Conducting?

While seeing some of the best orchestras in the world, me, being a conducting student, paid quite a bit of attention to the conducting of each orchestra. 

Every year during Honor Band time, the PLU Wind Ensemble hosts a conducting symposium. Conductors from the area can register for the symposium and get advice and constructive criticism from a visiting clinician. And every year, the most common piece of advice I hear is over conducting. Too often can conductors get caught up in hovering over and perfecting the music that they are perpetuating. Often, that leads to stifling the musicians and their ability to make music. Conductors are meant to be facilitators of making music. 

Watching the conductors over here, I see a distinct lack of conducting. In fact, more often than not, it's very clear that the musicians do not need the conductor. They hardly ever look up. They move together, and look at each other to communicate. The conductors have rarely even had batons. We learned in conducting class that the reason that conductors have batons is so that musicians have an obvious way to see time. We look up, take a screenshot in our minds of the beat being provided by the Big White Stick, and look back at our music. I've found that many conductors have chosen to not even use a baton, and if they do, it's the size of a toothpick.

 

It is definitely enlightening to see such amazing musicians perform their craft, without the need of a conductor, and it is something to take back with me as a musician.