Berlin Workshop for Conductors

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You will discover avenues towards optimal preparation, to ultimately earn confidence and entitlement to the profession. Strengthen the fundaments of the conductor’s art in Berlin, taught by international competition winner and experienced teacher, Brandon Keith Brown. Develop technique, score study skills and an informed imagination in preparation for auditions and competitions in a supportive, non-competitive environment. Through intensive individual attention, we particularly aim to increase the agency of black conductors and their presence on the podium. All are welcome to apply. Languages are English and German. You will conduct a string quintet and piano. 

1. Daily Score study/Orchestration class, developing an informed interpretation 
2. Daily Technique course, individually tying gesture to sound
3. Lessons with piano and string quintet; 2 hours podium time
4. Career advisement, mentoring after the course, competition preparation, and educational advisement
5. Guest lecturer: Professor Wilfried Strehle, retired principal viola of the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan, Abaddo and Rattle. Professor of Viola at UDK and Barenboim-Said Academy.

Additional General concepts:

Baton technics, basic geographic beat patterns, pivot-point conducting, score study, the plane, visual registration of the gesture and tessitura, the preparatory beat, transpositions, connecting with the sound, conveying weight, physical manifestations of the ictus and gesture for strings/choir, wind/brass/percussion and basic rhythmic units, rehearsal deportment and planning, psychology, programing and pedagogy 

Application Requirements

Click here for the application form. 

Conducting Video: up to 10 minutes with any ensemble/choir or piano. 

Experienced and inexperience conductors of all genres may apply. There are no age requirements. Students are accepted on a rolling bases and will be notified via e-mail. Enrollment is limit for maximum podium time.

Tuition

Active participant tuition:  €750

Auditor: €350, no ensemble conducting. 

Location: Hildegardstraße 3a 10715 Berlin

Housing: Affordable housing assistance is provided. 

All applications are confidential. Enrollment is limited (approx. 8)

Wire payment to:

BERLINER SPARKASSE

IBAN: DE 95 1005 0000 1065 5825 32

BIC: BELADEXXX

A PAYPAL option is at the bottom of the page

For questions:  

berlinworkshopforconductors@gmail.com

Repertoire:

Prepare to the best of your ability. If you can not prepare all of the pieces, select the movements you feel comfortable with. Repertoire conducting assignments will in part be made prior to arrival and in consultation with the instructor. Students may suggest additional repertoire.

Subject to change

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7 

Beethoven: Egmont Overture

Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 3 1st mvt.

Copland: Appalachian Spring, for 13 Instruments

Elgar: Serenade for Strings

Mozart: Divertimento K. 136, D major Bärenreiter, 1st mvt.

Mozart: Symphony No. 38 Prager, Bärenreiter

Mozart: Die Zauberflötte Overture, Bärenreiter

Mozart: Cosi Fan Tutte, No. 11 Recit and Aria: Ascostati…Smanie Implaccabile

No. 14 Recit and Aria: Temerari…Come Scoliglo 

Schubert: Symphony No. 5, 1st mvt.

Sibelius: Violin Concerto, 1st mvt.

R. Strauss: Don Juan

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring, Glorification of the Chosen One, Danse Sacrale

Optional

Brahms: Symphony No. 1

Haydn: Symphony No. 82, The Bear, Bärenreiter

Mozart: Symphony Nos. 39

Schedule subject to change

Day 1 Schedule

11am-12:30 pm Conducting Technique

12:30-1:30 pm Lunch

1:30-2:45 pm Orchestration/Score Study Techniques

3:00 – 4:30 pm Piano Session

4:30-5:30pm Gaining Access to the podium: Music Education in the US and abroad, career avenues, career development, Fellowship

Day 2 Schedule

11am-12:30 pm Conducting Technique

12:30-1:30 pm Lunch

1:30-2:45 pm Orchestration/Score Study Techniques

3:00 – 6:00 pm Quintet Session

7:00-8:00pm Gaining Access to the podium: The African-American conductor's experience in the US and abroad, career development, competitions, video review, fellowship

5:30 Private Consultations with Instructor

Day 3 Schedule 

11am-12:30 pm Technique

12:30-1:30 pm Lunch

1:30 – 2:45 pm Orchestration/Score Study Techniques

3:00-6:00 pm Quintet Session

6:45-7:45 pm Gaining Access to the podium: Building a press kit. Material review including resumes, cover letter, photos etc.

5:30 Private Consultations with Instructor

Day 4 Schedule 

11am-12:30 pm Technique

12:30-1:30 pm Lunch

1:30 – 2:45 pm Orchestration/Score Study Techniques

3:00-6:00 pm Quintet Session

For questions:  

berlinworkshopforconductors@gmail.com

Workshop Instructor

Featured in Der Tagesspiegel

Following in the tradition of his teachers David Zinman, Lorin Maazel, and Kurt Masur, Brandon Keith Brown combines the German-Austrian tradition with American spirit. Conducting the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra as the third prize winner of the 2012 Sir Georg Solti International Conductors’ Competition, he was "... the stand-out audience favorite." (Norman Lebrecht, Slipped Disc). 

In April 2013, Brown led a celebrated European debut with the Badische Staatskapelle, executing an "extremely demanding program, which was mastered by the young conductor with flying colors."(Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Symphony No. 4) This led to the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSB), where he was promptly re-invited. Other engagements include the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Neue Philharmonie-Wesfaln and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. In 2018, he debuts with the Nürnberger Symphoniker. 

Brown has directed, among others, performances of The Merry Wives of Windsor, Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte and Puccini's Suor Angelica. He has also assisted on Britten's Albert Herring and studied Puccini's Il Trittico with Lorin Maazel.

As passionate educator of conductors, Brown is an experienced university professor and youth orchestra leader. In 2011 and 2012, he conducted members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the opera camps for children of the Salzburg Festival. Brown attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and holds a master’s from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University with Gustav Meier. Initially trained as a violinist, he was a student of Roland and Almita Vamos.

Photo is Conductor Dean Dixon, Melbourne Town Hall
(1962); printed (1972) Wolfgang SIEVERS