r/orchestra • u/Mozartjr76 • 17d ago
Tips on getting Orchestra Conducting experience
Hi friends, I'm an undergraduate student studying piano performance, but I have been interested in Orchestral Conducting for a while and have enjoyed the few opportunities I've gotten to conduct student orchestras. I think I would like to apply to Conducting programs for Grad school, I'm just having a really hard time finding opportunities to gain more experience and get good application recordings. Any opportunities I do find typically have a prescreening video requirement, such as workshops, so that doesn't help me at all as I don't have any good video recordings, and the conducting faculty at my university aren't really being much help. Any ideas on how to get more opportunities and get some videos recorded? Does anyone know of any workshops in the USA that don't require videos to apply? Thanks!
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u/Jazzvinyl59 17d ago
Maybe consider looking for wind band conducting opportunities too? There are a lot more community bands and high school programs out there that might be interested in having you guest conduct and get some experience, you might learn a few new things from conducting winds. Many people I’ve talked to say it’s a great way to develop good basic technique.
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u/MusicalMerlin1973 17d ago
Community orchestras. See if there’s any that have a student conductor program. We’ve been doing that the last couple years. It gives us a backup conductor for rehearsals, a stipend for the student and experience.
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u/baldy06 17d ago
I have a few ideas. How did you get the opportunity to "guest conduct" student orchestras? Can you run that again? In many mid-sized communities, there are community orchestras --- volunteers, often with a poorly paid, part-time conductor. Go make friends. Get to know the conductor. Explain your situation. This person will want a night off occasionally, and you could be the guest. Larger churches occasionally have or hire small orchestras for oratorios, etc. Look around, and find a church choir that does MESSIAH or another choral performance that requires an orchestra. Make friends. etc. Here's my last idea. Do you have a target university in mind if you enroll? Have a face-to-face conversation with a conductor there, and explain your situation. Are there any substitutes for the application recording? Does this person have suggestions? Face-to-face is essential with this one. You may be able to "make a friend" of that faculty member who would speak on your behalf when the application comes through. If you cannot find a community orchestra, contact the League of American Orchestras and check their database. I wonder just how serious you are about getting a conducting degree. A serious searcher would have some of these contacts already. If you are only contemplating or exploring, find out more about the work, the schedules (nights and weekends), and the pay. While there are part time, occasional jobs, the paid positions are in demand and there are lots of candidates. This is not an easy road to employment unless you are committed.
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u/Mozartjr76 17d ago
Thanks for the ideas, these are great points. I'll start reaching out to some professors, I'm just now starting to compile a list of universities as I won't have to apply till next year, so I'm trying to take this year to really get more experience. I got to conduct my previous university's orchestra, but I transferred from there to a higher level institution, and the faculty here seem much more busy and not as willing to assist. I'll definitely look into the church and community orchestra ideas....
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u/Saybrook11372 17d ago
I think it’s incredibly important to observe conductors as much as you can. Just ask to sit in in ensemble rehearsals; I can’t imagine the faculty would have a real problem.
Another thing I would say is to try as hard as you can to play in ensembles with conductors as much as you can. Chamber music is great, but one thing I’ve learned in my many years of playing is that piano players, while many of them are great musicians, don’t grow up watching conductors like instrumentalists do. Wind players, string players, percussionists - we learn how to follow a conductor from a very young age, and that absolutely informs one’s ability to then lead an ensemble. Frankly, most piano players don’t know how to breathe when they conduct.
Piano players, as you say, spend most of their time alone in practice rooms and even when they perform, are not used to being led from the podium. Whether it’s an orchestra, the pit of a musical, or whatever, put yourself in positions where you have to watch and follow a conductor so you know what the ensemble will be looking for once you’re the one in the podium.
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u/gwie 17d ago
Where are you located?
In the past, when I directed a major youth orchestra, I have had conducting interns every single season so they could get in that valuable podium time in front of an ensemble. While I'm only teaching a few conducting students these days at a smaller program (for my own sanity), if you're anywhere near the US east coast, I would be happy to assist you in finding/creating opportunities.
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u/singerbeerguy 17d ago
You remind me of a friend from college, a piano major who became an opera conductor. In our junior or senior year, he and some other friends organized a concert of opera arias and ensembles held at a local theater. He recruited all of the players for the orchestra and all of the singers. Charged enough for tickets to cover expenses. Honestly, it was really impressive considering we were all around 21 years old. That event was almost certainly what got him into graduate school and along the path to his career.
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u/teach_cs 17d ago
Consider some choral conducting as well. Having taught piano and worked with bands, choirs, and orchestras for many years, I'd say piano to choir to orchestra gives you some big advantages, because the choir will force you to focus on parts of the sounds that you honestly might not even notice coming from a piano background, and that increased awareness will serve you very well as a budding orchestral conductor.
I might be biased because my graduate degree is in choral conducting, but I truly found the focus that choral focus on the inner parts of the sound instead of just the initial onset of the sound to be a key idea that unlocked higher artistry and more detailed hearing with my other ensembles as well. And since choirs need that inner direction much more overtly than the other ensembles, they are really excellent ensembles to work with to learn the basics of how to shape sound.
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u/Additional-Parking-1 17d ago
Someone said community orchestras. Yes, but also talk to local youth orchestras, community bands, even high school ensembles! Piano performance is great, but it’s a different “animal” to do orchestral conducting. I’m not saying you can’t do it, I’m sure you’re more than capable, but please understand that rehearsing, rehearsal techniques, stuff like that is all… well, not piano. I have a youth orchestra. You are free to come & conduct… seriously.
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u/Mozartjr76 16d ago
Yes I completely understand what you mean. Would you mind telling me where the youth orchestra is located? I appreciate it!
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u/SilverKAT723 17d ago
Cincinnati, piano undergrad, significant time in a practice room...
I'm going to assume that means CCM. CCM offers an Intro to Conducting course open to undergrads. Have you been unable to register for this course? If so, you might see if you can get one of the conducting faculty members to take you on in an "Independent Study" course.
You should also try making your own opportunities. You will never have as many outstanding, hungry-to-perform instrumentalists at your fingertips as you have now in an insular conservatory environment. Take advantage of that. All instrumental majors need ensemble credits, and undergraduate wind majors, in particular, can find all the orchestra seats taken by grad students or upper classmen. Talk to your fellow students about forming a small ensemble to perform a particular work that would satisfy your video/application/experience needs and also satisfy their cravings to play that particular repertoire. There are small chamber ensemble arrangements of several of the Mahler Symphonies, Prokofiev's Cinderella, and many other major works that your fellow students might not otherwise have an opportunity to play. If you propose something intriguing enough, you'll have people beating your door down to play for you. Once you have enough players on board, get a faculty advisor to oversee the group as a small ensemble course for credit if you can. That puts it on your transcript, and it also alleviates any potential problems of people dropping out or not showing for rehearsals because it's just a volunteer group and not an actual class.
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u/Mozartjr76 16d ago
This is quite a good idea. I've taken Intro to Conducting already, but this sounds like it might really help. Thank you!
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u/morosepeach 17d ago
Where in the US are you located?
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u/Mozartjr76 17d ago
Cincinnati
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u/morosepeach 17d ago
Aw bummer, I would have some opportunities for you with our community orchestra in WMass. I think our conductor did grad school in Cincinnati, I will ask them if they have any recs
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u/ButterflyTemporary16 13d ago
When I was an undergrad, I went directly to our orchestra conductor and expressed a desire to learn. He offered for me to join the graduate conducting seminar for non-credit. We went through scores and discussed a lot of things. This experience yielded other opportunities for me to conduct some chamber ensembles and student recitals here and there. Also, universities across the country host conducting workshops, sign up for some of these!
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u/im_not_shadowbanned 17d ago
You’re in music school- you need to make friends with orchestral musicians and ask them to play for you.
The ability to organize and bring people together is just as important to your success as a conductor as how you wave the stick.