Undergraduate Choral Conducting Blog

I am recovering from a back injury I had a while ago, and for some reason the pain was really acting up the day we did Locus Iste Part 2. Part of my pain is caused by my pelvis getting out of alignment. When this happens it is really difficult to stand straight or to initiate large fluid movements from joints that are near my spine. I am proud of myself because I tried to conduct the piece, but I wish I had been more articulate about my limitations. I could not really pay enough attention to my fellow students to write thorough comments about what I saw. It was just an exceptionally bad day for my back. Luckily, they are happening less frequently :-)

I do want to talk about the conducting I saw on Wednesday. (Matt and Andrew, we did a run-through of the pieces we will conduct at VMS this coming Monday.) I really noticed an improvement in all of our conducting. The program selections are varied, so I got to see a lot of styles of conducting (legato, staccato, rock-tempo to 6/8), moods portrayed, and conducting patterns. I thought everyone got some of the sounds and interpretations they wanted because of the way they conducted. I think the next step is to have even more conviction in our leadership, gestures, and movements. I am sure this will come with more practice and conducting vocabulary. Way to go!