Photo: Andrew James
Conducting workshops – Five sessions with Monica Buckland
All sessions run from 5:30pm - 7:00pm at the ANU Community Music Centre (ANU School of Music) on the following dates:
24 September
1 October
15 October
22 October
29 October
It is expected that applicants will attend all five sessions
Apply here: The Conductor's How-To Guide application form
This is a rare opportunity to experience free workshops with Monica.
Who is this workshop for?
Whether you are already an experienced leader of ensembles or reluctantly find yourself conducting a group without ever having learnt how to do it, there is something here for every musician. Standing up in front of a group of musicians – of any age – can be daunting, but these sessions are a safe and inclusive space to gain and explore new areas of knowledge. They will leave you feeling empowered and enthusiastic to try out your new skills.
Conducting is communication.
In these engaging and creative workshop sessions, Monica Buckland introduces us to the elements of conducting. Physical and spatial exercises will be combined with video excerpts of other conductors at work, and discussion of topics such as programming and rehearsal techniques.
Making Music Out of Thin Air
Each session will include Making Music Out of Thin Air – with no printed music in front of us. We will take it in turns to communicate the essence of music to an ensemble of workshop participants, playing whatever instruments we bring along. This will evolve over the course of the workshop sessions, reflecting our exploration of the different elements of conducting.
Your Body in Space
Our hands, our eyes, and our whole bodies are the conduit through which the composer’s thoughts reach the musicians, who convert the information they receive from us into sounds. We start the workshop with some physical exercises about how we use our bodies to communicate.
Speaking the Right Language
As with any spoken language, conducting has its own vocabulary and grammar. We explore the conventions and choreography of using gestures to communicate music to groups. For our gestures – our conducting “technique” – to be effective, we need our beat to be accurate, appropriate, and unambiguous: elements that the sessions will address in detail.
“Do I Really Have to Know All That?”
Before we can expect musicians to play what our gestures convey, we need to know exactly what we want to communicate in the first place. Conducting demands specialist knowledge as well as physical skills. The sessions will help you clarify your existing knowledge, and adapt it to the task, as well as identifying any gaps and working out where to find the relevant information to complement what you already know.
It's all in the preparation
Before we get up on the podium, there have already been many stages of planning and preparation. The sessions will also take a look at how we approach programming for particular groups, and how we plan rehearsals.
Who is Monica Buckland?
Monica Buckland brings a rich diversity of experience to this workshop. As a conductor, she has worked with amateur, student and professional orchestras (including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra), choirs of various sizes and abilities, opera and ballet, and even the backing orchestra for a rock group – as well as school bands and orchestras in New South Wales. In her parallel commitment as an educator, she has taught at universities and given courses and masterclasses in Germany, Switzerland, the UK, and most recently Australia.
Monica is passionate about teaching conducting and especially giving “reluctant conductors” the skills they need to lead school and community ensembles. These groups in particular will benefit from having leaders who really know what they’re doing.