Workshop Application Form (pdf)
Fees:
$50 - Application Fee $550 - Participant Fee
PLEASE NOTE: Application is open only to Conductors Guild members.
If you are not currently a member and do not include your membership fee and application (or apply online), your application will unfortunately not be processed.
Workshop
The goal of the Conductors Guild Conductor Training Workshop is to provide the maximum amount of specific and insightful guidance on both technical and musical matters to each participant in a constructive, encouraging, and non-competitive environment. Participation is limited to 15 conductors. There will be no auditors for this workshop, but conference attendees are invited to observe workshop sessions.This Conductor Training Workshop will be held simultaneously with the 2010 Annual Conference for Conductors. Workshop participants will have opportunities throughout the week to enjoy sessions and sightseeing opportunities with conference attendees - a great networking opportunity.
This workshop will begin around 12pm on Tuesday, January 5th and will end around 9pm on Friday, January 8th. Each conducting workshop participant will conduct the orchestra four times for approximately 10 minutes as well as two piano sessions, one with Maestro Panula and one with Maestro Andretta.
Participants will also enjoy a repertoire preparation session with the chairman of the Danish Conductors Association Maestro Frans Rasmussen. All participants are encouraged to bring their own (orchestral) instruments and sit in with the orchestra when they are not actually on the podium themselves.
Faculty
Jorma Panula: Renowned conducting professor from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, Panula is the heart and soul behind what has been referred to as the "Finnish Conducting Miracle”.Today he’s an internationally sought after conducting teacher doing master classes and workshops all over the world.
As former music director of Aarhus Symphony Orchestra in Denmark’s second largest city and professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, Jorma Panula has also left a clear thumbprint on Denmark. Now he's back for this spectacular workshop where he'll teach symphonic repertoire Jean Sibelius's Symphony #2 and Carl Nielsen's Symphony #5.
Markus Lehtinen’s conducting career took off on jointly winning the Nordic conducting competition in 1987, after which he was soon engaged as conductor to the Copenhagen Royal Opera from 1988-1993, and since 1992 he has also been a regular visitor to the Stockholm Royal Opera, while taking part in several foreign tours, such as to Athens, the USA and the Czech Republic. Markus Lehtinen has twice been engaged by the Finnish National Opera: from 1985-88 and 1992-97, since which time he has been guest conductor. During 1999-2002, Markus Lehtinen was chief conductor of Jyväskylä Sinfonia and chief guest conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra. Audiences will be able to hear Mr. Lehtinen again in 2007 conducting works from the whole spectrum of symphonic music with leading Nordic orchestras.
Markus Lehtinen made his debut with the Hamburg Opera conducting Prokofiev’s ballet Cinderella in the spring of 1993, and his engagements at Hamburg and cooperation with the ballet have continued every year. His performances at German opera houses have expanded to include, for example, the Deutsche Oper Berlin (including Henze’s Undine, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Puccini’s Turandot, Verdi’s Aida and Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman) and the Bavarian State Opera.
The list of premieres that have been conducted by Markus Lehtinen is impressive: Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Caroline Mathilde, Rodion Shchedrin’s Lolita together with Mstislav Rostro- povich, George Couroupos’ Odysseus, Aulis Sallinen’s Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan (The King Goes Forth to France), Einojuhani Ratavaara’s Aleksis Kivi and Tuomas Kantelinen’s Paavo Nurmi. In summer 2007, Mr. Lehtinen will be at the Savonlinna Opera Festival to conduct Olli Kortekangas’ opera Isän Tyttö (Daddy’s Girl), which was commissioned in honour of the centenary of the Finnish Parliament.
Mr. Lehtinen is also known as a lied pianist and has accompanied such luminary figures as Matti Salminen, Jorma Hynninen, Raimo Sirkiä, Tommi Hakala, Karita Mattila, Soile Isokoski and Monica Groop. His cooperation with singers goes back to the Savonlinna Opera Festival when Mr. Lehtinen was voted Artist of the Year 2005. In the same year he conducted the 60th birthday gala concert for Matti Salminen. During 2000-2005, he was also a member of the Savonlinna Opera Festival’s artistic committee. Since autumn 2004, Markus Lehtinen has been Professor of the Opera Department of the Sibelius Academy, and he was also the artistic director of the Academy’s first Winter Festival, SibaFest, in 2006. The most noteworthy of Mr. Lehtinen’s other artistic activities include master classes with Kim Borg and conducting classes in the Nordic countries. He has recorded for Finlandia Records and Ondine for whom he recorded Einojuhani Rautavaara’s opera Aleksis Kivi.
Ensemble
The Sibelius Academy in Finland has a remarkable reputation for producing professional conductors. A major reason for this success is the fact that the students have access to their own conducting-class orchestra twice a week. This orchestra is called: Kapu Bandi. For the Copenhagen conducting workshop we'll fly this 26-piece orchestra in from Finland, thus giving the participants a unique opportunity of conducting one of the world's most successful conducting-class orchestras! This unique opportunity is partly sponsored by the Sibelius Academy.
Participation fee: $ 550
Application Deadline: Thursday, October 15, 2009.
The completed application form, DVD, and $50 application fee should be mailed to:
Conductors Guild
Attn: Copenhagen Workshop
5300 Glenside Dr., Suite 2207
Richmond, VA 23228-3983
Please note that submission of a DVD is required in order to select the 15 applicants who will receive actual podium time at the workshop. Consult the CG video guidelines, for suggestions regarding preparation of a conducting DVD. Video formats and media other than DVD may not be accepted by the reviewing committee, at its discretion. Please make sure your DVDs are able to be played on standard DVD players.
The Conductors Guild website also contains important information about workshop application review procedures, and about the goals and format of CG Workshops. DVDs will NOT be returned. Please do not include originals. It is your responsibility to clearly identify your DVD.
Conference attendees have unlimited access to the workshop as auditors. Workshop participants have unlimited access to the annual conference whenever time allows it.
Up to 15 participants will be notified of acceptance no later than Monday, November 20, 2009. The workshop fees are due upon notice of acceptance and must be paid in full not later than December 1, 2009 by a credit card or by a check payable to the Conductors Guild. The fee will act as a deposit to reserve each participant's place in the workshop. Fees will be refunded only if the withdrawing applicant’s place in the workshop is filled by another participant.