The surprisingly vulnerable art of conducting

What do conductors do? Wave their hands around for dramatic effect? Keep count so a large gouop of musicians stay together? Cue said musicians so they know when to come in?

Perhaps of the above, but also so much more. 

Despite having one of the most visible roles in the orchestra, the nuances of the conductor's role is not particularly obvious to the casual viewer. 

Earlier this year, I got the chance to observe part of a conducting workshop for the very first time, and learned a little bit more from the perspectives of conductors at various levels of experience. 

The two-day Conducting Intensive workshop was taught by Tengku Irfan at Juliette Music & Arts Academy with participants and observers of various levels of conducting experience. 

Photo courtesy of Juliette Music & Arts Academy

Starting at the very beginning: analysis and interpretation

Long before taking the stage, even before rehearsing with the orchestra, the work of the conductor has already begun. 

Workshop organiser and Juliette Music & Arts Academy co founder, Juan Sebastian Castillo Diaz, is a highly experienced professional orchestral musician. After decades as a professional violist, he took up conducting as a new challenge and to continue exploring music in a different way. He described the work that takes place even before the first rehearsal as one of the many things he enjoys about the work of a conductor - "colouring your score" as he vividly describes it - this act of studying the score, analysing the music, putting the necessary markings into your score to begin to build the interpretation you intend to bring to life with the orchestra. This process is an essential part of a conductor's preparation because players in the orchestra are meant to rely on the conductor to lead the interpretation of the piece. As Juan Sebastian further illustrated, "You don't want to be a conductor who goes into a rehearsal unprepared, and when players ask you how a section of the music should go, your response is 'I don't know. Let me check and get back to you tomorrow.'"

"I find the analytical aspect of it quite interesting," one of the workshop observers, singer-songwriter Ari shared when asked what she finds most enjoyable about conducting. While she is a professional musician who has also done some orchestration work, she is relatively new to conducting. She has chosen to take it up to experience interpreting scores from a conductor's perspective, allowing her to become better at orchestration by getting a better sense of what is practical to translate into performance.

One of the challenges of learning and practicing for conducting is that the orchestra (or ensemble) are the conductor's "instrument". Podium time, where learning conductors actually get the opportunity to conduct musicians and practice what they've learned can be difficult to come by. In this workshop, participants got about 3 hours of podium time, conducting two pianists playing the parts of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition arranged for two pianos.

Photo courtesy of Juliette Music & Arts Academy

The vulnerability: practice

The visibility of the conductor's role comes at a price. 

Most musicians in an orchestra generally experience a balance between self practice and rehearsing with others: being able to do the foundational work of learning the music and working through the difficult passages in the quiet intimacy of individual practice, and then rehearsing with the ensemble to focus on how all of that comes together to make a bigger musical performance. For the conductor, though, what can be achieved purely during self practice is quite limited. As several of the conductors I spoke to described it, the orchestra itself is the conductor's instrument. Like other musicians, their self practice would involve getting to know the music involved really well, planning and practicing the movements they intend to make. But unlike the instrument player who hears the wrong note right away and can work on getting it right in the practice room, the conductor will only experience the response to their movement in the rehearsal, from the orchestra responding to their conducting. Tengku Irfan, who taught the workshop, describes this, "As a conductor, you have to make mistakes in front of people, and you'll have to accept it and learn to be okay with it." A valuable lesson, as it turns out for newer conductors who also shared that a big challenge in this early stage is learning to discern what is genuinely useful feedback and what is simply opinion that they can choose to take onboard or not.

What makes conducting so appealing?

Tengku Irfan,  now a prolific conductor internationally, shared an anecdote from his early career as a concert pianist - the first time he rehearsed as a soloist with an orchestra. "I forgot my entrance during the rehearsal, and the conductor asked me if I was okay," he recalls how taken he was by the music being made by the rest of the orchestra. "Even though I was playing the solo part, I was so mesmerised by the other instruments. I felt like I learned so much from them." For him, and many of the conductors I spoke to at the workshop, the feeling of deep connection when making music with others is one of the joys of conducting. "You are channelling the energy to the group of people around you," Tengku Irfan describes conducting, "That energy changes depending on the group around you. You might need more energy when working with young people like in a youth orchestra, or you may need to be more subtle, more nuanced when working with professionals, but you are still channelling energy." 

Advice from conductors about getting started

"Take the opportunity to try it," Heidi, who travelled from Indonesia to attend the workshop, recommends. "Conducting is like gymnastics for the brain!"

Technical guidance and encouragement are also essential for the budding conductor. Juan Sebastian recommends getting a teacher to help you learn the skills you'll need and provide you the support and encouragement to keep going. 

Finally, for those who have taken their first steps in conducting, Tenku Irfan shared some advice for going further: "Start to do more networking and put yourself out there by attending events, concerts, and getting to know people around you. If you are shy or not confident, all the more so that it is important that you start to muster the courage to bring yourself to talk to more people as you never know that it is these people that you might collaborate with in the future - or any one of them might be the ones opening doors for you."

Many thanks to Juliette Music & Arts Academy, Tengku Irfan, and all of the workshop participants and observers who generously shared their time and insights for this post. 

Find more workshops at Juliette Music & Arts Academy on their website.