Friday, February 12, 2016

Conductors in Training

It's that time of year...

Music Performance Assessment season is upon us!  I have 11 entries this year at Solo and Ensemble - 3 music theatre entries, 6 vocal solos and 2 student conductors. This is the first year I've taken student conductors. 

When I asked the Executive Director of the Florida Vocal Association how many I could take, his response was "As many as you can handle."  I now know why. 

We had to find willing hearts among us who would put in the extra effort in an ensemble, so that my students had someone TO conduct.  We had to give up class time to work on the music so that I could coach the guys through the process.  We had to hold additional after school rehearsals with the ensemble and the accompanist to make this happen for these fledgling conductors.  I had forgotten what it was like to watch a beginner try to conduct an ensemble.  Truth be told, these young men have a newly acquired appreciation for the person on the podium. 

It has been a pleasure watching these young men develop over the past several months and my hope is that they both make a "Superior" rating and we all get to go to STATE!! Fingers crossed... 

 Jacob - "Je le vous Diray"


Noah - "Shenandoah"

Until next time...

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