Ball State University School of Music Newsletter, Summer 2016

with the Wind Ensemble, and all of the participants get an opportunity to conduct the Wind Ensemble for approximately 15 minutes. They rotate, they get feedback on their conducting, and they get to keep a video at the end of the weekend.

In the afternoon, we do sessions, as I mentioned. Saturday evening, we have a concert with the Wind Ensemble and Symphony Band. The next day, Sunday, they have the chance to conduct the Symphony Band. So they all get in front of the Symphony Band with the pieces they have prepared and have another session. When that’s finished, we have a final session where we get them together and talk to them again. They get to ask questions, and topics range widely. They can ask just about anything related to conducting or even music in general.

Q: Whom specifically does this event attract?

A: It can attract anyone. A graduate student working on a degree at another university...every once in a while there are undergraduate students who will come. And sometimes we get school teachers who are interested in coming back and working on conducting. We’ve had an occasional college band director. It’s a wide range of people. We have people who have no experience at all and people who may have been teaching for 10 or 20 years.

Q: In what ways will Ball State students be involved in the events this weekend?

A: The Wind Ensemble and Symphony Band are the ensembles that the guests conduct. They will be performing for the different conductors. They will give feedback to the conductors. They will also learn about conducting because they will hear the clinicians in the front working with the conductor, and actually, what I think this does, is it tends to sensitize the players and they become better ensembles. They play better afterwards. They become more aware of what conductors are doing, so they actually learn about conducting even by sitting in the ensemble. And the other part of it, too, is that they are performing a concert. There’s one other session we have, which is Saturday afternoon, that is sponsored by our National Band Association student chapter, where we open it up to any of the students in the music school to come and sit in a session with our guest clinician. This year, our clinician is Alan McMurray, who is the Director of Bands Emeritus at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has conducted all-around and is a renowned educator, teacher, and conductor. He’s been here before- he did this about 8 or 9 years ago, so this is his second time on campus.

Q: How has this weekend benefited our students in the past? How has it benefited the people involved the workshop?

A: Well, obviously, it has benefited the people involved in the workshop because it’s hands-on conducting. They conduct and get immediate feedback, and it can be anything from their posture, stance, the way they move down to their fingers and wrist, the technical aspects of conducting, but also in terms of the way they approach the music from a conducting stand point, how they interpret a piece of music. They’re going to think about making music on the podium in a different way. And as I said our students get a lot out of it because they are able to learn a little bit more what a conductor thinks about and actually does.

Q: Do you have any additional comments?

A: It’s been a good event! We’ve had people from all over the country come, and it’s to the point where we don’t really have to advertise. People just know about it. We usually limit it to 10 conductors, and it’s been a really good thing.

Occasionally, we’ll get graduate students that will come through, too, so it serves as a bit of a recruitment tool as well!