PT10: “When are You Ready to Conduct a Piece?” with Wes Kenney

It’s Christmas at Podium Time and we have a very special episode for you. Wes Kenney is the Director of Orchestras at Colorado State University, where Jeremy studies, and is Music Director of the Fort Collins Symphony, Opera Fort Collins, and the Denver Young Artists Orchestra. Today he takes time out of his (much-needed) Christmas vacation to talk with us about why we need a mentor, his special pedagogical tools, and the personalities of composers. He also shares with us a great list of contemporary music and unique recordings, so start your new year right. And be sure to listen all the way to the end to hear what Wes Kenney would like on his tombstone!

Show notes for Episode 10

This week we discuss:

• A troublesome decoration:
  • 
• The importance of cultivating relationships
  • Our discussion with JoAnn Falletta
• Why you need the standard rep in your ear
• The pitfalls of conducting to recordings
  • Kenney’s special tools
• When are you ready to conduct a piece?
  • Understanding the composer as a human
  • “Relationships are how great works are created”
  • Conductor personalities
• Kenney takes one of our questions in a direction we’d never considered!
• Auditions: “It’s not about who’s the best, it’s about who’s the best fit.”
• David Zinnman’s Beethoven Cycle
  • Improvising in Beethoven!
• Roger Norrington’s Beethoven Cycle
  • The Turkish March at half speed
• Admired Colleagues
  • Wesley Ferreira
    • LIFT Clarinet Academy
  • Eric Hollenbeck
  • Joel Bacon
    • CSU Organ Week 
    • CSU Sinfonia Organ Concerto (embedded below)
• Why Music Directors shouldn’t talk politics
• The “Colorado 36”
• Suggested listening
  • Hillary Tann:
    • The Open Field
    • Heather and Small Birds
  • Kevin Puts:
    • Isle of Innocence
  • Michael Daugherty
    • Ghost Ranch
    • Fire and Blood
    • Route 66
  • Zhou Long
    • The Rhyme of Taigu
• What Kenney wants on his tombstone

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