Hi friends! One of the many features that makes Ictus unique is the opportunity to upload rehearsal/performance videos for community input. While we are still in our "founding members" period, I would like to practice our From the Trenches. So, let's pretend the conductor in this video (let's call him Fred) is an Ictus member asking for help. Rules: 1. Address all of your guidance in the comments to the person posting 2. Be courteous and encouraging 3. Critiques must have solutions (if you can't recommend a solution, don't give the critique) 4. Give input in the way you would like to receive it (we might adjust this over time - I had some VERY direct mentors whose style wouldn't be appreciated by most conductors today...but I loved it! 😅) 5. Excerpts must be less than three minutes ----OK, here's Fred's post---- FRED BANDERBILT Hi everyone! We just had our first HS concert of the season. I felt pretty good about how far the students have come (you should have heard the first rehearsal!) but when I asked my colleague what she thought, she told me this piece in particular didn't sound very musical. I think I hear what she means, but I'm not sure how to fix it! Any thoughts? Fred

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 friends - here is a fun exercise for us today. I have uploaded three different conductors leading Brahms Symphony No. 1. Each of them approach the beginning differently. Which one do you prefer and why? Is there one among them that, if they were one of your fellow Ictus members, you could give them some guidance? What would that be? Karajan https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxPwPiVdKEds-GHOwMYf3jePnAk0hoAd9y?si=g8067D0yq4uuGL4E Haenchen https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxnlC7UU2hA_kVrE2Yx54UU5NXKKCNk6JW?si=ynHyG7CLibatvJOs Franz Welser-Möst https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxDMXpHJx_jmxOflk_yYJ8--bXSC9Xa3rl?si=USJsrtfYBS4zAnhK

So, a week ago, I conducted this piece with the Region V honor choir. And, boy am I glad I did this preparation! Honor ensembles are tricky because, like I said in the video, you never know what you're gonna get. So, you choose your repertoire in advance, and you choose your battles in the moment. (Someone write that down 😂) This regional choir was made up of two district honor choirs, and I had to include two pieces from each of those choirs in the repertoire for this one. "Leron Sinta" was one of those. And, just like I suspected, the choir got faster and faster during the mixed meter section because the dotted quarter note was collapsing. I asked the students from that regional choir how they handled it in rehearsal, and they said that they just got faster and faster to the end. One kid said she's never sung anything so fast in her life! 🚀 So, because the composer did not write "accelerando poco a poco", I pulled out my metronome app and we spent 15 minutes drilling it. I'm happy to report that they ended up singing it perfectly in performance. By the way, my colleague who conducted that regional choir is amazing, and this is no shade thrown in their direction. Like I said, you have to choose your battles. Thankfully, the students showed up well prepared for this festival so I was able to have enough time to stabilize this section of music. Also, there are now 200 amazing high school singers who have learned the importance of using a metronome when practicing their music! A link to the video is below, it's also in the Skool Classroom.

Alright, gang. Help me out here. The final three bars of Daugirdas's "Plaudite" goes from 4/4 time to 6/4 time, then back to 4/4 time. Here's the question: would you conduct the 6/4 bar with a 6-pattern or a subdivided 3-pattern? I'm 90% sure I've made the right decision (I'll tell you what that is later), but I'd like to know what y'all think!