Canford Conducting Class of 2007

Over the years, the wind conducting course has evolved to become extremely international attracting high quality students from all over the world, many of whom are studying conducting at Masters or Doctoral level.

Despite this, accessibility remains an important part of the philosophy and the class always contains a number of students whose main work is with community bands or who are coming to conducting for the first time through their work in music education.

Another long-standing tradition is the involvement of the Royal Marines Band Service who send their current crop of Bandmasters Course students to Canford every year.

This blend of professionals, educators, students and amateurs gives the course it's own unique atmosphere and the opportunity for students to learn about the challenges faced by their colleagues in other fields.

2007 Class
The 2007 class comprised 20 students from England, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Israel, Hong Kong and the United States. Around a quarter were studying for Doctorates in wind conducting, 3 were on Masters conducting courses in orchestral conducting, 5 were professional military musicians, 3 were experienced music graduates working in education and the remainder involved with community bands, orchestras or choirs.

Faculty
Over the years, Tim Reynish (pictured below right with wife Hilary) has been an ever-present figure on the faculty and the success of the course is due in a large part to his dedication and hard work not to mention legendary comments to his students:

"What on earth are you doing with your left hand - it looks like you are scratching your navel. Thank goodness you have such short arms."

Other faculty over the years have included Clark Rundell, Baldur Brönnimann, Felix Hauswirth, James Croft, Rafi Primo, Guy Woolfenden, Robert Ponto, Brad Cohen and Mick Dowrick. In 2007 Mark Heron (below centre, with the Canford Symphonic Wind Orchestra) was the other main teacher for the conducting course. Phillip Scott (below left) is the principal conductor for the Canford Symphonic Wind Orchestra course and also contributes to the conducting course.

Wind Orchestra Course
The conducting course is closely linked to the symphonic wind orchestra course, an opportunity for music students and experienced amateur players to work intensively for a week on high level original wind orchestra repertoire. The two courses share faculty and some players, and some of the more advanced conducting students usually have the opportunity to conduct the wind orchestra.

In 2007, the Wind Orchestra gave two concerts:

All conducting sessions are videoed with all students taking away DVDs of their conducting during the week. One to one lessons and review sessions using the student's DVDs are also an integral part of the course.

An extensive library of CDs, textbooks, scores and DVDs of famous conductors are also available as a resource throughout the week.

The repertoire is extensive and deliberately varied in style and difficulty. In addition to major works of the wind orchestra repertoire, a number of less challenging works are included - particularly aimed at those working with young and amateur musicians. The 2007 repertoire list was:

Details of repertoire for courses going back to 1999 can be found on www.timreynish.com under the Canford link.

As with all good master classes, the social aspect is important and Canford scores highly on this front as well. With over 300 musicians present for each week of the summer school, the conducting and wind orchestra courses manage both to retain their own identity and become part of the larger atmosphere.

3 Royal Marines conductors at the Wednesday BBQ
(yes, they're the 3 with the drinks....)