By Zara B, A Level Music Student

After school on Monday the 6th of December, music scholars in Year 9 and above were invited to a conducting workshop by Hilary Campbell, a professional choral conductor. A group of seven of us have been meeting every Friday since the beginning of term to practice our conducting, in preparation to lead an ensemble by the summer concert.

We each prepared a Christmas Carol to conduct, taking turns to lead the rest of the group and receive feedback from Hilary. It was extremely interesting and I feel that all of us, including the teachers, learnt a lot. Throughout the session, we focused on different elements such as dynamics and articulation, as well as the different ways to start and finish a piece. Having mostly focused on patterns before the workshop, it was interesting to see the small changes we could make that would have such a large impact on the sound produced. It was a really insightful experience, and Hilary has given us a lot to think about and practice before our next workshop in January; we are all really excited about working with a professional vocal quartet.

Conducting Club is really different to anything I have ever done in the music department and I think it is a really great way for students who are very involved in the department to gain more experience and take on more responsibility in their ensembles.  

We were thrilled to see this tweet from Hilary about the workshop too!