Conductors
The University has an elite conducting programme which offers undergraduate students unrivalled opportunities both within the curriculum and with orchestras and ensembles. Manchester is one of the best cities in the world to study conducting: with 3 professional orchestras and the renowned postgraduate conducting programmes at the RNCM there is never a shortage of concerts, rehearsals and master classes to observe.
First year students can take an introductory conducting class free of charge. These provide a basic introduction and attempt to identify those with talent for further study. Interested students can then take private lessons with Mark Heron in small groups, subsidised by the University.
There is a 2nd year conducting module which builds on those foundations and explores the craft and technique of conducting in more detail. Many students who elect to take this module have ambitions to conduct orchestras and ensembles.
Outside of the curriculum, all returning students are eligible to audition to be part of a conducting class of around 6 students who study with Mark Heron. Following a rigorous audition process which usually takes place in May, the successful students have conducting opportunities in the following academic year with symphony, chamber, opera and wind orchestras, new music groups and brass ensembles. Places in the class are awarded solely on merit, but typically there will be a mixture of 2nd & 3rd year students and an occasional postgraduate. Students receive one-to-one tuition and supervision in rehearsals and can attend master classes at the RNCM with Sir Mark Elder and other visiting conductors.
Conducting opportunities are given across all of the University ensembles. For a Symphony Orchestra concert, 2 students might share the programme with Mark Heron. Projects with other ensembles may involve 3 or 4 conductors. Student conductors will also take sectional rehearsals and assist with projects involving the University Chorus. Typically the students will conduct in at least 7 or 8 concerts over the year as well as having the freedom to develop their own projects. The basic philosophy of this approach is that at undergraduate level, students will learn much more from conducting 15 or 20 minutes of repertoire often, rather than a whole concert seldom.
Rehearsals are sometimes “back-seat-driven” to aid the development of all-important rehearsal technique, at other times the student is left to learn how to drive the bus single-handed!
Final year undergraduates, if they have taken the 2nd year module and provided they successfully audition for the conducting class, may elect to take Conducting as their principal study in performance in their 3rd year. They are then assessed on 2 separate orchestral performances.
Recent Student Success
Whilst still a student Duncan Ward (graduated 2010) was selected for Valery Gergiev's master class with the London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez's Luzerne Festival Academy and was one of 24 participants chosen from 576 applicants for the Solti Conducting Competition in Frankfurt. In 2011 he was a finalist in the Chicago Symphony Assistant Conductor auditions, participated in David Zinmann's Tonhalle master class, and conducted the LSO in concert.
Rob Guy (graduated 2009) was assistant conductor to the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra in 2009-10, and was selected to assist Kirill Karabits with the Britten-Pears Orchestra in 2010. He has had much success conducting choirs and recently formed a chamber orchestra of young professionals in North Wales.
Jamie Phillips (graduates 2012) was successful in the preliminary auditions of the 2011 Bescancon Conducting competition being selected as one of 16 participants (the only one from the UK) from several hundred applicants.
First year students can take an introductory conducting class free of charge. These provide a basic introduction and attempt to identify those with talent for further study. Interested students can then take private lessons with Mark Heron in small groups, subsidised by the University.
There is a 2nd year conducting module which builds on those foundations and explores the craft and technique of conducting in more detail. Many students who elect to take this module have ambitions to conduct orchestras and ensembles.
Outside of the curriculum, all returning students are eligible to audition to be part of a conducting class of around 6 students who study with Mark Heron. Following a rigorous audition process which usually takes place in May, the successful students have conducting opportunities in the following academic year with symphony, chamber, opera and wind orchestras, new music groups and brass ensembles. Places in the class are awarded solely on merit, but typically there will be a mixture of 2nd & 3rd year students and an occasional postgraduate. Students receive one-to-one tuition and supervision in rehearsals and can attend master classes at the RNCM with Sir Mark Elder and other visiting conductors.
Conducting opportunities are given across all of the University ensembles. For a Symphony Orchestra concert, 2 students might share the programme with Mark Heron. Projects with other ensembles may involve 3 or 4 conductors. Student conductors will also take sectional rehearsals and assist with projects involving the University Chorus. Typically the students will conduct in at least 7 or 8 concerts over the year as well as having the freedom to develop their own projects. The basic philosophy of this approach is that at undergraduate level, students will learn much more from conducting 15 or 20 minutes of repertoire often, rather than a whole concert seldom.
Rehearsals are sometimes “back-seat-driven” to aid the development of all-important rehearsal technique, at other times the student is left to learn how to drive the bus single-handed!
Final year undergraduates, if they have taken the 2nd year module and provided they successfully audition for the conducting class, may elect to take Conducting as their principal study in performance in their 3rd year. They are then assessed on 2 separate orchestral performances.
Recent Student Success
Whilst still a student Duncan Ward (graduated 2010) was selected for Valery Gergiev's master class with the London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez's Luzerne Festival Academy and was one of 24 participants chosen from 576 applicants for the Solti Conducting Competition in Frankfurt. In 2011 he was a finalist in the Chicago Symphony Assistant Conductor auditions, participated in David Zinmann's Tonhalle master class, and conducted the LSO in concert.
Rob Guy (graduated 2009) was assistant conductor to the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra in 2009-10, and was selected to assist Kirill Karabits with the Britten-Pears Orchestra in 2010. He has had much success conducting choirs and recently formed a chamber orchestra of young professionals in North Wales.
Jamie Phillips (graduates 2012) was successful in the preliminary auditions of the 2011 Bescancon Conducting competition being selected as one of 16 participants (the only one from the UK) from several hundred applicants.
