Conduct, Yourself (part 1)
I’ve labeled this post “part 1” with the idea that I might create other posts about conducting…we’ll see :). I think of conducting music, at least conducting ensemble pieces that require score preparation and rehearsal, like I think of exercising or eating right—it’s good for me, even though it’s not always enjoyable in the moment. At times conducting seems like one of those things I’m happy to have done, rather than something I enjoy doing in the moment, though it depends on many factors. ANYWAY, I feel that conducting a piece, especially a piece I don’t know well and have to learn in the process of conducting it, is a great way to improve my musical chops and sharpen my skills, including my ears (sense of pitch, balance, etc.), my abilities to accurately feel and perform rhyhm/tempo/time, and I’m sure many other things.
I don’t think I’m a great conductor, and much of my conducting has arisen out of necessity…it began with my undergrad degree in music comp from BYU (where I now teach)—we were required to take a conducting class, which I took from Glen Williams, the final project of which was to conduct (along with a recording) some excerpts from Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat. I conducted several pieces on my senior recital, and I think a piece or two by my fellow students during my junior and senior years (though I don’t remember any in particular?).
Near the end of my master’s degree in music comp from the U. of Illinois I started to get the urge to conduct again—a few memories are pieces by fellow students Chin Chin Chen (a trio that we performed at the Midwest Composers Symposium in 1994-95), S. Beth May (a large ensemble piece that included hanging glass bottles for percussion), and a trumpet ensemble piece by Seth Wrightington, which I conducted sitting down and I remember someone telling me that Herbert Brün liked the job I did…YAY for me!.
By the time I was considering PhD/DMA programs, I was interested in going somewhere I could get some decent new-music conducting experience in addition to studying composition. I did the common thing of applying to various places, not getting in, getting into a couple programs that didn’t seem to be the right fit, and then per the urging of my friend Brian Hulse who was finishing up a MM in Choral Conducting at the U of I, I looked into the U of Utah and reached out to Morris Rosenzweig directly to talk with him about their PhD program. I loved his music, enjoyed his personality, and was promised I could get involved with his Canyonlands New Music Ensemble as part of my assistantship there, so it all seemed like a good fit and that’s where I landed for my PhD.
Morris followed through with giving me some great conducting opportunities. In addition to watching him and attending rehearsals and concerts with several guest composers, I got to help rehearse a couple Mario Davidovsky pieces that first year in preparation for his visit in spring 1996 (Quartetto and Biblical Songs), taking over the ensemble during his sabbatical and producing a concert in 1997 that featured a couple pieces by guest composer Andrew Imbrie that I conducted (including Pilgrimage), and finally, conducting Milton Babbitt’s All Set on a concert that featured works by Gunther Schuller, who was visiting. Sort of cool but also intimidating to conduct for Schuller and get some notes. Plenty of other conducting opportunities during that time, including conducting my own works and works by my classmates and others.
Since coming to BYU in 2001 I’ve had many rewarding conducting experiences, both with the BYU Group for New Music (including faculty, student, and guest performers), and in conducting colleagues and guest performers for my own recordings and concerts. Right off the bat I conducted my dissertation piece, Leave Song, with a large ensemble of faculty performers and guest soprano Jennifer Larsen. One of the more ambitious and difficult pieces I conducted with a great student ensemble back in 2011 was Steven Mackey’s Micro-Concerto for Pierrot ensemble and solo percussionist. We prepared it for a concert with visiting percussionist Matthew Coley, who did a great job and thankfully recorded some video—you can watch some excerpts of the performance which he’s posted on YouTube HERE. I also, somewhat out of necessity, conducted performances of and ultimately a recording of my piece American Dreamscape with BYU faculty members and saxophonist John Sampen. It’s one of several pieces on my Bridge Records CD Mild Violence—you can check out the recording HERE.
SO…if you’re interested in conducting something…DO IT. Write a piece, get the performers together, and conduct it! Or offer to conduct a friend’s or classmate’s piece. You might not be good…oh well! Learn by doing, practice, and get better! It’s the musical equivalent of eating spinach :).
