Maestros in the making at WSO
Organization launches first-of-its-kind international conductors workshop
The Windsor Symphony Orchestra now conducts conductors.
WSO maestro Robert Franz this week is leading a first-of-its-kind international conductors guild education workshop, offering tips on how best to direct an orchestra — and how to present classical music to students.
“My goal is to help create an environment for these conductors to find their voice,” Franz said Tuesday, on the second day of the three-day course.
“They can then use their voice to better present classical music.”
Eight conductors from four countries — Canada, the United States, Spain and South Korea — paid $800 plus travel and lodging to attend the wide-ranging seminar. Besides taking turns in front of a string quartet and a piano onstage Tuesday at the empty Capitol Theatre, the seminar attendees will lead four concerts at two area grade schools on Wednesday.
Franz estimates he has conducted concerts for 60,000-70,000 students in Windsor and other cities the last two decades.
“Doing music education programs is a passion of mine,” Franz said.
Franz looked into courses on conducting for educational concerts, but came up empty. About three years ago, he called the conductors guild to ask about the concept. Again, nothing.
“So we created it together, the conductors g-uild and I,” said the acclaimed conductor and music educator. “It worked out very well that the Windsor Symphony Orchestra could host this and use our great musicians and our incredible schools.”
Part of a modern maestro’s duties are more than merely musical, and require him or her to be informative, personable and entertaining. Franz delves into all that.
But first, there’s a certain magic to waving the baton. What’s Franz’s main tip? “Get out of the way and listen,” Franz said. “The technique is pretty complicated. The process of learning the score is pretty complicated. So we tend to get wrapped up in the details.
“My advice to these conductors is to trust the work you did. And listen and respond to what’s happening.”
On Tuesday at the Capitol, with five musicians playing the cheerful Morning Mood composed by Edvard Grieg, various seminar participants — many already conductors in their hometowns or completing graduate work — gave the baton a go. Arms moved in a ballet with the music, while Franz offered suggestions.
“Let it resonate through you,” he said.
“Imagine the music happens between the beats,” he continued. Then, simply, “Bravo!” Wilbur Lin, a 29-year-old New Jersey native who grew up in Taiwan and now lives in Indiana, already hears the orchestra better.
“Maestro Franz was talking about the idea of active listening and how we should promote that in our educational concerts,” said Lin, who just finished post-doctoral work at Indiana University.
“As conductors, we have to take a step back and really listen to what’s happening.”
Lin said Franz’s concept of listening more naturally already feels right.
“As conductors we hear sounds in our heads but not necessarily coming from the orchestra,” Lin said. “But if you take a step back, you get a better evaluation and a fuller picture of what’s going on.”
My goal is to help create an environment for these conductors to find their voice. They can then use their voice to better present classical music.