While working on this first issue of the school year, a question kept popping up. What experiences inspire people to pursue a career in music education? Certainly, some young musicians achieve quick success on an instrument and know early on that they want to teach. For others, the musical journey is harder, and that struggle can make them even better future teachers. Everyone who eventually ends up on the podium has a first memory of leading an ensemble. As this issue developed, I informally started exploring that moment when the excitement of directing a band outweighed the initial fears.
When interviewing high school director Erin Althen, I asked about the first time she ever held a baton. She remembered immediately. Her high school band director, Tom Johnston, found Erin in the band room during her sophomore year and handed her a stack of scores. He wanted her to cover a rehearsal for him. As she led the symphonic band through the music, “I fell in love with teaching music on the spot.” A short time later, while rocking out on her flute with an arrangement Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick, she casually announced to Mr. Johnston that she was headed toward a career teaching music.
I also worked with composer and conductor Mark Camphouse on his article where he proposes the creation of a professional, full-time, non-military wind band to elevate the stature of bands in North America and beyond. Because of his passion for music and his 44 years of college teaching, I felt confident that he would have a memory of his early conducting. He shared two.
Mark Camphouse:
I recall first picking up a baton in front of an ensemble during my freshman year of high school. As a brass player (trumpet) I took the initiative of putting together a 15-member student brass-percussion ensemble comprised of my friends from the school concert band to read new and standard works for that medium, including some of my own compositions. I organized the players, chose the music, formulated the rehearsal schedules, did all room set-ups, and conducted the rehearsals. I found my trumpet performance skills, solid piano background, and doing much listening to classical music proved to be very helpful. It was my first taste of having the pleasure, privilege, and responsibility for providing organizational and musical leadership. It was truly exhilarating!
My first performance experience as a conductor-composer occurred in July 1969 on the campus of the University of Illinois during their excellent Illinois Summer Youth Music (ISYM) camp. My high school band director had apparently alerted ISYM faculty that I was a budding composer and conductor. They asked me if I might like to conduct one or two of my brass-percussion ensemble pieces on an outdoor concert. What a great opportunity! I immediately and with great appreciation said yes.
The ensemble I conducted (two 30-minute rehearsals and the performance) was comprised of U. of I. Faculty and music education students who were serving as camp counselors. It was a fine group, and the performance was received enthusiastically by the audience of several hundred ISYM camp students, faculty, and staff. I remain very grateful for that important, memorable, and enriching first performance experience as a very young and very inexperienced composer-conductor.
The final article completed for this issue depicts a memorable, months-long journey for four student composers at Washingtonville High School in New York that ended with a triumphant final concert. Directors Ari Contzius and Nikki Redeker monitored and guided student progress throughout the project but allowed the students to reach their own musical decisions. When the time arrived to rehearse and refine the compositions, students led rehearsals for eight weeks, while their directors observed remarkable growth from everyone in the room.
One student composer, Andrew Dahlstrom, recalled his early jitters on the podium. “At first it was incredibly nerve-racking and definitely harder than it looked. After some time, however, I realized that it was really just making music with my friends and peers, and it got a lot easier after that.”
Flutist Brady Crowe, a band member, noted the secret to success for the student conductors. “What really allowed our ensemble to pull this off would have to be the atmosphere of our band room. We’re all friends in that room, we clap after solos, encourage one another during rehearsals, and, most importantly, have each other’s backs.” Three of the students who composed works have begun music school with plans to teach. A fourth expects to do the same after graduating from high school next spring.
I hope to talk with more directors about their early conducting experiences. As you move through this new school year, remember the students who do not sit first chair or speak the loudest but might gain the most from a chance to conduct. There may not be time to let every student conduct, but what could happen if you made the time? Have a great year!
– James M. Rohner, Publisher
