 
I work with the BBC Singers for around six weeks of the year. Through this experience and through guest conducting, mainly young singers, and from my seven years conducting the Royal College of Music chorus, I’ve discovered certain crucial things that have helped me when directing a choir.
Firstly, I have found that thorough score preparation is paramount.The conductor must internalise the music completely before teaching or working with it.This way you can learn to appreciate it, feel it and even love it! Often the conductor has to convince and cajole the choir members into the process of finding the feeling of the music for themselves and this does not happen easily when the conductor is not energised or motivated by the music him or herself.
I mark my scores heavily – this helps me in the learning process, but often with new pieces I leave some musical decisions flexible until I've heard them in rehearsal. In the learning process I've found it wise not to anticipate the music as you think it might be in rehearsal, or anticipate problems or pitfalls. Concentrate on learning the music, and then respond to what you hear when you start to work with the choir.
I'm not a big fan of warm-ups.The warm-up to me should be a short means of focusing the energies of the singers so they can work together. It also serves as a way for the conductor to acknowledge his or her singers. I have had the experience where someone has warmed up the singers for me (often at great length!) and then it has taken me half an hour of rehearsal time not only to create a relationship with the singers, but also to calm them down! I like to keep warm-ups short and not too complicated.They can waste valuable time and they don't necessarily help the singing process. It's far better to start working with the music.
I was never a very distinguished singer myself, but I found that the more musically I sang, the better my singing became. I have found this to be my experience also when working with both untrained and trained voices. I like to concentrate on phrase shaping and also shaping phrases through rhythm, whether fast or slow. I find that this can help singers engage with their breath, and thus relate the physical process of singing to the mental process of the same. I also like to work with text, as this can help the singers relate their understanding of the words to the sound they make, and also to the shape of the music.
The job of the conductor is to enable the singers to take on a piece of music for themselves, to internalise it and ultimately own it.That is the beauty of the learning process.Try getting your choir to sing without copies (as most children’s choirs do). Keep positive, focused, and keep the energy of the rehearsal process directed at the music.Trust your singers, and when the concert comes, remember that you are all performers together, and that you have the chance to change our own and other people’s lives in many small ways through the beauty and spontaneity of the musical process. |
Listen to R3
