In this intensive 11-day Seminar, Fellows will have 25 minutes of daily conducting time, including three sessions with the internationally acclaimed Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, two with the Stravinsky L’Histoire du Soldat ensemble, and nine with a one-per-part ensemble. Associates participate fully in all activities outside of conducting the ensembles. The Seminar begins with five days of Boot Camp: building technical control from the bottom up, and exploring the fundamental issues of music making: how single lines, progressions, phrases, and ultimately whole movements can be unfolded in the most beautiful, most moving way; followed by hands-on experience with the building blocks of musical form: Theme and Variations, Fugue, and Sonata Form.
L’Histoire Day offers a focus on mixed meters, and the final Orchestra component offers three days of conducting the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra in music by Dvořák, Brahms, and Beethoven.
Daily activities include two hours of technique sessions focused on gaining control of the muscles that generate the physical component of conducting, and video reviews of that day’s conducting, essentially mini-lessons. Each day the lunch conversations with Maestro Thakar cover topics musical and practical.
Henry Fogel, preeminent among American orchestra administrators, will be in residence. Mr. Fogel will oversee a Career Day, consisting of mock interviews for music director, assistant conductor, and academic conducting positions. Seminar conductors will participate on both sides of the interview process, as well as in reviewing the interviews. Mr. Fogel will also provide individual career counseling for all Seminar conductors.