Rehearsal Observation
For my rehearsal observation, I chose to observe Emilie Sweet conducting The Alchemy Singers for The Alchemy Project. (The rehearsal was help at 7:00 on Thursday, February 21.) While I have worked with Emilie this past year, I found it very interesting to sit back and give all my attention to her as a conductor and teacher. So often I am focusing on my own part; it was helpful to watch her work with all voice parts and the instrumentalists.
For this rehearsal, Emilie was working with an ensemble comprised of professional singers. This was quite different then working with the University's Chamber Singers so her style changed. She was able to give more directions to the singers more often and because of her concise statements, the ensemble was able to respond quickly and solve most problem spots. Furthermore, this is one of the only rehearsals that this ensemble had ever met. The singers came from many different areas so it was clear that Emilie was taking it upon herself to have them connected in some way. To do this, Emilie always made sure that everyone new what the goal of each piece. Emilie created a very nice atmosphere within this new ensemble and the music improved because of it.
In a particular part of their music, two soloists were having a very difficult time executing an entrance. To fix this, Emilie tried multiple things: making a bigger conducting yesterday, quietly singing along, and using very strong eye contact. However, what ended up working was putting another singer in to assist on the entrance. This was a great moment to watch because Emilie did not give up and tried multiple tricks until the problem was fixed. I learned during this observation that while you might now a particular conductor, they are always able to transform themselves for different ensembles and different settings.