Baton down the hatches

The system I’m aware of for training conductors is not so dissimilar from that for training serious orchestra musicians. It involves study at a conservatory (including individual instruction and work with a lab orchestra), at summer music festivals and at the head of volunteer and semi-professional groups. The rungs on this ladder can eventually lead to conducting positions at schools and at smaller orchestras, with some of the luckiest and most talented conductors landing in apprenticeships with larger groups, and eventually in leadership positions.

Obviously, a conductor can’t “practice” as freely or as regularly as an instrumentalist, since his “instrument” is a group of musicians with lives of their own. This implies that established orchestras of all sizes and artistic levels should have an obligation to devote some of their services to the training of young conductors. Certainly one way to do this is the system of apprentice (or assistant) conductorships that exist at orchestras of all levels. In such positions they can learn by observing the week-after- week reality of professional life and can see what works w ell and what doesn’t. Regrettably, my orchestra hasn’t had such a position on its staff for a number of years. I suppose it’s an economic issue: the orchestra will only finance an apprenticeship if it gets a direct benefit from the investment, and since the number of services an apprentice can be used for is often rather limited, it’s probably a money-losing roposition.

This may signal the need for an organization like the League of American Orchestras to establish a conductor apprenticeship program similar to its existing program for orchestra managers. It could finance apprentice conducting positions around the country through which young conductors would rotate, gaining experience with many different kinds of groups. Orchestras could designate a limited number of services for them, either lab orchestra sessions or actual concerts. I’m thinking that, in these situations, musicians might even lower some of their typical hostility towards conductors, since they would have the freedom to offer constructive criticism. This might eventually help to reverse the growing dearth of conducting talent we complain about more and more.