Muhamad Yusri

I am looking forward to BHSO Conducting Masterclass 2019!

Last week, I took part in the annual BHSO Conducting Masterclass 2018 with Maestro Apo Hsu and Maestro Yeh Tsung at the helm. Last year, I had the opportunity to learn from Maestro Yeh and this year, having both him and Apo Hsu together was any conducting student’s dream come true!

We began with introductions and score analysis on Tuesday night. The tutors led the group through the scores and gave advice on how we could tackle some of the tricky spots in each of the scores. The enthusiasm from both Tutors were evident. They wanted to make sure we knew the score and they were keen to ensure that we will be ready when we meet the ensemble on Thursday night. We ended over time!

Thursday, we started at 6:30pm as both Maestro Apo Hsu and Maestro Yeh Tsung felt we needed more time to look through the Tchaikovsky before we meet the ensemble to conduct segments of the Elgar. I was assigned movements 5 to 9 of the Elgar. Movement 9, Nimrod, brought back memories of AYO 1996. It was the first piece the orchestra played when we first met in Hong Kong and it was the last piece we played after the concert in Manila before we departed for home. The link below is shared for archive and educational purposes. Be kind with judgement please 🙂

– video credits Acid Pang

The group gathered at 10:00am on Saturday morning to meet with the tutors to go through the review of Thursday’s conducting and also to prepare for the afternoon’s session with the full orchestra. Each of us met with the assigned tutor for Thursday night for 20 minutes to work out conducting fundamentals and technique. I learnt that I needed to have more control and focus in my conducting beat and to use up all the space for each beat. It was a really good session with Maestro Apo Hsu. She sees the weak areas and zoom straight in to fix it. I believe all her students would have benefited from their time with her. I am indeed grateful for the opportunity to learn from her.

I was assigned the last movement of the Elgar for the afternoon session with the orchestra and I had Maestro Yeh Tsung as my tutor. I spent quite a bit of time reading up on the history of the score and on Elgar. The score became so much clearer. I listened to a few performances of the work and had some ideas of how I could take the movement. But nothing beats a good score study and of course, listening to what the orchestra has to offer on the day. The link below is of my session with the orchestra. BHSO is a really good orchestra. They respond to each movement of the baton and they are so supportive to conducting students. Thank you, BHSO!

Points to self: The thing that I really need to work on is my flicking of the beats. I need to carry the music through and not rush through them. Horizontal lines rather than lateral and most important of all, not TOO BIG gestures. I think clarity is diluted when the beats are too big. Drama can be created with focus rather than size. Always remember to tell the story in the music.