The Conductor's Podcast

Conducting is never about swinging your arms - left and right as you command the flow of music to your delight. Conducting is embracing your personal strengths, expressing it through music and letting it create a rippled effect to its viewers and listeners.

This is one of the reasons why Anna Edwards is beyond passionate in breaking the barriers of the conducting industry. She wants aspiring conductors to understand that there's more to it than just waving their arms.

Tune in this episode of the Conductor's Podcast and be enlightened on how Anna fosters diversity and individuality in conducting.

All About Chaowen Ting

Welcome to the Conductor’s Podcast. I am your host, Chaowen Ting, founder of Girls Who Conductor who has mentored hundreds of conductors from across the globe. I created the Conductor’s Podcast to share all the behind the scene secrets with you while I interview conductors, musicians, and business gurus from around the world. This is a space created for conductors, conducting students, musicians, and non musicians who are curious and interested in learning more about the profession, crafts, industry, and business. I will give you simple, actionable, step–by–step strategies to help you take action on your big dream, move through the fear that’s holding you back, and have a real impact. Now, pull up a seat, make sure you’re cozy, and get ready to be challenged and encouraged while you learn.

All About Chaowen Ting

Five key preparation factors for competitions (and as a good conductor in general!)

1. Know the score inside out

2. Have (form and be very firm) your own opinion about the music

3. Have enough techniques to deliver your ideas

4. Keep a high energy and engage musicians at all times

5. Develop problem solving skills - rehearsal techniques, interruptions from the jury, being asked to do a piece you are less good at

All About Chaowen Ting

Today’s episode is the second half of my conversation with a long-time friend, Kevin Fitzgerald, current Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony.

Last week we spoke about preparing for job applications and auditions, and today we will continue the conversation and hear all the behind the scene stories of navigating the business.

As 2021 Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellow and four-time recipient of Career Assistance Grants from The Solti Foundation U.S., Kevin Fitzgerald is at the forefront of the next generation of conductors. Recently, Kevin was invited as one of the twenty conductors to participate live in the 2023 Mahler Competition with the Bamberg Symphony.

In addition to his post as Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony, Fitzgerald has recently guest conducted the Rochester Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh. In his commitment to uplifting communities through music, Fitzgerald conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in 2017 with musicians from the Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids Symphonies to raise over $10,000 for the International Rescue Committee and Freedom House Detroit. In 2016, he also co-organized and conducted an impromptu performance called “Requiem for Orlando,” which featured over 400 volunteer musicians in a dedicated performance for victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida.

Since then, he has participated in masterclasses with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony, Andris Nelsons and Alan Gilbert at Tanglewood among many others. Kevin is based in Raleigh, NC, with his husband, violist Kurt Tseng, and their two dogs Bennie and Chipper. Kevin also teaches and coaches conductors privately online and in person.

All About Chaowen Ting

Should I enter a graduate program? Look for jobs? Go to masterclasses? Those are some questions that I got asked the most.

For us conductors, we have to create our own curriculum, our own path, and to make decisions all the time.

In today's episode, I will share with you three main factors to consider when figuring out "what's next:"

• YOUR MUSICIANSHIP

You have to be a good conductor, and that includes your techniques and your knowledge. Your being a good conductor is the most important thing you can deliver.

So here are the questions I always ask myself: am I a good conductor? Am I continue becoming a better conductor everyday?

Your musicianship includes your knowledge and your ability to deliver your knowledge - including your conducting techniques. Do I need a good teacher to help me with techniques? Do I need another set of eyes to check in on me? Am I regressing instead of progressing everyday?

• PRACTICE MAKES PROGRESS - HAVING AN ENSEMBLE TO WORK WITH

Do I currently have an ensemble to work with regularly? If not, can I form one? If not, can I find opportunities to work with one?

Is this the time to get to a workshop where I can gain experience working with an ensemble more regularly? Do I need exposure to higher caliber musicians? Have I not worked with a good group for too long that I developed so many bad teaching-mindset habits?

• NETWORKING

Very honestly, you need to know people and people need to know you. It's not only about your own network - who you know, but also who your teachers know, who your teachers bring in to work with you, who your friends know, what kind of friends, musicians, artists they are exposed to that will connect you with.

Of course we are not connecting with others only because I wanted to conduct your orchestra without seeing you in 10 years. No, not in that way, but building genuine relationships.

So when I am at an intersection of my study and career, I always look at these three parts and wonder, what am I lacking the most at this moment? and what can I do to make a plan to achieve some goals? Hope that you will find this helpful as well!

All About Chaowen Ting