducting faculty a
month before the audition. The candidate is then asked questions about musical aspects of
this particular work, and a short interview is conducted regarding their musical ambitions and
reasons for their interest in conducting. In the more general part of the audition process,
aimed at all incoming Bachelor students, the applicants play their instrument or sing (just as
if they were majoring in their instrument rather than conducting), sit for an aural exam, theory
exam and perform some sight singing exercises. Somewhat unusually, the Zürich University
of the Arts also includes improvisation as part of the audition process for Bachelor applicants
of all programs. This involves improvising both in a group and individually across a range of
musical styles. Conducting applicants partake in these sessions with their primary
The audition requirements for the two types of Masters degree are identical. Applicants
first send a DVD of themselves conducting an orchestra, ensemble or piano, along with their
relevant musical qualifications. Approximately ten of the applicants are then invited to Zürich
to participate in a live audition of approximately one hour. Much like the applicants at the
Bachelor level, all conductors work with an ensemble on two contrasting pieces selected one
month before the audition. One piece they are instructed to rehearse and the other, to play
through without stopping. They must then give a short demonstration of their abilities on their
primary instrument, play a prepared piece on the piano, and also play a sight reading test on
140 Schlaefli.
146
the piano. Though playing the piano is required in the audition, Schlaefli places more
Candidates are then given a series of solfège and aural tests, and finally, are interviewed
both on their career objectives and level of general musical knowledge. It is worth noting that
graduates from the Bachelor degree in conducting are not required to re-audition for the
Masters level, and can be accepted straight into the program. However, for a student who
has completed the regular Masters degree and wishes to continue with a Specialised
Like most schools investigated in this study, the audition process in Zürich can be said to
be detailed and thorough. However, Schlaefli still does not believe the process is really
sufficient:
It can be really unfair, because some people need time and the audition is
quite short … in courses it can be that after the first day I think that
somebody doesn’t have this talent, and on the second day, I think – Wow, I
never expected that. Then I think I should have auditions for a whole week,
and decide after five times instead of after one time! But unfortunately that
is not possible.143
It seems doubtful that there is a practical solution to this problem that would lie within the
remember that despite the rigours of these procedures, there is inevitably an element of
141 Schlaefli.
142 Schlaefli.
143 Schlaefli.
147
The conducting class
In the 2012-13 academic year, a total of nine students studied conducting in the Zürich
program, including one Erasmus exchange student. According to Schlaefli, this can be
considered a standard class size for the school. These nine students consisted of two
students studying at the Bachelor level, three in the regular Masters program and four
studying towards the Specialised Masters degree. In the 2011-12 academic year two
members of the class were female, but in the 2012-13 academic year, the class was all
male. The class can be considered to be very international with only three Swiss nationals
enrolled and six students coming from other parts of Europe, Asia and South America.
Unlike Finland, where the number of foreign students has sometimes been contentious, the
Zürich University of Arts has no issue with the majority of conducting students being
Of course the school likes to have Swiss students and that can be a factor
when students are of a similar level [at the audition]. But the school
understands that this is an international school and the best applicants
should study.144
Foreign students must, however, pay slightly more for their tuition than their Swiss
counterparts. As of 2013, tuition fees for Swiss students are 720 Swiss francs per semester,
with foreigners paying 1,220 Swiss francs per semester (approximately US$800 and
US$1,350 respectively as of December, 2013).145 The Zürich program is, therefore, more
expensive than some other European schools, though students with financial difficulties can
Every Monday, all conducting students (regardless of the degree for which they are
studying) come together for a morning and afternoon session at the university, each lasting
three hours. No ensemble is present at the morning session and this time is reserved for
open discussion. This discussion can revolve around repertoire that is currently being
occasionally a guest may be invited to talk about specific instrumental techniques or issues
In the afternoon session the class has a small ensemble to work with, consisting of a
string quintet and wind quartet, with conducting students filling in missing parts at the piano.
Schlaefli refers to this session as a ‘Geschützte Werkstätte’, which translates roughly into
English as a ‘sheltered workshop’. The implication being that there is plenty of time for
discussion of various issues as they arise and a relaxed and open approach is taken. This is
in contrast to a session with orchestra where time is considered precious and must not be
wasted with too much talking. Much like the morning session, a wide variety of issues may
rehearsal technique and how to get the best out of a group of musicians. Students also have
a weekly individual session with Schlaefli of around forty minutes and again, a flexible
approach is taken to the use of this time. It is often used to watch videos from earlier
sessions, but may also involve working on technical issues or discussing any problems the
Unlike most other schools examined in this study, there is no ‘lab orchestra’ or practice
orchestra with which the students work on a weekly basis. Instead, students have the
Workshops and Study Weeks (Studienwochen). Workshops tend to be fairly short and
focused, lasting perhaps one or two rehearsals, and involve the students conducting one of
a wide range of orchestras in Switzerland who work regularly with the conducting class.
Schlaefli comments:
Orchester Zürich, Sinfonisches Orchester Zürich, Capella dei giovani Aarau, Winterthürer
Sinfonieorchester and Opernstudio Biel.147 Orchestras from the music school itself also
participate on occasion, though Schlaefli points out that the school prefers the class not to
As the name suggests, Study Weeks are longer in duration and normally involve four to
six students travelling to an orchestra where they spend four or five days rehearsing and
also give a shared performance at the week’s end. These orchestras are hired by the school
and are often in either the Czech Republic or Bulgaria. Orchestras that the conducting class
has visited in recent years include the symphony orchestras of Karlsbad, Marienbad und
Bulgaria.148 Students are normally given the opportunity to attend three of these Study
Weeks per year. Thus, the students have access to a wide range of orchestras of varying
levels, abilities and cultural backgrounds, for short, concentrated periods of time.
Whilst having a regular practice orchestra ‘in house’ would be a simpler solution
logistically to working with all of these different orchestras, there are numerous advantages
to this system for the students. Working with a regular practice orchestra of students or
freelancers on a weekly basis (as is a common practice at many of the schools studied) can
potentially lead to a problem of overfamiliarity. Over time, the conducting students and the
players will inevitably form some kind of relationship, and in most circumstances, this is likely
to be a positive relationship. This is of course desired, and the best thing for that particular
and players may be able to discuss issues openly, particularly when problems arise. On the
other hand, this atmosphere is a long way from what students will likely experience in the
profession, and they may find making the transition to working with strangers with high
expectations challenging in the early stages of their career. The Zürich approach has the
A broad range of repertoire from the baroque era right through to contemporary music is
covered in the course. Opera is also included in the studies from time to time, but it is fair to
say that the focus is primarily on orchestral conducting, certainly in comparison to other
German speaking conducting programs. Due to the irregular nature of contact with
mind, rather than following any form of organic progression. Repertoire must be appropriate
for the orchestras that are being visited, and in any case, the students may be in the first
year of their studies or their seventh, thus giving an additional complication to organising a
structured approach to the introduction of new repertoire. Schlaefli acknowledges that this is
perhaps not ideal, but feels it is not a huge problem for the students, and is a necessary by-
Graduation
At the Bachelor level there is no final examination, but instead, students take an examination
known as a ‘Modulprüfung’ at the end of the second year of their studies. This is a relatively
straightforward exam and involves conducting a small ensemble in a rehearsal setting within
the school.
The graduation procedure for Masters students is far more in depth. For both Masters
degrees, the conducting component of the assessment is identical, with the primary focus
151
These exams are normally incorporated into summer concerts with the Bieler
Sinfonieorchester, where several students can share the podium. The jury also attends a
rehearsal for the performance, and after the rehearsal the graduating student has a
discussion with the jury known as a ‘Probenkolloquium’, where general issues about music
and the conducting profession can be discussed. Additionally, students must complete three
shorter exams, ten to fifteen minutes in duration, which are normally done with a small group
at the school. The first involves working with a singer and involves conducting operatic
recitatives and accompanying, the second tests the students’ skills in accompanying a
soloist and the third involves conducting through a work with complicated beating patterns,
normally a contemporary work. This combination of public and in-house examinations gives
For the regular Masters level there are examinations in analysis, ear training and score
reading; and for both Masters levels an academic paper of 10–20 pages is required. In the
case of the Specialised Masters, this paper is focused on their chosen area of specialisation
for the degree, and for the regular Masters student, the document examines the works they
are performing in their concert. Should the student fail a part of the examination procedure
for any reason, they may retake the exam, but the second result is considered final.149
Johannes Schlaefli has been teaching conducting for nearly two decades. Over this period
of time, he has developed specific viewpoints on the role of the conducting professor, and
how to extract the best results from students. For Schlaefli, it is important to remember the
149
Schlaefli.
152
information [from the teacher] at the right time. If you get just a lot of
information then you are just overwhelmed, and people get stuck.150
As discussed in Section 1.7, this feeling of being overwhelmed often leads to the conductor
being unable to listen analytically, and thus, unable to rehearse effectively. Schlaefli
therefore does not wish to add too many further complications for the student:
For me also it was important to learn to say maybe only five percent of what
I could say. To filter and also to allow the right amount of time for growth
and to realise when a student needs time before I mention a certain thing I
see. I don’t mention it at all and wait for the right moment to go into that
certain subject.151
In this way, students can deal with one issue at a time and give that particular issue the
attention and time it needs to improve. Schlaefli sees his role as being closer to that of a
coach, rather than a teacher. In his view, it is his job to lead the students on a path of
discovery, and to point out important concepts they need to understand at the right stage of
their development:
For this approach to succeed, every student must be treated on individual terms and receive
a great amount of personal attention from the teacher. This philosophy has much in common
150 Schlaefli.
151 Schlaefli.
152 Schlaefli.
153
with that of Jorma Panula, who often stresses the importance of the individuality of each
student, and plays a role closer to that of a mentor than a teacher per se.153 A further
commonality with the Finnish pedagogue is the importance Schlaefli places on a positive
class atmosphere:
For me it’s very important that my class feels like a family. They talk to each
other, they support each other, and they learn from each other. And that’s
also how I teach when we have video reviews… very often I say, ‘This
passage didn’t work, do you remember how the other student did that
passage – it worked... try to get something out of that image and try to go in
the same direction.’ So I encourage them to really learn from each other.
On the other hand I try to also point out that each one is different.
Something can work for him, but for me it doesn’t work. So that’s why I like
that they are together and to watch and observe each other and see what
they can learn from each other and realise where they are unique and
different.154
Schlaefli encourages students to analyse and be aware of each other’s strengths and
weaknesses, with fellow students representing a model for learning in particular situations.
This approach also ensures that students remain fully engaged with proceedings – and
Whilst there are similarities with the Finnish school, it seems that Schlaefli is not quite
as liberal in his approach as Panula, and has clearly defined principles which he wishes his
students to embody. The most important of these principles is the wish to see a clear
I always try to encourage the students that the number one when being in
front of the orchestra is not to do no mistakes and have the four in the right
point – this is also important, sometimes it’s number two – but the number
one is always to be there as a musically vibrating personality, who is asking
for sounds just by being there. We can just feel this person needs this kind
of sound. And if someone is standing in front of the orchestra and kind of
waiting for what is coming and there is no inner vision, no inner image of
how the sound should be, then we immediately realise and it’s weak. It can
be very clean, it can be very OK, but it doesn’t help.155
154
Though technique is taught and valued, it is ultimately only a means to an end. Perhaps this
inner vision cannot be taught explicitly. Certainly, some teachers may view this as something
that a student either has or not. Schlaefli, however, is keen to encourage and nurture this
fundamental quality in his students throughout their studies, and continually reminds them
that of the many things they must think of when on the podium, this is the most important
thing.
Summary
The Zürich University of the Arts is unique in the context of this study in that it is still in its
relative infancy, the current program having only begun in 1999. Whilst the program does
have some antecedents, there are no pedagogical giants in whose footsteps Johannes
Schlaefli must tread. Perhaps this should be considered as a positive, as it has given him
the opportunity to make a completely fresh start, and to develop a program after his own
The program is particularly notable for its mobility, with the conducting class regularly
travelling to work with orchestras external to the institution, rather than relying on orchestras
provided by the school. More than any other course, it relies on its relationships with other
organisations in the musical community, as well as its financial power to buy orchestral time
abroad. The relatively small physical size of Switzerland means there are many orchestras
within close proximity, and the fact that Schaefli is Swiss, with strong local connections, is
also a factor that should not be overlooked. It is inevitable that a teacher who is native to the
country of a particular school will bring more of these contacts to their role than a teacher
who is imported from elsewhere. These connections with local orchestras are something that
many conducting programs around the world could aim to emulate. What many might find
difficult to match are the trips which Schlaefli and his class are able to undertake to countries
such as the Czech Republic. To hire an orchestra for a week and pay for the travels and
accommodation of the students, albeit a small group, is expensive. Here the financial
155
strengths of the school come to the fore, and these ‘Study Weeks’ abroad are an integral
part of the Zürich program. With its mix of regular classes on Mondays, and these intensive
periods of work, the conducting program of the Zürich University of Arts seems to have
found a good balance between regular, ongoing tuition, and intensive periods which are
The Juilliard School can trace its history back to 1905 when the Institute of Musical Art was
founded in New York City by Dr Frank Damrosch, a godson of Franz Liszt. In 1926, it
merged with the Juilliard Graduate School (itself founded in 1924) and became the Juilliard
School of Music. Dance and Drama divisions were added in 1951 and 1968 respectively,
and since then it has been known simply as ‘The Juilliard School’. The school currently gives
tuition to around 850 students across all of its divisions, and is arguably the most prestigious
performing arts school in the United States. Juilliard graduates have collectively won 105
The school has a long history of training conductors with a training program for Army
Band leaders being created in 1911. A class for orchestral conductors was introduced in
1934 under the tutelage of Albert Stoessel who played an important role in Juilliard’s early
years, also directing the school’s first opera department. Stoessel continued teaching until
1943, and subsequent teachers of note included Frederick Prausnitz (1945−1961) and Jean
Morel (1948−1971).157 In 1972, the school established a graduate conducting program and
Sixten Ehrling took over the duties of principal conducting teacher. 1979 saw the Lila
Juilliard press release, this project, ‘was billed as the first year-round program for conductors
Mueller in 1987, who in turn handed over direction of the program to James DePriest in
2004. In 2011, Alan Gilbert, Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, and James Ross
took over the program, taking on the roles of Director and Associate Director respectively.
Together they have given fresh impetus to the course, with Gilbert’s involvement opening
possibilities for collaboration with the Philharmonic. Former graduates of the program have
included many luminaries such as Leonard Slatkin, Leif Segerstam, James Levine, John
Nelson, Myung-Whun Chung, James Conlon, JoAnn Falletta, Miguel Harth-Bedoya and
Gilbert himself.
The Juilliard School offers a Master of Music degree in conducting, which is normally
undertaken over a two year period.159 Though the possibility of doing an Artist Diploma or
Graduate Diploma also exists in theory, no students are currently enrolled in these
programs.
Masters students are required to accumulate fifty-four credit points over the course of
their degree, twenty-four of which come from their Major Study of conducting, with additional
points coming from a subject known as Conducting Seminar. Students are also required to
attend the first rehearsal of every New York Philharmonic week during the semester,
meeting the conductor in the process. This is referred to as ‘Orchestra (NY Phil)’ on the
syllabus, and is part of a collaboration that will be discussed later in some detail.
Students are also required to take seven ‘graduate courses’ from the general syllabus.
Two of these must be in the area of Music History, with a further two coming from the area of
158Kessin.
159James Ross indicated when interviewed that there may be a possibility of extending this to
three years, under certain circumstances, though they are yet to encounter that scenario.
157
Music Theory. Though not officially compulsory in the curriculum, students ordinarily take
supplementary piano lessons (including score reading) and aural training as part of their
graduate courses. Aural training is not tailored specifically for conducting students, as it is at
It’s a part of exam, so nobody gets in to the program who doesn’t have a
good ear to begin with, but there are some wonderful tough old battle-axe
teachers on this faculty, and they’ve dealt with one famous person after
another and set really high standards for them. So we felt comfortable letting
them have at our students. And until we figure out that there’s something
that’s really not being addressed, we’re going to let Juilliard, the system they
already have setup, take care of that side of aural skills specifically.160
Whilst some conducting professors may find the aural training programs at their institution
wanting (or non-existent as is sometimes the case at postgraduate level), Juilliard has a
At the beginning of their first semester of studies, all students are required to take a
broad placement exam, and may be asked to take further studies over and above the normal
course requirements should they have any areas of deficiency be identified. This is not to be
confused with the audition examinations, it being a completely separate procedure.161 Table
Year 1 2
Semester 1 2 3 4
NY Philharmonic sessions ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶
Conductors’ Forum ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶
Principles of Conducting 2
Conducting Seminar 2 2 2
Methods of Analysis 2
Total 13 13 13 15
The audition
The Juilliard School receives about seventy applications for their conducting program
annually. Applicants are required to submit a curriculum vitae and a video which consists of
up to five excerpts, including at least one rehearsal sequence and at least one concert
sequence, ideally presenting varied repertoire. These applications are then assessed by
Gilbert and Ross, and around fourteen conductors are then invited to do a live audition at
Juilliard. This audition is held over two days, and starts with a 45 minute ear training exam,
followed by a 90 minute written exam on a wide range of topics. In the afternoon, all
candidates are interviewed for 15-20 minutes, and at this time they also have the option to
play their primary instrument to demonstrate their musicianship if they choose. Ross feels
159
A number of the people who did get into the program were people who
played their instrument and we could hear and be impressed by their musical
voice on an instrument, and that made it easier to decide on their behalf.162
The nature of a conducting audition means that a conductor may not always have the
opportunity to present their ‘musical voice’ in the best light, for a variety of reasons. Their
conducting technique may be under-developed meaning they are unable to communicate all
of their ideas to the musicians, or the brief nature of the audition may mean there is no time
to develop a relationship with the orchestra. Playing an instrument at a high level can
potentially remove any doubts the audition panel may have about a conductor’s
musicianship, giving them a fuller picture of the capabilities of the conductor in question.
A short demonstration of their keyboard skills is also required, involving basic clef
reading, and score reading related to the repertoire chosen for the audition. At the end of
this intense first day of activities, approximately six candidates are chosen to continue to the
second day, which begins with candidates conducting the lab orchestra. In the first half of
the orchestral session all six conductors work for about fifteen minutes on a work of their
choice, selected from a group of works pre-determined by the faculty, and a compulsory
work.163 Following the intermission, three candidates are selected to work further with the
orchestra, and Gilbert and Ross effectively treat this part of the process as a lesson, in order
to see if they feel they can work with and develop the students selected.
An exit interview is then conducted with the final candidates, where their potential future
directions can be discussed, regardless of whether they are accepted to the program or not.
In 2011, all three final round candidates were accepted in to the program, and in 2012 one
162 Ross.
163 In the case of the 2011 audition the compulsory work was the Rite of Spring.
164 Ross.
160
The conducting class
In the 2012-13 academic year the class consisted of four Masters students.165 Three
students being US citizens, one foreign, and a male/female ratio of 3 to 1. As the current
course structure is very new, it is too early to speak of average numbers or ratios of any
kind. However, the program is committed to having a relatively small number of students.
This is partly because Ross and Gilbert prefer a compact class size, but also because the
Lyla Acheson Wallace endowment comfortably allows for full scholarships for this number of
students. All students accepted into the program therefore study free of charge.166
The conducting tuition itself takes place in three different settings, which are referred to
as lab orchestra sessions, conducting seminars and lessons. For a number of reasons,
these sessions are not necessarily regular, and there are often periods of more intense
work. This is sometimes due to Gilbert’s availability, but can also be due to the students
The school provides fourteen lab orchestra sessions and fourteen lessons per
semester, averaging out to around one of each session per week. This may be less than
some schools offer in terms of total hours, however, given the remarkably small size of the
class, the podium time per student can be said to be equivalent to other high level schools,
Lab orchestra sessions involve a relatively large orchestra with a regular string size of
6.5.4.4.3 and full coverage of all wind, brass and percussion parts. An overall orchestra size
of around forty-five players is therefore not unusual. For public performances such as the
end of semester recitals, the size of the string section can be expanded as required. The
players are drawn from the Juilliard student body and are paid an honorarium of twenty-five
dollars per rehearsal for their services. Previously, students have also received course
credits for their time in the orchestra, and it is expected that this approach will be
165 One extra guest student was also present for the spring semester of 2012.
166 Ross.
161
reintroduced in the future, in addition to the payment of an honorarium.167 Despite the
orchestra being made up of students, the standard of playing can be said to be very high, as
Juilliard is one of the best regarded schools in the United States across all areas of music
performance.
Whilst these sessions are always recorded on video, students do not necessarily watch
I would say they use the video more than we use it. Everything is recorded,
so they watch their own tapes. We had a couple of special sessions including
one when Haitink came in and did a coaching session and I think we all
watched that together… That’s not the central part of the program, but from
what I understand, they see their own tapes and they also watch their own
tapes with each other, so it felt a little bit arbitrary to watch it again here.168
The video camera therefore plays only a supporting role at Juilliard, being used by the
faculty only when there is clear need. It is interesting to note that the students nevertheless
watch their videos together on occasion, despite the absence of a teacher. This suggests a
healthy class spirit, and supportive atmosphere amongst the students. Where possible,
Gilbert and Ross teach together at lab orchestra sessions, making Juilliard the only school
investigated where students are receiving input from two teachers during the same session.
Other schools may have more than one teacher, but never share lessons on a regular basis.
Given that Gilbert is not always available due to his busy schedule, the presence of Ross at
every session gives the students a continuity that might otherwise be lacking.
Under normal circumstances, students have lab orchestra for two and a half hours on
Friday morning, followed by Conducting Seminar with Ross in the afternoon. In this class no
actual conducting takes place, and is instead a forum for the discussion of a wide variety of
issues. Topics for conversation have included rehearsal techniques, string bowings, wind
and brass techniques and general issues relating to conducting technique. The seminar
often has a particular focus over the course of a semester, with the operas of Mozart
for two and a half to three hours. This group lesson is focused on the repertoire that will be
worked on in the next week’s lab orchestra, and involves the students conducting two
pianos. As such, it can be considered a preparatory lesson for the lab orchestra session of
the following week. This approach of having the final class of the week looking forward to the
next differs from most other schools – a more common approach being to have the
preparatory session the day before the first orchestra rehearsal, as happens at the Sibelius
Academy, for example. The advantage of the Juilliard schedule is that students have a good
deal of time to digest whatever advice they receive in these sessions, and have the
is an extra onus on the students to be well prepared, as they will effectively need to have
repertoire for two weeks in their system at any given time, conducting one set of repertoire
on the Friday, and then another immediately on the Saturday morning. According to Ross
Actually there was a point in the first semester where that became
overloading for at least a couple of the people… But they then saw Alan do
twenty-five different pieces in the first three and a half weeks and learn
more than half of them were things he was doing for the first time too. Then
they didn’t really feel good about complaining that they had to learn a whole
symphony for one week and then have a whole other symphony ready for
the next.169
Ross points out the gulf between repertoire requirements in the student world and the
profession. Whilst twenty-five pieces in the space of a few weeks is an extreme example, it
highlights the need for students to become adept at learning repertoire quickly.
Two professional pianists (with whom the class work regularly) play from piano
reductions of the repertoire for these lessons, and are joined at the keyboards by two
students who play from full score. Thus, with eight hands in action, a full and generous
realisation of the score is achievable. Ross sees only a small difference in terms of the
169 Ross.
163
There’s a kind of ‘body messing around’ that you don’t want to do too much in
front of orchestras because it makes people feel like puppets and awkward,
but to actually be able to touch a hand and an arm and get a feeling of an
impulse, that would be something that we actively do here [with pianos]
slightly more than in the other situation, but… I don’t sit down with a different
hat on during one compared to the other.170
Though these lessons may deal with musical issues just as much as the orchestra sessions,
a higher level of physical interaction may occur between teacher and student.
At the end of each semester, the conducting students give a shared public performance
with the lab orchestra at the Alice Tully Hall, which also serves as an assessment recital.
This gives each semester a clear focal point for both the lab orchestra and the conducting
students, and gives valuable performance opportunities to the students, which often are
lacking in tertiary conducting programs. Many courses do not provide the opportunity to
perform before students give their final graduation recitals. This means students not only
miss out on the experiences associated with public performances, including issues such as
performance anxiety, but also may miss out on going through a genuine rehearsal process
Repertoire is mixed throughout the course of study and covers a broad range of
do appear relatively often in the program, as Gilbert believes that these pieces are very
rewarding for a conductor to work with. He has performed these works repeatedly
throughout his own career and according to James Ross: ‘He feels that something about the
sincerity of directness and technique was really helped by doing that.’171 This is a similar
view to that held by Panula, who also believes in the importance of conducting works of the
classical period, in particular those of Haydn and Mozart. Ordinarily, all students are working
on the same repertoire at any given time, with the exception of the periods leading up to the
end of semester recital, where each student works with a unique fifteen to twenty minute
piece that they will perform. Operatic repertoire is also included, with the 2011-12 season
170 Ross.
171 Ross.
164
seeing students work on excerpts from Don Giovanni, La Boheme and Lohengrin. For the
Lohengrin excerpts the students were fortunate enough to work with singers from the
Metropolitan Opera’s production of Der Ring des Nibelungen. This level of access to
performers of the highest level on a regular basis is something that is unique to Juilliard.
This is as a result of the connections of the faculty, the physical proximity of the Metropolitan
Opera and the New York Philharmonic, and the fact that many of these top performers are
Graduation
Due to the current program being very new, no students have graduated from the course at
the time of writing. However, it is anticipated that the students’ final end of semester recitals,
mentioned above, will feature an expanded program and will serve as their graduation
recitals. As the program has progressed, students have been increasingly involved as
assistants with various ensembles at Juilliard, and these activities will also represent part of
Though the Juilliard School has a long and distinguished history in the field of conductor
training, Gilbert and Ross took the opportunity to completely rethink the program when
asked to take over its delivery. While the program remains grounded in the same tried and
tested fundamentals as many others, it is based on ideas that look to the future, both of
172 Ross.
173 Ross.
165
When Gilbert and Ross began designing their conducting program for Juilliard, they
wrote a vision statement, laying out their goals, ideas and ambitions:
undergone a gradual but fundamental change in recent decades. Perhaps the death of
Herbert von Karajan in 1989 can be pointed to as a milestone in this change. Karajan was
the stereotypical maestro who demanded complete control and authority over all matters
during his long tenure as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. In contrast, Simon
Rattle, the current chief in Berlin, is widely regarded as a collaborator, rather than an
autocrat. The conductor has lost the power to ‘hire and fire’, and now must earn the respect
today’s orchestral world for players to take a leading role in selecting their Chief Conductor,
as well as deciding whether a guest conductor will return in the future. It can therefore be
argued that the right to ‘hire and fire’ is now in the hands of the orchestral musicians, rather
than the conductor. This is a change in the relationship which has substantial implications for
Ross and Gilbert’s vision statement asks: ‘What is the new developing model of
‘Orphestra’ – a hypothetical orchestra operating with a conductor that embodies many of the
traits of New York’s Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. This orchestra famously preforms without
a conductor and is one of the few orchestral models that approaches the ideals of
democracy. The orchestra has found a workable balance whereby all musicians are able to
contribute to the rehearsal process, whilst retaining some form of hierarchy in order to avoid
174 Ross.
175 James Ross, ‘Juilliard Conducting vision statement’, unpublished text.
166
complete anarchy.176 Clearly, Gilbert and Ross feel there are lessons to be learned for
conductors from this collaborative approach that can help them find the right balance
between leadership and collaboration. In keeping with these collaborative ideals, Ross aims
to include the musicians playing in the lab orchestra in the discussion during lessons:
It seemed to us over the course of the first semester that it was mostly the
same players, which gave us the great opportunity… for the orchestra to
learn more about what we think actually this organism of conductor and
orchestra together is. How that functions.177
Whilst many would view the orchestra as being an organism in itself, which the conductor
then interacts with, Ross views the conductor and orchestra together as being a single
entity. The idea that orchestra members are also there to learn about the nature of their
relationship with conductors is typical of the open, inclusive approach taken to teaching by
Gilbert and Ross. It also ties in with their preference to take an active approach to teaching
during the class itself, rather than waiting to discuss problems in a video session, as
discussed in Part One. For them it is important to keep everybody in the room fully engaged
at all times.
This theme of collaboration extends to the fact that two teachers are often working
together in the same classroom. That this is at all possible is largely down to the strong
relationship that Gilbert and Ross enjoy, both as musicians and friends, having known each
other since their time as fellow students at Harvard University. Ross enjoys sharing teaching
One of the nice things is having two people bouncing opinions off of each
other and there’s a little bit more interplay. I think also it’s new for any Music
Director of the [New York] Philharmonic to put themselves in the situation
where there’s somebody else saying things around them, and that they go
back and forth between being in charge and being not in charge and
watching.178
176 A symphony orchestra in Moscow also worked without conductor in the 1920s, but it was
167
Clearly there is potential for a student to gain from the situation of having two teachers rather
than one, provided the situation is managed correctly, and the student is not overwhelmed
with suggestions or receives conflicting advice. If the teachers’ ideas and values are aligned
(as seems to be the case at Juilliard), then it may be that their combined views can add an
extra layer of depth to proceedings. As Ross underlines, this approach requires the putting
aside of egos to some extent, something that not all conductors working at the highest level
The fact that Juilliard’s conducting program director is also Music Director of the New
York Philharmonic is clearly of huge benefit to the program, providing a bridge between the
two institutions, and opening numerous avenues for collaboration. As part of their studies,
students are required to attend the first rehearsal of all working weeks of the Philharmonic,
and afterwards are given the opportunity to meet the conductor working with the orchestra
and discuss the rehearsal and their general experiences working in the profession. This
provides students with a window into the reality of being a professional conductor, and
enlightens them as to what challenges that they may face themselves in the future.
According to Ross, Gilbert would like the New York Philharmonic connection to give the
Juilliard students an experience similar to one he himself had earlier in his career:
Making the step from the controlled environment of a university course to the reality of
working with an orchestra such as the New York Philharmonic, can be a daunting one. By
allowing the students to follow the activities of the orchestra on a regular basis throughout
179 Ross.
168
their studies, students are continuously reminded of what exactly it is they are trying to
achieve and ultimately are aiming for. This serves to put everything they do in the program in
a professional context. Giving them access to the conductors allows them to interact with
seasoned professionals who have already made that journey, and also to form relationships
Whilst the Juilliard conducting students are currently regular visitors to the Philharmonic,
Ross hopes that this exchange will go both ways in the near future:
Musicians of this calibre would doubtless have much to offer in this setting, being able to
give conductors an insight as to how their work might be viewed in the professional world.
This feedback would likely go beyond technical issues, and delve into the students’ abilities
According to Ross, the relationship with the Philharmonic is one that may continue for
The guys here can develop a relationship of comfort with the orchestra and
depending on how their conducting develops here through the program,
they would be potentially in consideration for assistant conductors over
there. It’s a way for Alan to be working with and developing a team of
assistant conductors, from whom he can chose, who he’s comfortable with
and who he’s invested in as well.182
Such an arrangement has the potential to benefit all parties involved. Gilbert and the
Philharmonic would benefit from being able to hire staff conductors who are known
quantities, and for the students this would be an invaluable first step towards a career. As
Ross alludes to, they will likely have developed a comfortable relationship with the orchestra
180 Ross.
181 As discussed in Section 1.7.
182 Ross.
169
through their studies, thus making the transition to a role with professional responsibilities
considerably easier. Thus the course could be considered an ideal stepping-stone to such a
position.
Summary
The defining characteristic of the Juilliard School’s conducting program is its relationship
with the New York Philharmonic. Though this relationship is still under development,
students of the program already gain clear benefits from these ties, through regular
attendance of concerts and rehearsals, meaningful contact with the Philharmonic’s guest
conductors, and of course, working with Gilbert on a regular basis. It is unusual for a
program, largely due to the time commitment involved. This problem is overcome to a large
extent by the role played by Ross, whose regular presence gives students continuity, and
who is able to oversee the students’ broader education. This relationship in itself is of
interest, as it often leads to the unusual situation of two teachers working in tandem with the
students.
The program is also notable for its low student numbers, with only four students
enrolled, by far the smallest class observed in this study. Gilbert and Ross can therefore be
highly selective in who they accept as students, and give each one whatever personalised
attention may be necessary for the duration of their degree. Given the program’s resources
and the possibility of further links for students with the New York Philharmonic after their
graduation, one can conclude that the Juilliard program gives the talented student a real
how the program develops over the coming years, and in particular, what the school’s
170
2.6 The Peabody Institute, Baltimore
philanthropist George Peabody, and is one of the oldest conservatories in the United States.
In 1977, it became a division of Johns Hopkins University, one of America’s leading private
universities. The Institute itself consists of two parts - The Peabody Conservatory, and the
The Director of the Peabody Institute, Jeffrey Sharky, describes conducting as one of the
school’s signature programs, pointing out it builds on a strong tradition.184 In 1961, with a
grant from the Ford Foundation, the American Conductor’s Project was founded at the
Peabody Conservatory. This program involved four young conductors coming to Baltimore
for a three month residency in April, May and June, with the program running for three years.
Students worked with the leading conductors of the day, and a young James Levine (at the
age of 20) was one of the notable participants.185 In 1979, Frederick Prausnitz founded the
Graduate Conducting Program, teaching at the school until the appointment of Gustav Meier
and Markand Thakar in 1996, who continue to lead the program at the time of writing in
2013. The school can point to a substantial list of successful conducting graduates, including
Danail Rachev, Ilyich Rivas, Ken Lam, Case Scaglione, Carolyn Kuan, Kazem Abdullah, and
Tomasz Golka, and students have gone on to staff positions at orchestras such as the New
Angeles Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, and Utah Symphony. Recently, Marin Alsop,
Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony, was appointed Distinguished Visiting Artist, and
171
The audition
Between eighty and one hundred students apply to study conducting at Peabody annually.186
Candidates are initially required to upload a video via the internet which is then viewed by
transcripts and three written references. The school is very specific as to the content of the
video, requiring three or four excerpts, each two to three minutes in length, consisting of
contrasting standard repertoire demonstrating a variety of styles and tempi.187 Gustav Meier,
who has seen many demonstration videos throughout his decades of teaching, has some
interesting thoughts about what he likes to see in such videos. Often, rehearsal excerpts are
stated as a requirement, but Meier prefers to avoid this, feeling rehearsals are all too easily
Ideally this video should be with orchestra, but if this is not possible a small ensemble is
considered sufficient.
Approximately fifteen applicants are then invited to attend a live audition in Baltimore at
the Conservatory. All applicants conduct selected excerpts with an orchestra for
approximately ten minutes and also have a personal interview with the faculty. Around three
to four applicants are normally taken into the program, though this is naturally dependent on
the number of vacancies in the class at any given time. For Thakar, however, the audition
I think every one of us who sits on that panel has been wrong. Wrong both
ways. I’d love to see us not do auditions, because in ten minutes, what can
you really say? And I can tell you we’ve admitted some people who I thought
This is a similar view to that expressed by Schlaefli,190 and is a significant challenge to all
other schools investigated, the audition process at Peabody is relatively short, though
whether an extension of the actual podium time in the audition would make a real difference
is debatable. Surprisingly, there are no separate written exams or aural tests as part of the
audition procedure, though aural tests may form a part of the interview. This is a notable
exclusion in comparison to other schools, which seems to reflect the program’s emphasis on
the practical ‘hands-on’ aspects of conducting. However, successful applicants are required
to sit a placement exam covering music theory, music history and ear-training prior to
Like many schools in the United States, the Peabody Conservatory offers a Master of Music
and a Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting. Additionally, there also exists the option to do a
Graduate Performance Diploma or an Artists Diploma, for those who wish to focus on the
Master of Music students are required to collect a total of 48 credit points over the course
of their studies (normally two years), with 20 of these points coming under the heading of
‘Major Area’, which consists of the primary conducting subjects. This includes the weekly
conducting classes which are classified as the ‘Major Lesson’ in the curriculum, with
students also receiving points for their final recitals. A subject referred to as Conducting
Seminar is also required, though in practice, this subject is delivered together with the Major
Lesson. Additional supporting subjects that students are required to study include classes in
173
musicology, orchestration, early music, counterpoint, analysis, and an elective of the
student’s choice. These are all general subjects for students of this level, and not aimed
specifically at conductors, and there is some flexibility as to when students enrol in which
subject. Though no aural training class is prescribed in the curriculum, the Peabody Catalog
states that, ‘Deficiencies in the areas of music theory, ear-training, music history, keyboard
skills, or English must be corrected by remedial study at the Conservatory.’192 Students who
are considered to need more work in this area can therefore take aural training as an extra
The Doctor of Musical Arts degree is normally completed in three years, with 60 credit
points being collected over the period of studies. The ‘Major Area’ of study is largely similar
to that Masters degree, with the addition of a series of four recitals and an academic
document, required for graduation (discussed below under Graduation). Students are
required to take a short course in research, and must enrol in appropriate subjects in
Musicology and Music Theory in order to collect 12 points. A further 16 points in electives
are required over the period of study, one subject being a non-music humanities subject.
Document 2
Total 48 60
The financial cost of gaining a university degree in America is often very high compared
to other parts of the world, and the Peabody Institute is no exception in this regard. Tuition
fees for the 2012-13 academic year are US$38,500 per year for degree programs (Masters
and DMA for conductors) and US$32,475 annually for diploma programs.193 No scholarships
exist specifically for conductors, but all students applying to study at the Peabody
Financial aid is available in the form of student loans, and graduate students are able to
apply for teaching assistantships. The conducting department currently offers two teaching
assistantships in other relevant areas such as sight singing, music history and music
theory.195 These options help to assist students cover fees, which it should be noted are
The size of the Peabody conducting class varies from year to year, but usually consists of
around seven to ten students.196 In the academic year 2012-13 there were a total of seven
students, comprised of two Masters students, one DMA, one Artist Diploma, and three
Graduate Performer Diploma students. The male/female ratio was 6 to 1, although Thakar
Students study conducting together as a group, regardless of which degree they are
enrolled in, with the class meeting on Monday and Tuesday of each week. Thakar points out
that this schedule has the advantage of leaving the later part of the week free, when guest
conducting opportunities are more likely to arise for both faculty and the more advanced
students.197 Mondays begin with two one and a half hour sessions with piano and string
quintet; this formation being preferred by Meier to the use of two pianos alone. This is
followed in the evening by a two hour session with the resident practice orchestra, referred
to simply as the ‘Conductor’s Orchestra’. The orchestra is relatively large, having a string
size of around 8.6.4.4.2, plus a full complement of woodwinds, brass and percussion as
required by the music being played. It is made up of current students of the Peabody
Conservatory, who must pass an audition and are remunerated for their services.198 Despite
the non-professional nature of the ensemble, Meier has great faith in their ability:
195 Goodwin.
196 Thakar.
197 Thakar.
198 ‘Orchestral conducting,’ http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/conducting/orch-
Tuesday morning sees another 90 minute session with piano and string quartet, followed
by another 90 minute session with the orchestra. This gives students a total of 4.5 hours with
piano and strings, and 3.5 hours with full orchestra every week of semester, which can be
said to be a generous amount of podium time for students, comparing favourably with most
schools. The placing of a string quintet session in between the full orchestra sessions allows
students the chance to identify problems and experiment with the small group before trying
their solutions once more with the full orchestra. This integrated structure of preparatory
ensemble and orchestra is unique amongst the schools that have been examined in this
study.
Meier and Thakar divide the schedule between them into blocks of several weeks, so
that there is a degree of continuity in the teaching. According to Thakar, he and Meier play
Thakar freely explores various issues relating to the art of conducting, while Meier is
sharpening their skills for the rigours of what they will encounter in the profession. It seems
this balance of teaching styles constitutes a significant part of the Peabody program’s
Though orchestral sessions are videotaped, there is no designated session for reviewing
the recordings formally. However, both Thakar and Meier have occasional informal one to
199 Meier.
200 Thakar.
177
one lessons with students, and this is often seen as an appropriate time to review videos.
This [video] is fantastic for today’s conductors. You see – does the
communication work? Is it my fault that they can’t follow properly or that
they lose the tempo or they play too loud?... In many ways that is the best
teacher you can have today.201
This closely reflects the views of Panula, who asserts that the camera is in fact more
important than the teacher.202 Meier, however, takes a less regimented approach to its use
orchestras and ensembles and are regularly involved in the opera program, conducting
premiere performances of chamber operas. Additionally, once or twice a year the students
have the opportunity to conduct the Baltimore Symphony in a rehearsal dedicated to the
conducting students of Peabody. This has been in place since Marin Alsop became Music
Director of the orchestra, and she takes a keen interest in the conducting program at
Peabody, Alsop having herself studied with Meier at the Tanglewood Music Centre in 1989.
The two institutions also collaborate in the form of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra-
Peabody Conducting Fellowship, which covers the fees for a student to do a one year Artist
Diploma at Peabody, and gives the student further access to the orchestra and Marin Alsop
throughout the year.203 Additionally, all Peabody conducting students have the opportunity to
work as cover conductors with the symphony at some point during their studies.204 Much like
the Juilliard program, this gives students an important window into the profession, allowing
environment.
201 Meier.
202 See p.73.
203 ‘Alexandra Arrieche receives BSO-Peabody Conducting Fellowship,’
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/classicalmusic/2012/08/alexandra_arrieche_receives_
bs.html (accessed 3 November 2012).
204 Thakar.
178
The conducting class ordinarily focusses on one major work per week, or a selection of
smaller works. Repertoire is not tackled in any particular order or chronological progression
due to the mixed nature of the class, but a broad range of repertoire from the classical
period onwards is covered, including accompaniment and concertos. Again, the two
teachers have slightly different expectations of how much repertoire each student should
Gustav wants them to get through more repertoire, and I want them to get
through less repertoire better, and I think the combination ends up being a
good thing.205
The class also spends two weeks a year working on an opera excerpt or selected
Graduation
Master of Music students are required to give a recital at the end of their studies, with the
students being responsible for organising all aspects of the performance, including the
from within the student body of the Peabody Conservatory. Thakar acknowledges this is not
an easy undertaking:
Yes, it has its challenges, because students are busy. So they have to figure
out a program that’s going to work for them. They’re also going to want to get
a video from it [for use in job auditions], and it has to be something that the
students want to play so they’ll volunteer to participate. It’s the whole thing,
the nuts and bolts, and it’s really good to have to do, to understand from
beginning to end the whole process.207
As Thakar points out, students must come to terms with the entire process of presenting a
205 Thakar.
206 Thakar.
207 Thakar.
179
and not least of all, recruitment of musicians. Even if they themselves may not be directly
responsible for these organisational elements later in their careers, the experience gained
will give a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by parts of the orchestral
organisation that they might not otherwise engage with. Bringing together a full complement
of musicians also draws on the conducting student’s social skills, as recent Peabody student
Gemma New underlines: ‘You really have to be good at networking and reaching out to
people.’208 This encourages young conductors to actively engage with their instrumental
colleagues, something that may be beneficial beyond the issue of organising performances.
The negative aspect of this organisational work for the conductor is that it may distract them
from the musical task at hand. Recitals are expected to be around an hour in length, but
The graduation procedure for DMA students has more requirements. Students are
required to give three live recitals and must also submit a video tape of a public performance
for which they were engaged as conductor within seven years of completion of other course
requirements. The final live recital takes the form of a lecture-recital, and is supported by
submission of an analytical or historical essay related to the works being performed in the
recital.209 Just as is the case for Masters students, DMA students must form their own
orchestras and organise all aspects of the performances. It is interesting that a school that
provides generous amounts of podium time during studies places this requirement on
students, particularly when multiple recitals are required. Certainly, this practice contrasts
sharply with the graduation procedures of leading European schools where an orchestra
(and often a professional orchestra) is provided. However, the advantage for Peabody is that
school resources, in particular the orchestras, are not being used in these processes,
The conducting program of the Peabody Conservatory is a practically orientated course, with
the focus of studies lying firmly on the weekly conducting lessons. Both the preparatory
ensemble and the orchestra provided for these lessons are amongst the largest encountered
in this study, giving students much meaningful podium time. The integration of preparatory
sessions and orchestra sessions provides a dynamic learning environment for students,
whereby specific issues identified in the first orchestra session can be thoroughly
The emphasis on practical elements begins at the audition process, with every invited
candidate conducting the orchestra. This is in contrast to other schools, where some invited
candidates may not have the opportunity to conduct, having done poorly in written exams. At
the other end of their studies, students are required to form their own orchestra for their final
graduation recitals, giving them practical experience in a number of non-musical areas. Less
weight is placed on supporting subjects than some other schools. From this perspective,
some parallels can be drawn with the Sibelius Academy, which also takes a very free, non-
Specific to the Peabody Conservatory in the context of this study is the presence of two
teachers working independently with the same group of students. Given the success of the
program over the past decade, this approach seems to work well, and perhaps benefits from
the fact that the two teachers are tackling the challenge of training conductors from different
perspectives; with Meier being practically orientated and Thakar taking a more holistic
approach. Indeed, the strength of the Peabody Conservatory’s conducting program seems
to lie in the presence of these two teachers, combined with its generous offering of regular
181
2.7 The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Established in 1817, the University of Michigan was the first public university to open in the
northwest of America, moving in 1837 to Ann Arbor, where it is currently situated, just west
of the city of Detroit. In 2010 the University had 58,947 students enrolled and employed
8,791 teaching staff.210 With a population of around 114,000, Ann Arbor can be considered a
The School of Music, Theatre and Dance was formed in 1880 and consistently ranks as
one of the best performing arts schools in the United States.212 It currently has a student
body of 1,100 and has approximately 150 faculty members.213 Conducting has long been
regarded as an area of strength within the school, with both the orchestral and choral forms
of the discipline having developed a national reputation for excellence. This is due in part to
the continuity the program has enjoyed, with key staff serving on the faculty for extended
periods of time. From 1976 − 1995 Gustav Meier served as professor of orchestral
conducting, and was succeeded by Kenneth Kiesler, who remains conducting professor at
the time of writing in 2013.214 Thus, the conducting class has had just two teachers in the
last thirty-seven years. Successful graduates from the school have included Mei-Ann Chen,
Christopher Lees, Laura Jackson, Joana Carneiro, Tania Miller, James Feddeck and Yaniv
Dinur.
November 2012).
212 ‘About the school,’ http://www.music.umich.edu/about/ (accessed 20 November 2012).
213 ‘Information for partents,’ http://www.music.umich.edu/prospective_students/info_parents.htm
November 2012).
182
Degree options and course structures
The conducting program of the University of Michigan offers a Master of Music degree and a
Doctor of Musical Arts. Students undertaking the Masters degree are required to collect a
total of 32 credits over the course of their degree. Students must collect a minimum of ten
points for orchestral conducting through the weekly conducting seminar and a subject
any extra guidance a student might receive in the lead up to their final recitals. In addition
and concurrent to their primary conducting studies, orchestral conducting students are
required to study choral conducting for one semester, and this is reciprocated, with choral
specialists taking one semester of orchestral conducting. This approach gives both sets of
students additional high level training which will doubtless be of benefit later in their careers.
Orchestral conductors will inevitably work with choirs (and singers more generally) at some
point in their lives, and even one semester of tuition will give them a head start on their
Students are required to take courses in aural skills, music theory, musicology and a
further elective of their own choice. Tuition on their primary instrument is also a requirement,
and they are also expected to play in an ensemble. This is normally the school’s symphony
orchestra, but can also be one of the school’s choirs, if the student is vocally capable and
already has orchestral experience. In this way students learn how it feels to be on the other
side of the baton, and are able to have the experience of playing under the conducting
faculty. Table 10 provides an outline of the requirements for the Masters degree. Credit
requirements listed are minimum requirements. It is assumed more credits will be collected
in certain areas.
183
Table 10. Master of Music curriculum, University of Michigan.
Music Theory 3
Musicology 3
Ensemble –
Final Performance –
Electives as appropriate –
Source: The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance Student Handbook, 2012-13.
Of particular interest is the program’s aural course, which is designed specifically for
conductors and taught by the school’s Aural Skills Co-ordinator, Judith Petty. Each student
has an individual one-hour lesson per week, in addition to occasional group classes. Petty
comments on how her work with conductors differs from that with other students:
The areas covered may occasionally go beyond the bounds of what might be considered
normal for a conventional aural training course. She further details her approach in the
classes:
Due to the one to one nature of the tuition, Petty is able to work with students to build
whatever skills they need to develop in order to improve their listening skills and aural
in these areas can vary quite substantially, something that Petty herself confirms has been
her experience.217 It is the only aural course encountered in this study that provides ongoing
The DMA degree normally requires three years for completion, although in theory it can
be done in two years if the student has already completed a Master’s degree at the school.
In addition to conducting classes, students take the aural course detailed above for one
year, and also take courses in French, German and Italian diction should they not already be
proficient in these areas. Students continue to study music theory and musicology and must
also take a pedagogy course as well as a course in bibliographic studies. Doctoral students
are required to act as assistants on two to three productions during their studies (normally
opera productions) and also act as Music Director for one of the two non-music-major
orchestras for at least a term. Students are also encouraged to take lessons on their primary
instrument and play (or sing) in an ensemble, though this is not officially a requirement.
All students are automatically granted scholarships and are therefore not required to pay
any tuition fees. Doctoral students additionally receive health care and a stipend of
approximately US$10,000 per year, making the program additionally attractive for students.
216 Petty.
217 Petty.
185
The audition
Applicants are initially required to submit their resume, academic record and a short video
demonstrating their conducting. The video must be at least ten minutes in duration and
include footage of a performance and a rehearsal with either orchestra or small ensemble.
Applicants are also required to speak directly to the camera, talking about themselves and
their musical background, and what their goals are in pursuing graduate studies in
conducting.218
In 2012 the University received around eighty applications for the Masters program and
forty for the DMA.219 Approximately twenty to twenty-five candidates are normally invited to
Ann Arbor to do a live audition which is spread over two days. On the first day, all invited
candidates have the opportunity to conduct a chamber orchestra for around twelve to fifteen
minutes in two contrasting works, usually involving one rhythmic piece and a slow movement
from a classical symphony.220 Candidates also sit for a written examination that covers the
audition repertoire and general questions relating to the orchestra, music history and theory.
This is followed by an aural exam specifically designed for conductors. Applicants are given
the score for a short piece of music that begins with a small selection of instruments playing,
gradually building up to full orchestra. Candidates have one minute to study the score and
are then given three hearings of a recording of the piece, in which various errors and
inaccuracies have been deliberately included. These faults then need to be identified and
commented on. This examination not only tests the students’ listening abilities, but also their
A short break follows during which the faculty led by Kiesler selects around ten
candidates who are then interviewed. As part of the interview Kiesler asks candidates to
This is not a pianist’s programme, like other places where they have to be
excellent pianists in order to get in. Because we’ve had wonderful violinists
and violists and trumpet players and so forth – singers as well. So they have
to play, and they have to be able to do certain things at the keyboard,
transposition and so forth, but if they don’t realise a full score and they can’t
play even a Mozart Sonata, I’m not worried about it.221
Following the interviews around six or seven conductors are chosen to proceed to the
second day, where they have the opportunity to conduct one of the school’s large
orchestras. Several works from the standard repertoire are selected for this stage, with
Enigma Variations, and the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Occasionally, Kiesler
Fairly frequently, after the second day and conducting has concluded, I’ll
spend some time with someone and maybe give them a thirty minute lesson
and work with them, and get a sense of what the working is like and give
them a sense of what it would be like [to study in the program].222
This has some parallels with the approach of Gilbert and Ross at the Juilliard School, who
like to work with the students who make the final round. By taking this approach, Kiesler is
able to get a feel for how quickly the student can adapt to new ideas, and can push them in
Following this extensive procedure a final selection is made. The number of students
selected to enter the program varies from year to year, based on the number of places
currently available. However, a common intake might involve accepting two Masters
In the academic year of 2012/13 the conducting program at the University of Michigan had
six students, three at the Masters level and three enrolled in the DMA program. According to
Kiesler, his ideal is to have seven students. However, the exact number and make-up of the
class does vary over time for various reasons, such as students leaving earlier or later than
anticipated. In 2012-13 the male/female ratio was 2 to 1, though Kiesler says the number of
There was one time which I thought was quite significant where the three
people in the Doctoral programme in residence were female and the two
[who] hadn’t quite finished yet, and were still going through the system, were
also female. So all five doctoral students at once at one point, which I thought
was really a high moment and actually historically quite significant.224
According to Kiesler, many of his female students have been more successful in career
terms than the men, and the school has certainly educated many well-known female
Conducting studies are focused on the conducting seminar, which is held on Tuesdays
and Thursdays from 12.30-2.30pm. This involves the conductors working under the
guidance of Kiesler with either an ensemble or a chamber orchestra, the exact size of which
varies significantly throughout the course of the year. The basic formation utilised is string
quintet, wind quintet and piano. This is then expanded as required, up to a maximum size of
seventeen strings, with double winds and brass. This structure differs from other schools
investigated, in that there is no clear delineation between time with a preparatory ensemble
(such as two pianos) and time with orchestra. Instead, Kiesler tailors the size of the
ensemble to the repertoire and particular circumstances of each week. As discussed in Part
One, Kiesler has a strong dislike of working with two pianos, thus the omission of this
224 Kiesler.
225 Kiesler.
226 See Section 1.3.
188
in conducting seminars are paid an honorarium for their time, though they may elect to
Repertoire is not studied in any particular chronological order, but is mixed. Music
studied ranges from the baroque period (the school having a strong reputation in this area)
through to music of the present day. Instrumental concertos are often included and
occasional sessions are dedicated to operatic repertoire. Kiesler does have a preference for
the order that repertoire is studied, but finds that circumstances do not always fit his ideal:
I usually start with string music and slower music, and classical music. Could
be one or the other, but they come around the same time. Then we go from
there. Here it’s a little skewed, because I want them to work on music that I’m
conducting. So if I happen to be doing Mahler’s Fifth in November and
they’ve just started in September, they’re going to be working on Mahler’s
Fifth.228
Thus, students are able to benefit from watching an experienced conductor rehearse a work
that they know themselves from the inside. The knowledge that has been absorbed through
observation can then be transferred back to the conducting seminar. However, Kiesler in the
My first few years here I tried something different. For example, we did two or
three weeks of music with mixed meter, we did two or three weeks of slow
movements, we did two or three weeks on violin concerti, show pieces with
difficult accompaniment and Chopin concerti, Tzigane…. so I divided it up by
skills and outcomes that we wanted to achieve, and I don’t do that
anymore.229
Finally, Kiesler came to the conclusion that a mixed approach works best, as adopted by
All seminars are videotaped for later analysis as required, though there are no
designated sessions for video review. Kiesler comments on his views on the use of video:
Well, they use it for their tool, the students do. I use it less often. I want to do
it right then with the ensemble, I want them to feel it, try it, hear it. You know a
huge influence on me was Giulini and I worked with him off and on for a
189
couple of years and he used to say, a beautiful gesture is a gesture that
sounds right. And we need the sound at the moment to do that. That’s my
take on it. So we’ll do video review if you want to call it that a couple of times
a year, three times a year, but it’s not a major part of things.230
On Friday afternoons the conductors meet for an unofficial session to discuss things
such as score study techniques, upcoming repertoire, and other more general issues such
as programming and the responsibilities of being a Music Director. Kiesler has also
instigated a study program designed to enhance the students’ general repertoire knowledge:
As part of the conducting program I started something many years ago called
RAP, which stands for repertoire advancement programme. What that is is an
opportunity for conductors to become more familiar in less depth with a great
amount of repertoire, so that they’re conversant with it when they’re on the
job … and they have to become familiar with quite a few I would say. There
are three or four pieces every week for the entire year and it’s two years
worth of list.231
This broad survey gives students a thorough overview of the standard repertoire by the end
of their period of study. It puts them in a position to be able to make informed programming
choices in their later careers, and also increases their knowledge of the musical language
Kiesler gives around ten to twelve private lessons to his students over the course of the
academic year. These sessions can be used to watch and analyse videos, talk about career
issues, technical issues, or whatever is deemed most beneficial to each student. Some of
these lessons are literally one to one, but Kiesler often likes to have another student in the
room, so they can ‘spot’ for the other student, and help each other with issues in the future.
According to Kiesler, this is based on the idea of concert pianist and teacher Leon Fleisher,
who refers to the concept as ‘pairing’, and regularly gives lessons to students in twos, with
one simply observing the lesson. In this way, two people are gaining instruction, though from
differing perspectives.232
230 Kiesler.
231 Kiesler.
232 Kiesler.
190
In addition to working with the ensemble in the conducting seminar, students have the
opportunity to share a concert every year with each of the school’s two music-major
orchestras: the University Symphony Orchestra and the University Philharmonia Orchestra.
Kiesler is also present through the rehearsal process and able to give guidance and tuition
as appropriate. DMA students are heavily involved in the school’s opera program, each
involves conducting a large number of production rehearsals, conducting the sitzprobe and a
full stage rehearsal, and at least one of the scheduled performances. Recent operas
performed by the school have included Falstaff, The Marriage of Figaro, Eugene Onegin and
The Cunning Little Vixen. Additionally, DMA students act as Music Directors for the
University’s two non-music major orchestras, with Masters students acting as their
assistants. As well as giving valuable extra podium time with a full orchestra, students also
benefit from the experience of having to run the orchestra, dealing with organisational issues
Graduation
Masters students are required to present a recital at the end of their degree. Much like the
recitals, and students ordinarily form their own groups from the student body. A common
practice adopted by students is to work in pairs, gathering an orchestra, and then sharing a
full concert performance.233 The process involved for DMA students is more rigorous.
Doctoral students are required to do three recitals, performing programs that must be
organised by the student, but at least one will ordinarily be with an official school ensemble.
Opera performances are often used for this purpose, and students can also nominate a
performance with an external orchestra to be one of their recitals. Each performance must
233 Kiesler.
191
be accompanied by a scholarly program, and students must also present a pre-concert
lecture. Before sitting for these final recitals, students are required to demonstrate that they
have good diction skills in French, German and Italian, as well as having passed
Over the course of his eighteen year tenure at the University of Michigan, Kiesler has
developed clear stances on many issues relating to conducting pedagogy. One issue he
finds of particular importance is the relationship between conductor and orchestra, which he
believes must be based on mutual understanding and empathy. He highlights one of the
Orchestras are trained and expected to follow and read the conductor’s intentions through
their body language at all times. Clearly, if one message is being given physically and
another verbally, this will result in frustration and confusion for both orchestra and conductor.
In terms of purely technical issues, Kiesler has some principles he likes his students to
I think there are certain common threads. Technically, for example, smaller
is not softer and larger is not louder. Smaller is faster and larger is slower.
What do you do if you’re conducting an accelerando that has a crescendo?
If you get larger and larger for the crescendo, which some people teach, it
counteracts the accelerando. You cannot get faster by getting larger. You
can carry this through into other aspects, not just accelerandi or ritardandi,
but let’s say into rubato or subdivisions. If a conductor subdivides not
proportionately – too large in other words – the orchestra drags, and the
conductor says why are you dragging and then there’s this disconnect.235
234 Kiesler.
235 Kiesler.
192
This is an interesting point that is not often made. Equating the size of conducting with
volume of sound is a common principle taught by many teachers. Of course, there can be
situations where ‘small is softer’ and ‘large is louder’. However, Kiesler correctly underlines
that tempo is often a more important consideration in relation to the size of conducting.
Using gestures that are too large in a fast tempo can easily lead to a situation where the
conductor feels the orchestra is dragging. Similarly, when subdividing, beats that are too
large can result in a tempo that is slower than desired. ‘Larger is louder’ is therefore not a
Whilst Kiesler has detailed technical principles he asks his students to abide by, these
act merely as a foundation for a conductor’s musical persona on the podium. A large part of
his work involves encouraging students to go beyond technical rules and principles:
Many conductors communicate only the metre, the tempo and the dynamic,
with a few cues here and there... we’re looking for something that includes
really showing and feeling and communicating the sound. If you’re not
addressing the sound you can’t influence the sound. So engaging with the
sound and with the line of the music and the weight and the density and the
colour of the music.236
Engaging with the sound is a common concept in advanced conducting pedagogy, with
many of the pedagogues interviewed for this study expressing similar views.237 Kiesler,
however, goes further than most in the area of developing the expressivity of a student’s
conducting:
We’re not [just] giving signals as to how to play, we’re experiencing [the
music] in such a way, before the orchestra does, and inviting them to join
us in that experience... Look at Giulini for example. Not much technique, in
fact he was maddening to orchestras that way, but there was a trust of the
players and an ability to experience what the music meant and everybody
wanted to be with him and do what he wanted... it’s the same with Simon
Rattle or Abbado, for example… really being present and being affected by
the music.238
236 Kiesler.
237 See Section 1.2.
238 Kiesler.
193
As discussed in Part One, Kiesler has some specific exercises he uses to encourage
students to ‘experience the music’.239 This includes Kiesler improvising at the piano,
encouraging students to illicit an emotional response through gesture. He also works in this
area with a colleague at the University of Michigan, acting and movement teacher, Jerry
Schwiebert. As well as working together in Ann Arbor, Schwiebert and Kiesler collaborate at
the Medomak Conducting Summer School, a three week intensive program run by Kiesler.
As Kiesler points out, the genuine expression of emotions in front of a large group of people
can be a real challenge for some people. Indeed, it could be argued that society conditions
us to limit overt displays of emotion in a public setting. Kiesler works to unlock the potential
of students in this area, and overcome any inbuilt inhibitions. Schwiebert has recently
published a book detailing his approach and his experiences teaching movement and
they read his works.242 Parallels in approaches therefore can be drawn between two schools
194
Ultimately, Kiesler believes his primary role is to give students the skills and self-
awareness they need to continue to grow in the future. This derives from the views of his
Giulini’s idea was that the great conductors are the ones who are
appropriately self-critical and self-analytical. And they understand what
went wrong that can be done better the next time, and you learn from your
experience, and what I’m trying to do is give students the tools so that they
can be self-analytical, they know what’s working and what isn’t and how to
prescribe a solution for themselves and for the orchestra. So that they can
build on this foundation. Somebody comes here for two or three years, out
of a thirty, forty, fifty year career. So this is just the beginning of a very long
trajectory and they’re going to learn way more when they leave here than
they are during. I just want them to have the right tools to get started and to
understand themselves as they grow.243
The concept of giving students the tools for self-analysis has much in common with the
ethos of Jorma Panula, though there are significant different differences in the way they go
about achieving this. Panula places a large emphasis on using video as an analytical tool,
while Kiesler takes a far more holistic approach to the teaching of conducting. What they
have in common, however, is providing students with an environment where they live and
breathe music and conducting every day of their studies. Thus, students graduate with a
Summary
The University of Michigan’s program is notable for its focus and highly integrated structure,
conducting activities undertaken in Conducting Seminar and elsewhere, Kiesler has clearly
worked to ensure that all subjects studied by students are contributing directly to their
education as conductors, rather than merely serving as ways to earn points in order to
qualify for a degree. Score preparation and the development of the underlying skills required
for this activity are dealt with to an extent not seen elsewhere in this study. It is the only
243 Kiesler.
195
school examined to offer one-to-one aural training, thus providing a course that is not only
designed for conductors in general, but for the individual students themselves.
The University of Michigan does not have a preparatory ensemble and fixed-size lab
orchestra, but instead blurs the line between the two by taking a flexible approach to the
ensemble present at the Conducting Seminar, where the majority of practical instruction
takes place. In addition to the time spent conducting in the seminar, students are very much
integrated in to the general music-making activities of the school, with DMA students in
particular enjoying a generous amount of time conducting school ensembles. This is surely
only possible due to the high level of such students, who are able to operate in a capacity
In terms of the teaching of the physical aspects of conducting, Kiesler’s work is of great
interest, as he explores areas beyond those that may be considered traditional. In particular,
his work in relation to the expression of emotions through conducting is of great interest, and
worthy of further investigation. The combination of these new ideas with a strong emphasis
on traditional musical fundamentals is undoubtedly a strong one, and is the primary reason
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Part Three: Deductions and recommendations
Part Three draws together the information presented thus far. Section 3.1 presents
presented in Part Two, and addresses the issue of what can currently be considered best
practice in conductor training at the tertiary level. Section 3.2 then looks to the future of
ensembles. Section 3.3 presents a hypothetical course structure for a future tertiary level
conducting program, one that synthesises and builds upon current best practice. This course
proposal represents the culmination of the research undertaken in the current study.
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3.1 Comparisons and deductions
Having surveyed the activities of seven of the world’s leading tertiary institutions for
conductor training, it is now possible to suggest what constitutes best practice in conductor
training at the present time. The following conclusions have been drawn:
preparatory ensemble.
resources provided.
5. The conducting program is in most cases the primary focus of the conducting
professor.
6. A class size of between seven and twelve is generally considered to be standard for
a one-teacher system.
8. The broader curriculum should support the activities of the conducting class, and be
as integrated as possible.
9. Strong links should be developed with the local musical community, with final
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1) Orchestras and ensembles
All schools examined in this study provide their students with an orchestra to work with as
part of their studies. This can be viewed as an absolute necessity for any conducting
program.
graduates an honorarium to play in the resident orchestra of the conducting class. This is the
solution taken by the Sibelius Academy, Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts,
The Zürich University of Arts takes a different approach, choosing to work with a range
of orchestras for short and focused periods, rather than having any form of resident
ensemble. This has the advantage of providing students with an environment that in some
ways is closer to a real professional experience, in that they are often working with different,
from overfamiliarity. The St. Petersburg Conservatory has the remarkable luxury of a
professional orchestra in residence that exists primarily for the purpose of training
conductors. This is an ideal solution, but is prohibitively expensive in most parts of the world
due to the unionisation of the workforce. Hence the need to find some form of compromise
elsewhere.
Given that time working with an orchestra is relatively sparse, all institutions studied
have some form of preparatory ensemble with which to work, allowing them to deal with
preliminary issues before encountering the orchestra. Since the beginning of conductor
training, working with two pianos has been a well-accepted practice, and it is therefore no
surprise to find this formation used amongst the schools studied. Interestingly, however, the
schools working with two pianos regularly (Vienna, St. Petersburg and Juilliard) are in the
minority. All other schools work with some form of small ensemble, normally of between five
and ten players. The two piano option is clearly the most affordable, and as a result, more
time may be available to work with this formation. However, the quality of the pianists
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playing the pianos has a significant impact on the effectiveness of this solution, and some
teachers feel the quality of sound produced is too far removed from that which is produced
string and wind instrumentalists can greatly increase the quality of experience for the
student, but it comes at increased cost to the school. However, three of the schools
2) Audition procedures
The audition procedures for the schools selected are in general very similar. Thus, a
standard practice can be considered to have been established in this area. Potential
students are required to undergo rigorous procedures examining many aspects of their
musical makeup, with these tests in some cases being spread of over several days.
The most in depth procedure encountered in this study occurs at the Vienna University
of Music and Performing Arts. This is perhaps not surprising, as they are the only institution
investigated to invite all applicants to audition in person, and therefore require more time to
arrive at a final selection for admission. The most straightforward process encountered was
that of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, where the primary emphasis is placed on the
conducting exam, rather than areas of theoretical knowledge or aural skills. This is very
much in keeping with the school’s overall approach of focusing on practical rather than
theoretical issues.
At all seven schools, the audition procedures can be considered more arduous than
those facing an instrumentalist. This is a reflection of the high monetary cost of each place in
the conducting program, due to the presence of the orchestra, and relatively low student
numbers compared to other areas. With the schools making a significant financial
successful outcomes for the program. Clearly, the importance of this initial selection of
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3) Group classes and repertoire structure
The primary method of delivering conducting tuition observed in this study has involved
students studying together in a class setting. This is in contrast to the one-to-one tuition
conduct, it is logical to gather students around the presence of this precious resource. All of
the schools investigated follow this path, with one notable exception.
lessons with two pianos are officially classified as individual lessons. In practice, most
teachers insist that all their students be present for these sessions, as was the practice of
the father-figure of the school, Ilya Musin. Thus, the more common group class atmosphere
is created. However, this structure has allowed students to have their own individual
repertoire plan, designed for their specific needs by the teacher. This allows an organic,
tailored development for each student, and avoids the problem of beginning students being
faced with advanced repertoire too soon. The other factor that makes this possible in St.
Petersburg is the fact that the pianists and orchestra with which the students work are
professional, and work regularly for the conducting class. Hence, they are familiar with the
core orchestral repertoire, and switching repertoire with every student does not present a
problem. This is in contrast to an orchestra based on students (even if they are being paid),
where the lack of familiarity with a wide-ranging repertoire can present a problem. There are
positives and negatives to the St. Petersburg approach. Students can develop at their own
pace, and are constantly being exposed to a broader repertoire in the form of the works
studied by their peers. However, they will arguably learn less from watching their fellow
students conducting repertoire they themselves are not intimately familiar with. All other
schools investigated schedule repertoire for the entire student group, and accept the fact
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4) Continuity of the faculty
A common feature amongst the conducting professors of these leading schools is the long
duration of their tenures, with many having been in their current positions for more than
fifteen years. As a result, many schools can point to extended periods of 30 years or more,
during which time only two people have been responsible for leading the conducting
program. This gives the schools continuity and stability, and allows them to develop a
reputation on the international stage. An excellent reputation in turn leads to interest from
potential students, ensuring the best institutions attract the best students. However, such a
reputation takes time to develop, and the reputation of the teacher is in most instances just
5) Career teachers
The majority of the conducting professors teaching at the selected schools are career
teachers, rather than career conductors. This is not to say that they no longer engage in
professional conducting activities themselves, but are known primarily as teachers, and
spend a significant portion of their working life engaged in educating young conductors. This
trend is exemplified by the examples of Ilya Musin and Jorma Panula, arguably the two
leading conducting pedagogues of the twentieth century. Both are famous for the quality of
their pupils, rather than their own activities on the podium. It seems that in the day and age
of the ‘jet-set’ conductor, leading practicing conductors are not in the same location for long
university conducting program. The two notable exceptions amongst the schools
investigated are Alan Gilbert of the Juilliard School and Leif Segerstam of the Sibelius
Academy. Both Gilbert and Segerstam reside in the same city as their respective schools,
and both also have strong relationships with the local orchestra, Gilbert being Music Director
of the New York Philharmonic, and Segerstam being Chief Conductor Emeritus of the
Helsinki Philharmonic (having been Chief Conductor for most of his tenure at the Sibelius
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Academy). This gives both men an added reason to be in residence more than they might
be otherwise. Gilbert also benefits from having a co-teacher in James Ross, who can give
extra stability to the program, whilst the Sibelius Academy has regular high quality guest
6) Student numbers
How many students to have at any one time is a key decision for any school offering a
conducting program. The greater the number of students, the more resources such as the
orchestra will have to be divided. Four of the schools investigated have between seven and
twelve students in the conducting class at any one time, and this can be said to be the norm.
The Juilliard School has the smallest class with only four students, whilst St. Petersburg
has twenty students, and Vienna, approximately sixty. This makes a place at the Juilliard
School highly desirable, as they will receive more personal attention, and have ample
access to resources. For the school, it means they only need to provide one orchestra
session per week for the conducting class in order to provide a good amount of podium time.
Vienna takes the opposite approach, training students en masse. Inevitably, this means less
orchestra time for students, though those in Mark Stringer’s class still receive a good amount
of personal lesson time. The advantage of this approach comes in the delivery of the
broader curriculum, allowing many classes to be tailored specifically for the needs of
It seems that around five years can be considered a normal period of study for a conducting
student at a leading institution, which may involve taking more than one degree. The type of
degree being offered obviously has a direct bearing on the length of study. A Bachelor of
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Music degree is ordinarily three years in duration, a Master of Music degree two years, and
a Doctor of Musical Arts three years. Five of the seven schools examined offer some
combination of these degrees, though St Petersburg and Vienna do not adhere to this
system, and instead offer a five year degree which can be said to be equivalent to a
Bachelor plus Masters.1 The Zürich University of Arts has the greatest degree of flexibility in
this area, offering a Bachelor of Music degree plus two different Masters degrees. A student
then has the option of studying for two, four, five or seven years. In the United States, both
Peabody and Michigan offer Masters and DMA degrees, whilst Juilliard only offers a
Masters, but with the possibility of a one year extension to make it a three year degree. The
can tailor the length and depth of studies to their own specific requirements.
In Vienna, the large number of conducting students means it is possible to have a broad
curriculum, much of which has been designed specifically for conductors. As such, it should
come as no surprise that Vienna offers students the most thorough course of academic
study for conductors encountered in this study. Any graduate from the Vienna University of
Music and Performing Arts can be expected to have a thorough knowledge of music history
and theory, advanced analytic skills, well-developed aural and score reading skills, and
symphonic and operatic repertoires. What they may lack is meaningful experience
At the other end of the spectrum, the Sibelius Academy and Peabody Conservatory
programs are focused on the act of conducting in front of an orchestra. Whilst students are
required to take other subjects, these are all aimed at the general student body, are not at all
1 Though Austria and Russia are both signatories to the Bologna process, whereby all signatories
are required to adopt a Bachelor, Masters, Doctorate structure, the Vienna University of Arts is not
required to adopt this structure under the terms of the process and currently has no plans to change
its current structure. The situation regarding the adoption of the Bologna Process in Russia is very
unclear at the time of writing, and it seems unlikely changes will be made in the foreseeable future.
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specialised, and essentially are taken to fulfil the requirements of the degree, rather than
supporting the conducting tuition itself. Juilliard is more aware of what subjects their students
are engaging in outside the conducting studio, whilst Michigan, Zürich and St Petersburg all
It may be argued that a student’s abilities in many of these non-practical areas can be
assessed in the audition, and that only students who are well developed in these areas are
admitted to the program. However, what has been observed in this study is that, in fact, the
institutions which integrate and place an emphasis on these non-practical aspects during
studies, also put a high level of emphasis on these aspects during the audition process.
Certainly, it is the opinion of this author that no matter what a student’s level of competence
may be in areas such as aural skills and theoretical knowledge, these areas should continue
to be developed.
The majority of schools studied have meaningful connections with orchestras outside of the
confines of the school. The Zürich University of Arts in particular, has a strong network of
connections within the Swiss musical community and beyond. The school relies heavily on
these links to provide their students with opportunities to conduct an orchestra, having only a
small ensemble in residence at the school. The Sibelius Academy also demonstrates strong
links with other musical institutions in Finland, in particular with the Finnish Radio Symphony
Orchestra, which has a regular master class arrangement with the Academy, and the
network of regional orchestras spread throughout the country. In the United States, the
Juilliard School has an enviable relationship with the New York Philharmonic, largely based
on the fact that the course director, Alan Gilbert, is the Music Director of the Philharmonic.
This gives students a window into how the profession operates at the highest level. The
Peabody Conservatory also has a meaningful relationship with its local orchestra, the
Baltimore Symphony. Marin Alsop, the Music Director of the orchestra, and a former pupil of
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Peabody course director Gustav Meier at Tanglewood, takes a keen interest in the students
of the program, and the orchestra provides students with a master class opportunity at least
once a year. Additionally, the school and orchestra collaborate by offering the BSO-Peabody
Conducting Fellowship.
All of these links provide students with a bridge to the profession itself, and may open
further pathways when they come to the end of their studies. They have the added benefit of
providing a reference point for students, providing a reminder as to what will be expected of
them when they leave the sheltered environment of the music school, and attempt to enter
the profession.
Having established nine points which can be considered current best practice, this section
identifies and details three additional areas of conductor training that have been only
partially engaged with, or neglected completely, in the institutions surveyed in this study.
Several areas have been observed during the undertaking of this study that require better
understanding on the part of conducting pedagogy as a whole. Most of these areas can be
placed in one of two categories – relating to either approaches to body movement, or issues
third consideration is the possible benefit to students of orchestral conducting being required
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Body movement
In performance, the conductor’s sole means of communicating their wishes and feelings to
the orchestra is the body. How the conductor’s body functions and operates will inevitably
By the time a musician decides they wish to conduct, their bodies have inevitably developed
certain habitual ways of moving, and perhaps, areas of habitual muscular tension, which
may manifest themselves as limitations of the sort to which Schuller refers. Traditionally,
conductor training has taken a limited interest in the way the body functions as a whole,
focusing almost entirely on the upper body, and in particular, the hands and arms. Many
conducting manuals deal with how the fingers, wrists, elbows and shoulders should remain
relaxed, and how they should work together to function effectively. Regarding the rest of the
body, the instruction given to students is usually to keep still, and for the feet to be
grounded, with as few extraneous movements as possible. This focus on the upper limbs is
natural in many ways, as the hands (in combination with the eyes) are the primary tools for
physiology reveal the complexity of the functioning of the human body, and in particular, that
Given this, the traditional focus of conducting pedagogy on the functioning of the upper limbs
alone seems somewhat dated, and the instruction to keep the rest of the body still, can in
fact be counterproductive and lead to other problems. James Ross of the Juilliard School is
one teacher who is engaging with the functioning of the body in a broader context. According
to Ross:
2 Gunther Schuller, The Compleat Conductor (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 9.
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The topic of conducting with more of ourselves than from the shoulder
outward is hugely crucial… Even just the idea of what an arm is and that it
doesn't stop at the shoulder but includes the shoulder blade, shoulder girdle,
which links to the chest bone. That idea alone has been known to help
conductors feel more completely from where they are conducting, where the
impulses spark and generate outward.3
Even this relatively small step of understanding how the arms are integrated with the body
exclusively with musicians, both as a practitioner and a researcher. In February 2012, she
worked with advanced orchestral conducting students as part of a master class presented by
Symphony Australia, with which the present author was involved. A world leading expert in
her field, her observations on the way conductors use their bodies was of great interest, and
her comments led to immediate benefits for several students who struggled with particular
physical issues. She expressed her surprise that many of the concepts she was talking
about were new, not only for the students, but for the conducting teachers as well:
It’s astounding to me that you don’t cover this in conducting school, because
you are your instrument. How you time your body movements ̶ it’s your
communication tool. Standing still and making a gesture won’t communicate
passion, you’ve got to really communicate it with body language.4
Much of her work involved removing physical impediments so that the body was free to
move fluently and easily. A particular focus involved trying to reconnect people with the
A lot of people have been told to stand still and then they’re disconnected
from the waist down. Our hips are great rotaters. It’s really important not to be
blocking that.5
rather, be free to shift weight between them. She points out the benefits of efficient weight
You’re standing on these four different parts of the feet and if you use them,
your whole body moves much more quickly and precisely. Making sure your
movements come from the centre outwards is even more important than
being strong.6
According to Ackermann, even the footwear that a conductor wears should be considered in
this context, and should be ‘soft and balanced’, with the traditional flat dress shoes that are
often worn by conductors for performances not being conducive to weight shifting effectively.
Other issues that were examined included unnecessary tension in the shoulders of many
conductors, and avoiding tension in the hands, thus allowing precise control of the baton
through the fingers. Even breath control was a topic for discussion, something rarely
A lack of oxygen may also effect the mental state of a conductor, leading to problems such
as being unable to listen analytically, a problem that was raised by several experts in
Section 1.7. This is a simple problem with a simple solution, but one that may have
body functions as a whole, students will be less likely to encounter unwanted muscular
tension, less likely to encounter injuries later in life, and may be able the increase the power
6
Ackermann.
7
Ackermann.
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currently taken in conducting pedagogy, but rather, have the potential to supplement and
give added depth to current approaches, and to give us a better understanding of how the
body as whole should function in order to operate efficiently and effectively while conducting.
Such an approach does not prohibit the body remaining focused, and still allows for the
muscular tension will sometimes be required, but if we can attain a neutral state where the
body is relaxed, flowing and controlled, tension can then be added as demanded by the
As discussed in Section 1.4, Kenneth Kiesler believes the body itself plays an important
role in the communication of emotions. He works closely with acting and performance coach
Jerald Schwiebert, who is also a faculty member of the School of Music, Theatre and Dance
at the University of Michigan. Much of Schwiebert’s work with actors, conductors, and other
musicians revolves around gaining a deeper understanding of how the body functions. He
describes his book as ‘a primer for expanding your capacity for physical expression’, and
also underlines the importance of getting rid of unnecessary physical tension.8 Some might
regard these ideas of working with movement specialists or actors as being too ‘new age’ or
experimental, and not in the tradition of the great conducting pedagogues. Interestingly, Ilya
Musin, one of the great pedagogues of the 20th century, and one whom most would regard
as ‘old school’, was ahead of his time in this area. In his book, The Technique of
Conducting, he writes:
Stanislavsky was Russia’s leading acting teacher in the early 20th century, and his method
is still widely used internationally today. Evidently, his writings played an important part in
8 Jerald Schwiebert, Physical Expression and the Performing Artist (Ann Arbor: University of
several occasions in his writings. He also speaks of the danger of excess physical tension in
The idea of attaining a deeper understanding how our bodies function in relation to
conducting is not completely new. Various works have been written arguing that conductor
training should include concepts from movement theories such as Alexander Technique,
Dalcroze, Feldenkrais and Laban Movement Analysis.11 Some teachers may find one of
these methods helpful, and compatible to their own particular approach to the physical
aspects of conducting. However, if relied upon too heavily, there may be a danger of the
movement theory imposing itself on a conductor’s technique, and potentially get in the way
It is this author’s contention that the field of conducting pedagogy (and at all levels)
should be more aware of how the body functions as a whole, and the interconnectedness of
its different parts. This need not be based on approaches that some might consider
‘alternative’, but can in fact be based on scientific research in the area of biomechanics and
functional anatomy. Of course, whatever new paths we may find to enhance our
distract us from, other crucial areas of importance in conductor training, such as general
musicianship, and knowledge of the score itself and the composers who wrote them. No
amount of physical facility or visual elegance can substitute a fully formed and well-
relatively new, and to date, most research has been focused on applications in sport. There
10 Musin, 132.
11 For a detailed discussion of works written in this area, see: Andrew Mathers, How theories of
expressive movement and non-verbal communication can enhance expressive conducting at all levels
of entering behaviour (PhD thesis, Monash University, 2008).
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is much potential for new research into the mechanical workings of the conductor’s body,
that may lead to the ability to unlock communicative possibilities for conducting students of
the future. This is something that conducting pedagogy should actively pursue.
Psychology
As discussed in the case study of the Juilliard School, the nature of the relationship between
conductors and orchestras has changed significantly over the course of the last fifty years,
the conductor as tyrant no longer being an acceptable model. Whilst conductors once had
the power to ‘hire and fire’, in today’s orchestral world much of this power has been
transferred to the players themselves. In the twenty-first century, orchestral players have
significant input into which conductors they wish to work with, and in most cases are able to
choose who their principal conductor will be. Thus, the conductor can no longer issue
commands, expecting them to be obeyed merely on the basis of the authority of the position.
Today’s conductor is instead a leader amongst musicians, and must earn the respect of the
members of the orchestra in order to function as an effective leader. This respect can be
earned in many ways, not least of all through first-class musicianship and a thorough
knowledge of the work being performed. However, even the best musicians must know how
to work and interact with other people, in order to get the best out of the collective of human
beings that is the symphony orchestra. As the world renowned French conductor Charles
Munch once said, ‘Think for a moment of what it would mean to a pianist if by some miracle
Even though engaging and working with people effectively is such a fundamental part of
the conductor’s role, students of conducting generally receive little or no assistance in this
area. On occasion, students may receive feedback on their interaction with musicians during
their lessons with orchestra. However, as has been demonstrated in Part Two, this time with
Indeed, several professors interviewed for this study indicated that they felt they did not have
enough time to deal with approaches to rehearsing in a meaningful way, and that this was a
weakness of their programs. Little time is available to directly address the psychological
aspects of working with a group of musicians whilst the student is standing on the podium.
Such issues may be discussed more freely in a video review session, but of the seven
schools investigated, only the Sibelius Academy has such sessions on a regular basis, with
other institutions either having them only occasionally as required, or not at all.
Given the lack of opportunities to deal with these challenges in a practical session, it
seems logical that issues such as group psychology and leadership skills should be
engaged with on a theoretical level in a classroom setting. A large body of research exists
on the subject of group psychology and leadership, with some relating directly to the
orchestral environment.13 Arming students with this theoretical information would give them
a basis and a context for their own experiences and behaviours whilst conducting, and also
when they are observing other conductors rehearsing, either in the classroom or in the
professional world. However, most schools in this study do not attempt to engage with such
issues outside of the conducting class itself. One exception is the Juilliard School, which has
a seminar once a week for the discussion of general issues. James Ross provides his
students with a varied and eclectic reading list that serves as a catalyst for discussion, and
texts on leadership feature prominently on this list. This engagement could be taken further,
with experts in this area being invited into the school to discuss these issues with the
students, and observe them working with an orchestra. This need not be a regular activity,
however it is vital that students are made aware that these are issues they need to be
thinking about, and may need to develop over the course of their studies and their future
careers.
13 Harry E. Price and James L. Byo, ‘Rehearsing and Conducting’, in Richard Parncutt and Gary
E. McPherson (eds.), The Science and Psychology of Music Performance (New York: Oxford
Univeristy Press, 2002), 336.
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The area of leadership is perhaps only rarely engaged with as it is considered to be one
of the parts of the conductor’s job that cannot be taught. One often hears the term ‘a born
leader’, just as we hear of ‘a born conductor’. Yet leadership skills have been taught in the
business world for many years. Whilst a particular student may indeed be ‘a born leader’, it
is likely that we can assist other less gifted students in this area to maximise their potential.
A quality often connected with leadership is charisma. Again, this is something that people
are considered to be born with. In her book, The Charisma Myth, Olivia Fox Cabane draws
on a range of research conducted in this area, and makes the case that charisma can be
One of the reasons charisma is mistakenly held to be innate is that, like many
other social skills, charismatic behaviours are generally learned early in life.
In fact, people usually don’t consciously realize they are learning them.
They’re just trying new behaviours, seeing the results, and refining them.
Eventually, the behaviours become instinctive. Countless well-known
charismatic figures worked hard to gain their charisma, increasing it step by
step.14
Whilst no one would claim that it is possible to teach someone to have the charisma of a
Bernstein or a Karajan, it is possible to teach people behavioural habits that may increase
the chance that an orchestra will accept them as an authority figure. On a very basic level,
things such as making regular eye contact with musicians, adopting positive body language
when giving rehearsal instructions, speaking clearly and concisely, can all help in making a
positive impression with an orchestra. If these things are combined with a thorough
knowledge of the score and a clear love for the music, it is likely that the orchestra will
The approaches proposed thus far in this chapter are based on relatively new research
in fields other than music. Fields such as bio-mechanics, the understanding of what makes
an effective leader, and the exploration of what exactly charisma is, are all areas that will
continue to evolve over the coming years. Conducting pedagogy as a whole should take a
keen interest in these areas of research and where appropriate, absorb the lessons that can
14 Olivia Fox Cabane, The Charisma Myth, (New York: Penguin, 2012), 4.
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be learnt so as to better understand our own profession. Indeed, it could be argued that the
environment of the conducting class is uniquely placed to act as a laboratory for further
research into issues relating to group psychology. It is a closed circuit in which the conductor
and orchestra are continuously interacting. This engagement can be subjected to direct
analysis through video, and through surveys and interviews following rehearsals. The
conducting class also provides the opportunity to examine the workings of different
conductors with the same orchestra and music in quick succession. Perhaps we could do
worse than to offer ourselves as guinea pigs to our colleagues in the behavioural sciences.
None of the conducting programs examined have a requirement for students to play
chamber music.15 However, this is an activity that students of conducting could benefit from
on several levels. Mark Stringer of the Vienna University of Music and Arts was one
I wish they had more chamber music here… for all the piano playing they do,
I wish it was a requirement for them to play in piano quartets, where they
watch string players as a pianist, they watch string players tune chords and
figure out balances… learning how to actively lead, but at the same time
actively listen. Shaping collaboratively a piece, but fighting to make a
structure in rehearsal by negotiation.16
The Vienna program expects students to have well-developed keyboard skills, hence
Stringer’s reference to piano quartets. As Stringer points out, conducting students whose
primary instrument is the piano, would have much to gain from such an activity, and could
learn a great deal about string playing and the way an ensemble interacts, both physically
and verbally. Listening skills can also be further developed through chamber music, and in
particular the ability to play and listen at the same time. Perhaps most importantly, chamber
15 Though Michigan requires them to play in an ensemble, this is ordinarily an orchestra or choir.
16 Mark Stringer, interview by author, Vienna, 18 October 2011.
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music ensembles are continuously grappling with the issue of how best to rehearse ̶ when
to play things through, when to stop and take things apart, as well as broader issues such as
different from that of conducting an orchestra, students would still be learning about how to
deal with other musicians in a sensitive and appropriate manner, whilst making a
conductor’s background knowledge and experience when they come to rehearse with a full
orchestra.
The most beneficial combinations might be mixed instrument ensembles, where players
can effectively educate each other, passively or actively, about the particular problems and
chamber music is that conductors would then continue to play their principal instrument
whilst studying conducting, and hence continue to make music on a regular basis. Though
there are only a finite number of hours in every working week, an hour of chamber music
could be highly beneficial to all conductors (at low cost to the school), and hence could be
considered a worthy inclusion for any orchestral conductor training program. This is not an
area requiring further research, and could be quickly and easily integrated into most
conducting programs. As such it is one of the numerous proposals included in the following
Summary
As has been demonstrated in this thesis, the field of conductor training has come a long way
since its humble beginnings in the early twentieth century. No field of artistic endeavour,
however, can afford to stand still, and it is important to take time to investigate potential new
directions. Areas do exist where the field of conducting pedagogy can expand its horizons,
and in particular, benefit from research and techniques adopted in other fields. Some of
these ‘frontiers’ have been recognised by schools investigated, even if they have yet to
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engage with them fully. However, conducting pedagogy as a whole remains largely unaware
of potential future pathways. Whether these pathways are adopted will come down to the
personal preferences of the individual teacher. Some of these new approaches may benefit
students who have particular difficulties in a certain area, but may not be relevant to other
students. Nevertheless, it is important that they be examined and given due consideration.
Having examined current best practice in tertiary level conductor training and outlined
potential new directions for conducting pedagogy, the present section proposes an ideal
curriculum and course structure for a tertiary level orchestral conducting program. It
represents a synthesis of key features of the seven schools investigated, thus providing a
Were this hypothetical program to be put into practice, certain elements would doubtless
need to be modified for the specific circumstances of the school in which it was being
offered. Such circumstances might include scheduling issues, broader curriculum issues or
budgetary issues. Whilst an effort has been made to keep costs at a reasonable level, a high
level orchestral conductor training program is necessarily expensive, primarily due to the
need to provide the students an orchestra with which they can work on a regular basis.
Should financial circumstances make this impossible, opportunities for the students to
conduct may need to be sought within the school’s regular orchestral and ensemble
activities, though as discussed in Section 1.3, this is far from ideal for various reasons.
However it is achieved, regular orchestral contact is without doubt a requirement for any
217
Level of study
As discussed in Section 1.1, the English speaking world generally offers conducting as a
major at the postgraduate level, whilst the rest of the world tends to offer programs at the
undergraduate level, with the option of continuing to postgraduate studies. Part Two has
demonstrated that successful schools have been founded upon both approaches, so it
appears that in fact, this is not as important an issue as it may at first seem. Of greater
interest is the length of study available to the student, and in this area, flexibility is key. The
This borrows largely from the structure adopted at Zürich University of Arts, where a
Bachelor of Music option is offered as a double-major, with the student majoring in their
options, but unlike Zürich, a Masters degree and a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree are
The expected standard duration of study for any given student would be five years. Two
of the most established conducting programs in the world, Vienna and St Petersburg, offer
five year programs, with the Sibelius Academy also offering a similar period of study. When
one considers that most leading programs in the United States offer a two year Masters
degree and three year DMA, five years of study can be considered standard best practice.
This allows time for students not only to develop as conductors, but to learn a sufficient
amount of repertoire to enter the profession. These five years could comprise a Bachelor
degree plus Masters, or Masters plus DMA, whichever is more appropriate for the student.
Of course, for particularly advanced students, a Bachelor or Masters degree alone may
suffice. The proposed combination of degrees would therefore offer a great deal of flexibility,
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and be able to cater for a wide range of students. In theory, a student could study for eight
years under this model, but this would be actively discouraged, if not prohibited. After five
years, other experiences should be encouraged, and a certain amount of turnover in the
student group is important in order to allow opportunities for new students to enter.
The proposed course would in principle cater for eight students at any one time, but be
expandable to ten when needed. It is inevitable that student numbers would fluctuate to a
deciding to go part time. Given that most of the schools investigated in this study had
between seven and twelve students at any one time, it seems this is generally considered an
appropriate balance between educating a significant number of students, and the problem of
limited time available with orchestra. The breakdown between the different degree programs
might ideally be two Bachelor students (the Bachelor degree only being offered to
exceptionally talented students), four Masters students (this most likely being the most
popular degree), and two DMA students. This would be logical if we consider that the
Masters degree would be the option that all students who were doing five years of study
would undertake. Of course, in practice, the balance of these numbers could be expected to
The audition
Two of the conducting professors interviewed (Markand Thakar and Johannes Schlaefli)
pointed out the limitations of the audition process and its occasional fallibility.17
Nevertheless, some form of selection process is unavoidable, and given the importance of
this initial selection, it seems reasonable to say that one cannot be too thorough at this point.
Several of the schools investigated had highly detailed audition procedures, and any one of
these could act as a model. For the purpose of this proposed course, the entrance
minutes in duration to the school, along with a curriculum vitae. This video would include two
contrasting pieces, and involve the students conducting an orchestra or ensemble. Should
this not be possible a recording with two pianos would also be accepted, so as to allow
newcomers to conducting studies the possibility of applying. Given the program would offer
Around fifteen candidates would then be invited to audition in person. On the first day, all
candidates would sit for a two hour written exam focused on the audition repertoire, and
general questions relating to the orchestra, music history and theory. At the conclusion of
this exam, candidates would be given the score for the test piece to be played in the
following aural test, which would be given after a break of one hour. Much like the test given
that included errors requiring identification. Following the lunch break, all candidates would
then have the opportunity to conduct a chamber orchestra for ten minutes each. Each
potential student would then have a fifteen minute interview with the faculty, during which
they would also be required to briefly play their primary instrument, demonstrating their
general level of musicianship. Keyboard skills would also be assessed, and motivations for
studying conducting would be investigated. At the end of this process, six candidates would
Day two would take a much simpler form. The six selected candidates would be given
twenty-five minutes each to work with a chamber orchestra (or full orchestra if available). As
is the practice at the Zürich University of Arts, students would be required to conduct one
rhythmically complex work straight through of approximately five minutes duration (for
they would be expected to rehearse in some detail. This rehearsal session could also be
considered an opportunity for the conducting professor to interact with the students, in effect
giving them a brief lesson. This practice has been observed at the Juilliard School, with
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Kenneth Kiesler in Michigan also taking time to teach potential students where he deems it
appropriate. In this way, the faculty have the opportunity to see how quickly the student can
take on new information, and how they react to the pedagogical approach of the teacher.
Finally, between one and three conductors would be invited to join the class, the exact
number being determined by the places available at the time. A schedule for the two days
would be as follows:
Day One
1.30 p.m. – 4.30 p.m. Orchestra session (10 minutes per candidate)
Day Two
10.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m. Orchestra session (25 minutes per candidate)
It should be noted that such a process is designed for a conducting program aiming for
the highest possible level. If a brand new program were to be instigated, it may take some
time to develop a reputation that would attract a significant number of students. This would
also be dependent on the reputation of the teacher leading the course, and perhaps more
importantly, the amount of podium time offered during the course itself.
As part of this proposal it is suggested that the conducting professor and DMA students
jointly deliver the undergraduate non-major conducting courses. In some schools, such
courses are considered optional and take the form of an elective subject, whilst in many
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schools it may be compulsory for one semester, with a more advanced course also being
offered as an elective. Certainly, there is a strong argument that all music students should
study some conducting, as many will later teach, and at some point, may find themselves
leading a student orchestra or ensemble. If done correctly, these non-major classes could be
used to identify students with an aptitude for conducting amongst the general student body,
and the most gifted of these students could then be encouraged to consider conducting as
an option for their next stage of studies. Students already well known to the faculty could
then be guided to the conducting program, thus introducing some known quantities into the
audition process. This concept would have the added advantage of making sure that
talented musicians realise that conducting could be an option for them at a relatively early
stage in their learning. This is something that has been of concern to Jorma Panula,18 and is
also an issue that has been pointed out by Jesse Rosen, current head of the League of
American Orchestras.19 The idea behind giving the broader student base access to the
conducting class is based on practices observed at the Sibelius Academy. There, an open
class known as ‘Hiekkalaatikkoo’ or ‘the Sandpit class’ is periodically offered, where any
student can come and have a conducting lesson, most often taught by Atso Almila.20
Students are required to bring their own instruments and together form an ensemble to
‘Nuorisokapuluokka’, or ‘Youth class’, on some weekends, this class still being led by Panula
himself despite having retired nearly twenty years ago. However it is achieved, creating
pathways within a school to the conducting class is likely to have benefits for all concerned.
Should DMA students be involved, this would also give them a first taste of conducting
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The conducting class and ensembles to be conducted
The proposed schedule for the conducting classes combines ideas observed at the Peabody
Conservatory, Juilliard School, and the Sibelius Academy. The schedule below would take
The conductor’s working week would effectively begin on a Saturday, with a three hour
session with two professional pianists, with the students with appropriate keyboard skills,
also playing at the piano from full score, giving eight hands at any one time, as practiced at
the Juilliard School. With only two paid musicians present, the session could be used in a
flexible manner to delve into issues relating to the repertoire set for the week. This session
would not be videotaped by the school, but students would be free to record it for their own
private review. This would be followed by a significant break, allowing students to digest the
discussions from this session, before conducting the orchestra in a two hour session on
Monday evening. A Monday evening rehearsal should present few scheduling problems for
the orchestra musicians, and a two hour session (without a break) keeps things focused and
efficient. The following morning, the class would review the previous evening’s orchestral
session in a dedicated video session. Time could also be given to discussion of general
problems presented by the repertoire. After a short break, the class would reconvene with
two pianists (ideally the same pianists employed for the Saturday session), plus a string
quintet (ideally the principals from the orchestra). This session would give the students a
chance to practice specific problems identified in the video session, and to experiment with
223
potential solutions with the small ensemble. Finally, the working week would conclude with
The proposed orchestra would consist of around twenty-five auditioned, regular players,
and would be made up of advanced and recent students who would be paid an honorarium
for their services. Depending on the structure of the school’s ensemble program, it may also
school, or one with a specific endowment to cover conducting tuition, may be able to afford a
larger orchestra. However, the present proposal has been designed with the aim of keeping
the overall budget of the course within a realistic scale, and it has been demonstrated at the
Sibelius Academy that an orchestra of this size can serve as an excellent instrument,
provided that the standard of playing is high enough. The orchestra would have a string size
of 4.3.3.2.1,21 with double winds (eight players), three brass players, and one percussionist.
The exact number of brass players would be adapted according to repertoire requirements.
Ideally, the concertmaster of the orchestra should be a professional from the local symphony
This then gives the orchestra a leader who knows how to follow and respond to a conductor,
and someone who can also give the student conductors valuable feedback. Additionally, it is
likely that the students playing in the orchestra would raise their own standard of playing in
the presence of such an individual. Therefore, the extra money required to pay for a
On the basis that players of the orchestra would be paid an honorarium of US$65 per
week, the program outlined above would cost somewhere in the vicinity of US$40,000 per
annum, in terms of providing musicians for the class.23 This includes payments made to the
professional pianists and concertmaster, with some extra money budgeted for occasional
extra brass. Naturally, the exact figure paid to orchestra members could be modified in either
21
Four first violins, three second violins, three violas, two celli and one double bass player.
22 Jorma Panula, interview by author, Helsinki, 19 October, 2011.
23 Based on the following figures: 25 players @ $65 = $1625 per week. 10 weeks per semester =
16,250 = $32,500 per year for orchestra (plus budget for extra brass at $1200). Pianos @ $250 a call
=$5,000.
224
direction. However, should the figure drop too low, the standard of players wishing to
participate may drop, particularly in the strings, whose services are often in high demand in
a Conservatory setting. The amount of orchestra time scheduled is based on having eight
students, the schedule giving each student thirty minutes of podium time per week, plus time
with pianos and small ensemble. This is consistent with best international practice as found
in this study. A program with fewer students would require proportionally less orchestra time.
Based on the assumption that there are fourteen teaching weeks per semester at the
school this course would be presented, four weeks would be left over where no orchestra or
ensemble sessions took place. In place of these practical sessions, it is proposed that the
conductors participate in a series of seminars for these four weeks, led by the conducting
professor. A key emphasis in these sessions would be issues such as psychology and
leadership skills, as well as broader issues of body movement, as outlined Section 3.2.
External experts in these areas would be invited to come and work with the students in a
classroom setting discussing these subjects from a theoretical viewpoint. The same experts
would then be invited to return for an orchestral session, with the focus of the video review
session for that particular week lying on those areas. Other possible activities during these
performance practice or problems relating to score study. These weeks would also be an
As part of their studies, students should act as assistant conductors within the school
where appropriate. Each school symphony concert could have a designated assistant to
take sectional rehearsals and assist the conductor as required. More experienced students
could be of great use to the school’s opera department, conducting production rehearsals,
Michigan.
225
Repertoire
Like all schools investigated in this study (with the exception of St. Petersburg), repertoire
would be set at the beginning of each semester, and all students would study the same
repertoire at the same time, regardless of level. As discussed earlier, in some ways this is
not pedagogically ideal, as beginning students may find themselves conducting challenging
repertoire at an early stage. However, when working with a student-based orchestra who
may not be fully familiar with a broad repertoire, it is logical to work on a focused selection
every week, perhaps a symphony or similar scale work, plus one shorter work, such as an
overture, or a movement from a concerto. This also means that students can learn from
watching each other critically, and give each other informed feedback, having studied the
works themselves.
Supporting subjects
The exact number of supporting subjects studied by students would vary according to which
degree they were working towards. Bachelor of Music students would have two principal
studies in conducting and their primary instrument, and simply take the normal subjects
required by the institution for the Bachelor degree. Table 11 presents a possible curriculum
for this degree. Of course, the details of supporting subjects offered may vary significantly
226
Table 11. Bachelor of Music curriculum for proposed conducting program.
Year
1 2 3 Total
Semester
1 2 3 4 5 6
Core Studies
Music history
2 2 2 2 8
Harmony, analysis and form
2 2 2 6
Ear training
2 2 2 2 2 2 12
General music theory
2 2 2 6
Practical Music Studies
Choir
1 1 2
Orchestra
1 1 1 1 1 1 6
Chamber Music
1 1 1 1 4
Total
18 18 18 18 18 18 112
Source: Author.
Masters students would be required to study music theory and analysis, orchestration,
and score reading. The conducting department would work to ensure that the teachers
leading these subjects are aware of the repertoire being studied in the conducting class, and
encourage the teachers to overlap as much as possible. Thus, students would have the
opportunity to engage with repertoire they are studying from different viewpoints, and gain
useful tools that are directly applicable to their score study process. The study of aural skills
would also be required, with students enrolling in a course aimed specifically at conductors,
which might also be offered to composition students. This is the practice adopted at the
schools investigated in Vienna and Zürich. As is the case in Vienna, the coursework should
not only be piano based, but also use examples and exercises from the orchestral literature.
227
Should it not be possible to achieve this within the existing structures at a particular school,
the conducting professor could lead these aural development sessions, should time permit.
For weeks when the class is not working with the orchestra, students would attend a
conducting seminar, and visit rehearsals as a group, receiving credits for both these
activities.
As proposed by Mark Stringer in Section 3.1, Masters students would also be required to
enrol in the school’s chamber music program. The simplest way to achieve this would be for
them to enrol in the school’s regular chamber music program. Alternatively, conducting
students could form groups amongst themselves, but it could be seen as being in the
students’ best interests to work with regular instrumentalists who they may not engage with
Year
1 2 Total
Semester
1 2 3 4
Core Subjects
Conducting
9 9 9 9 36
Conducting seminar
1 1 1 1 4
Final recital
3 3
Supporting Subjects
Piano/Score reading
2 2 2 2 8
Aural skills
2 2 2 2 8
Music theory and analysis
2 2 2 6
Chamber Music
1 1 1 3
Rehearsal visits
1 1 1 1 4
Total
18 18 18 18 72
Source: Author.
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DMA students would not work to a points system, hence no table has been presented for
this level. DMA students would be required to study aural skills for two years, in the same
class as the Masters students, and score reading for one year. Studies such as music
history and theory would not be required, but could be taken where necessary, particularly if
specific gaps in knowledge have been identified during the audition process. Chamber music
would not be considered a requirement, but would be actively encouraged. Three recitals
would be presented during the course of studies, with detailed, academic, program notes
Graduation
The ideal solution for the students’ final graduation recitals is to follow the Scandinavian
model, and give them the opportunity to lead a concert with a professional orchestra. This is
the practice in Finland, as discussed in Section 2.1, and is a common occurrence in other
opportunity to play a solo work in the same performance, thus serving as an examination for
a number of students. The concert may be a full, conventional evening concert, or may take
the form of a shorter lunch hour presentation. Such a practice makes sense and may be
practicable if the Conservatory in question has meaningful ties with its local symphony
orchestra. As well as providing students with a group of players with whom they can
demonstrate their full potential, the concert, if successful, may lead to further professional
engagements, both with the orchestra in question, and other music organisations in the
area. The school would ideally invite representatives of local orchestras and opera
companies to these recitals, perhaps even involving them in the assessment process. Thus,
the student has a potential springboard into the profession. Both schools offering DMAs
investigated in this study require three examination recitals prior to graduation. Providing
three recitals with a professional orchestra would most likely be impractical. It is therefore
suggested that one recital be presented with an orchestra or ensemble that the students
229
organise themselves (as occurs at Peabody and Michigan), one recital be given with a
school orchestra or ensemble, and the final recital be presented with a professional
orchestra. It may also be possible for an opera performance to act as one of the final
recitals. Bachelor level students would be subject to an in-house examination rather than a
successful. Even at the world’s leading schools, a student may receive only thirty minutes
per week standing in front of an orchestra. Fostering strong connections with local music
organisations therefore makes sense on a number of levels. At the most basic level, access
students, and costs nothing. As has been identified in Section 1.7, learning to rehearse
effectively is a significant challenge for the young conductor, thus observing the rehearsals
work, students can develop their knowledge of the practices of professional orchestras –
how they work, how they behave, and how they sound at different stages of the rehearsal
process. Taking this access one step further would involve giving students the opportunity to
meet guest conductors and discuss their work, much as Juilliard does with the New York
Philharmonic. If the Music Director of the orchestra can be persuaded to take an interest in
the welfare of the students (as is the case in Baltimore), then this would be the ideal
situation. Guest conductors and in particular the Music Director could then be invited to
guest teach as part of the program. Should such a relationship be developed, having
students do their final recitals with the orchestra may become a strong possibility, even in
countries where this is not considered standard practice. However, a strong bond of trust
230
must first be forged between the two organisations.24 The possibility of similar relationships
could also be sought with opera and ballet companies in the immediate area. Conducting
students who have high-level keyboard skills in particular, could be of practical use to these
organisations. Local amateur orchestras and youth orchestras should also not be
overlooked. In Zürich, the conducting program benefits from links with a wider variety of
orchestras, including some that are non-professional. Provided a certain technical capacity
is present, such orchestras can still provide young conductors with valuable experience.
Should the above proposed course be adopted, the chances of success should be high.
Of course, such a course may take some time to establish a reputation, and in so doing,
attract the best students. It is worth noting that among the schools investigated in this study,
the youngest is fourteen years old at the time of writing. This demonstrates that time, as well
24 The exact nature of the relationship will also depend on the level of the orchestra. The New
York Philharmonic, for example, does not offer Juilliard students opportunities in concert, despite their
close ties.
231
Conclusion
This thesis has analysed the methods and approaches of some of the world’s leading
tertiary conducting schools in order to better understand the reasons for their success. By
doing so, a clear picture of what constitutes current international best practice in orchestral
conductor training has emerged. Potential new directions in conducting pedagogy requiring
additional focus have been identified, and an ideal curriculum has been proposed, based on
The thesis has been based on new source material generated through interviews with
leading conducting pedagogues, conducted by the author in the United States of America,
United Kingdom, Finland, Austria, Russia and Australia. Combined with the fact that no
study of this nature has been undertaken previously, the study can be considered an original
Part One identified specific challenges facing schools delivering advanced conducting
undergraduate or postgraduate level, what teachers look for in the audition, how best to
aspect of conducting, approaches to score study, the role of the video camera, and the
challenge of teaching conductors to rehearse. Part One allowed for a broad discussion of
these issues, and encompassed key viewpoints and philosophies of the principal conducting
pedagogues interviewed for the study. On many issues it was demonstrated that there is a
significant diversity of opinions, with the use of the video-camera as a pedagogical tool being
particularly controversial.
Part Two then presented case studies of the seven schools selected for investigation:
the Sibelius Academy of Music, Helsinki, the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State
Conservatory of Music, the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, the University
of Arts, Zürich, the Juilliard School, the Peabody Conservatory and the University of
232
Michigan. The emphasis in Part Two was placed on structures, audition processes,
curricula, methods of delivery, and where appropriate, the imprint of key personalities. In so
doing, a detailed description was given of the learning environment each school provides to
their conducting students. It has been clear throughout the research process that schools
are aware only in vague terms of what practices are adopted elsewhere. It is hoped,
therefore, that the gathering of this information in one document will be of significant interest
to a broad section of those involved in the field of tertiary orchestral conductor training.
Following these case studies, the following findings of what constitutes current
international best practice in tertiary level orchestral conductor training were presented and
discussed:
preparatory ensemble.
resources provided.
5. The conducting program is in most cases the primary focus of the conducting
professor.
6. A class size of between seven and twelve is generally considered to be standard for
a one-teacher system.
8. The broader curriculum should support the activities of the conducting class, and be
as integrated as possible.
9. Strong links should be developed with the local musical community, with final
233
Of key importance in the findings is the practice of providing students with an orchestra to
work with. All institutions investigated managed to achieve this, though there was a
significant variation in the method of delivery amongst the schools. The St. Petersburg
Conservatory has a resident professional orchestra for this purpose, whilst the Zürich
University of Arts visits various professional orchestras on a regular basis. However, the
most common approach found was to pay current and/or former instrumental students an
honorarium to play in the conductors’ orchestra. Regardless of the approach taken, time with
this valuable resource remains relatively scarce. Therefore, all schools investigated chose to
work with some form of preparatory ensemble, in order to deal with preliminary issues before
Areas requiring further investigation and understanding were then examined, with the
areas of physiology and psychology being identified as areas that are currently
misunderstood or neglected by the field in general. It was argued that recent discoveries in
the disciplines of biomechanics and the behavioural sciences may be able to shed further
light on these areas, and that this is a direction that conducting pedagogy should actively
pursue. There is much potential for further research in both of these areas, and it could be
argued that the conducting classroom is an ideal laboratory for exploring issues such as
A proposed curriculum for a tertiary level orchestral conducting program was then
presented. This curriculum was based on all findings presented thus far in the thesis, and
represents a synthesis of best practices from around the world. A music school offering a
General reflections
the beginning of this thesis, the question of whether conducting can be taught has long been
234
controversial. In the early years of the twentieth century this question was ordinarily
answered in the negative. According to Scherchen, the consensus of opinion was that
conducting could only be learnt ‘by acquiring routine’ in the profession.25 However, the
findings of this thesis have demonstrated that leading conducting schools have found a way
to bring the orchestra into the conducting classroom. In this way, students are able to
‘acquire routine’ in a controlled educational environment. This has been the primary factor
that has allowed advanced tertiary conductor training to flourish in recent decades. The
technique of conducting can now be addressed with the student interacting with their
The present study confirms that many of the skills a conductor requires can be taught in
the context of a tertiary institution. A brief examination of the curricula of schools such as the
Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory, or the Vienna University of Music and
necessary for an orchestral conductor can be taught in a tertiary setting. Areas such as
music theory, history, aural training and score reading are an essential part of a conductor’s
background knowledge, and have been taught successfully for many years. Indeed, a
university is the only setting where these skills can be developed intensively on a regular,
weekly basis. When combined with the presence of an orchestra, a rich and stimulating
learning environment can be provided to the student. Indeed, from the student’s perspective
the question really is, not one of can conducting be taught, but can conducting be learnt. It is
clear that the tertiary music school can supply an abundance of opportunities for learning
and self-development.
Yet, there remain some areas where it is questioned whether or not a student of
conducting can be educated. This is the area where the human interaction between the
conductor and orchestra comes in to play, and is an area that sometimes defies analysis.
Unlike an instrumentalist, the conductor cannot function without the acquiescence of other
human beings, and issues such as leadership and charisma quickly come into play.
setting where these interactions can be observed. In order to deal with this issue of how a
conductor engages the orchestral musicians, there is a strong argument that we should aim
to make the roles of all involved as close to a professional situation as possible. In particular,
hypothetical performance, and play the role of leader. Perhaps due to time and cost
constraints, this is something that does not happen enough, even amongst the world’s
leading schools, with several teachers interviewed for this thesis acknowledging that
genuine opportunities to rehearse are lacking. If students can be provided with such a
rehearsal environment at least on occasion, and these rehearsals are then analysed, it
follows that they will be better equipped to deal with the interpersonal aspects of conducting.
As well as developing the multitude of skills discussed in this study, students must also learn
how better to engage, inspire and lead the people with whom they are working.
In closing, while at the beginning of the twentieth century most would have concluded
that conducting cannot be taught, today we can give a response that is largely in the
affirmative, and can reasonably expect that our understanding of this complex art form will
continue to develop in the future. There is no doubt that a student’s conducting can be
improved through tuition at the tertiary level, and it therefore cannot be considered a futile
pursuit. The challenge then is really one of how we can continue to develop the field of
conducting pedagogy, and come to a more complete understanding of the art form itself. If
students have a passion for music, and have the requisite resources put at their disposal,
236
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Appendix ̶ List of Interviews
Carewe, John. Conductor and teacher. Former teacher of Simon Rattle. London,
21 September 2011.
Koehler, Lutz. Professor of conducting, University of Arts, Berlin. Berlin, 28 February 2011.
Lajovic, Uroš. Professor of conducting, University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna.
Telephone interview, 6 December 2012.
Rachleff, Larry. Walter Kris Hubert Professor of Music, Rice University. Telephone interview,
19 January 2012.
Ross, James. Associate Director, Juilliard School conducting program. New York,
20 January 2012.
245
Seaman, Christopher. Artistic Director, Symphony Australia conductor development
program. Hobart, 10 February 2012.
Stringer, Mark. Professor of conducting, University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna.
Vienna, 18 October 2011.
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