Conducting Experience 2 Reflection
Lo Presti - Elegy for a Young American

One thing in particular about my conducting still really frustrates me. I saw it repeatedly upon viewing the video. I kept looking down, always, when giving a cue or anything important, even sometimes when I’m not giving something important. It’s not as much a matter of not knowing the score as it is an issue of security. As we proved when Mr. Kalantarian had me close my score and try a particular section another time, I did know my score pretty well. Nonetheless, I feel like I want that security, like I need to know exactly where we are at all times and like I need to be looking at the score at the moment we make any segue or transition or anything at all. This is, of course, exactly the opposite from what I should want to do: I need to look at the ensemble. I can instill so much more confidence in my band’s members by simply looking at them; they will be more confident of their own playing, but they will also be confident of my conducting, and that I actually do know what I’m doing and where I am.

Lastly, I just need to give more. My “expressions” are very small, hardly noticeable. Upon watching the video, I realized just how much my gestures looked like nothing. They need to be more meaningful (and this even includes making the small, relatively meaningless gestures determinedly small and “meaningless”).

These are the main two things I need to work on for all my upcoming conducting opportunities.

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