Hi friends! 🎥 I am launching an Ictus Institute YouTube series called "Podium Perspectives" next week. The plan is to sit down (mostly via Zoom) with respected conductors from across the musical landscape to discuss their insights and perspectives on leadership and the art of conducting. 🎵 Our first guest will be Dr. Jo-Michael Scheibe—Professor Emeritus at USC, former president of ACDA, and editor of the Jo-Michael Scheibe Choral Series with Santa Barbara Music Publishing. He took me under his wing when I was first starting my career and I’m especially excited to sit down with him for this conversation. 🌟 While the full interview will be available on YouTube, one of the advantages of being a member of Ictus is to have the opportunity to speak into the questions I will be asking our guests. 💬 Comment below with one question you’d love to ask Dr. Scheibe, and I’ll do my best to include it in the interview. No question is too big or too small—career path, rehearsal technique, leadership, whatever you'd like to hear about from a living legend!

Tell us about a classroom or ensemble fail you had - I'll start.. - I was in my first year of teaching middle school choir. I had my freshly-minted MM in conducting, but never had an education class. So, classroom management was the Wild West for me! Anyway, there was a 7th grade boy who would not stop talking during rehearsal, so I threatened to lock him in the (dark and damp) janitor's closet if he spoke out of turn again. Sure enough, he did, and I followed through. I have to admit it was effective and he was an absolute angel for the rest of the year, but I'm pretty sure I would be fired (or jailed?!) if I did that in the 21st century! 😅

Hi all! Wondering how you handle vamps when conducting a pit for a musical theatre production? Thinking specifically high schoolers who are not always consistent. 😉