In the key of A&E
Why this year’s Assistant Conductor in Residence turned her back on a medical career.
Ingrid Martin was a bright kid who knew how to study, as you must when you attend medical school. She worked hard and got her reward, qualifying as a doctor and practising in an emergency ward. Odd, then, that she should ditch the lot for a career as a classical music conductor.
“I think I was always undecided,” says the Australian, who was recently appointed the 2024 NZ Assistant Conductor in Residence. “I did [music and medicine] all through uni but medicine wasn’t compatible with doing it part time, and the pull of music was too strong.”
Martin insists there are connections between ministering to patients and taking the temperature of an orchestra.
“I have a fascination with how people tick. That’s such a part of being a doctor: building that relationship with a patient and trying to find the right solution. That’s basically what conducting is: finding the right solution for the people in front of you. But now I’m dealing with musical problems instead of medical ones.”
The NZ Conductor in Residence is a programme for early-stage professional conductors funded by Creative New Zealand and administered by Auckland Philharmonia and the Christchurch Symphony and Dunedin Symphony orchestras. She will work most closely with is Auckland Phil music director Giordano Bellincampi, who Martin will shadow for the year.
“I’m looking forward to having a critical eye and ear on what I’m doing,” Martin says. “And also being able to talk about all these conductor-nerdy things, then seeing him do it, seeing it being enacted by someone who’s really proficient. That really strengthens the learning.”
One of Bellincampi’s prescriptions when he arrived in Auckland was a solid dose of core repertoire. Martin accepts it’s an area that requires her attention. Her instrument was French horn and her further conductor training, which took place in the US, was largely with wind ensembles. Additionally, Martin is music director of her own wind group, Crosswinds Ensemble (“It’s my programming sandbox”). By training and preference, then, she is strongest in music of the late-Romantic period and onwards.
“I’m excited to be spending so much time this year being exposed to more of that [core repertoire]. I’m going to learn so much music that I don’t have deep familiarity with.”
What won’t change, Martin says, is her determination to make classical music more approachable.
“Our world can be quite stuffy. Conductors have to break that down and make what we do welcoming, and something everyone can experience and access, so that even if you’ve never heard of Mozart, you can come to a concert and at the end of it feel like it was meaningful.” ▮