This is an interview that we’ve been looking forward to since before the podcast launched, and we were honored last week for the chance to finally talk shop with Diane Wittry, the author of two essential books for both young conductors and Music Directors: Beyond the Baton and Baton basics. This week we talk about how to build a vocabulary of gestures, why you need to consider every opportunity, and the importance of creative programming for your audiences.
This week we discuss:
- A conductor’s two career paths
- How your leadership style must develop as an orchestra grows
- Baton Basics: Communicating Music through Gesture
- The Squiggle Exercise
- Training your muscles vs. choreography
- Workshops:
- Why you should consider every opportunity
- Four points of advice for all students/young conductors
- Why we must be marketers
- On bringing “difficult” music to audiences and the board
- Programming a Purple Cow
- Wittry’s hidden gems
- Lieberman: Revelry
- Fauré/Messager: Mass of the Fishermen
- “Beethoven Nine in a Blender”
- Final advice
You can find more information on Diane Wittry and her books and workshops on her website: www.DianeWittry.com
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