Muhamad Yusri

I am very grateful to the Singapore National Youth Orchestra (SNYO) and Ms Pang Sui Yuin for organising this wonderful conducting masterclass with Mr Peter Stark. But who is Mr Peter Stark? You can read about him here: http://www.peterstark.co.uk/

In Singapore, we know him as the Principal Guest Conductor of the SNYO but he is also the Professor of Conducting at the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London and the Rehearsal Director of the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO). I was blown away by his generosity in sharing his knowledge and experiences with both us participants and the musicians assisting us today. And I am sure the audience  also enjoyed the session, which lasted just over 2 hours.

Yesterday (Day 1), we had a 3-hour session with Mr Stark. He shared with us 4 important aspect about conducting which will be our landmarks or milestone points to focus on:

1. Baton Technique (Quantity)
2. Body Language (Quality)
3. Verbal Communication
4. ESP (Extrasensory perception)

I believe for most of us, we are either working on No. 1 or 1 and 2. We did not have much time to venture into how we communicated verbally with the ensemble. There was not enough time. ESP, as Mr Stark puts it, will take a long time to get and in some cases, it’s either you have it or you don’t.

Mr Stark shared how we should conduct the beats. For example, for every beat, there will be un-generative, quite generative and generative part. Knowing these 3 parts well,  will affect the way the musicians respond to our conducting, positively. Vice-versa is true if we are not sure of the beating.

We were then led through the Overture to Magic Flute. Mr Stark, spent quite a bit of time on the first 4 bars. He offered 3 ways on how we could conduct the opening of the Overture and encouraged us to try each of them when we are in front of the ensemble.

Today (Day 2), we had the opportunity to conduct an ensemble (String Quartet + 2 Pianos). I was given the first podium time. I was grateful to have been allowed to conduct the entire piece! But there is always this stigma of being the first on… you cannot watch the others conduct and could not gather information and then try it out when it was your turn! Haha… But as Mr Stark puts it.. “Someone has to start first.” So started first I did. Mr Stark shared with me the following learning points which he hopes will help me improve in my conducting.

1. Less is ALWAYS more. I was conducting too much and I was very much in the way the musician’s music making process. He encouraged me to conduct less and be more inviting to the musicians to make music rather than trying to control how it was played. Be a facilitator of the process and not a conduit.
2. Mr Stark reminded me of the story he shared yesterday about the guy on the MRT with headphones on enjoying and reacting to what he is hearing. The body language from that gets people interested to know more about what the guy was listening to and bring them closer.

Each participant went on the podium and had an amazing learning experience. Mr Stark shared a couple of learning points to work on with each participant.

Mr Stark is really generous to give credit where credit is due. Mr Seow Yibin conducted last and rightfully so. He showed the most developed conducting technique and body language amongst us and it showed with the ensemble playing at its best. I knew Yibin from when he was in military service and saw him grow musically into the Maestro he is today. A great honour (with many wow moments) to have witnessed the last run through of the Overture conducted by Yibin. He really was amazing to watch. Congratulations, Yibin!

The ensemble today was amazing as well! They were very responsive to all of our conducting and they were really professional in their work. We were blessed to have the following musicians assist us in our training today:

Violin 1 – Mr Siew Yi Li
Violin 2 – Ms Lee Shi Mei
Viola – Mr Jonathan Lee
Cello – Mr Ryan Sim
Piano (Woodwinds) – Ms Aya Sakou
Piano (Brass) – Mr Nicholas Loh

It was shared that the masterclass in 2020 will have a class on score learning. Mr Stark mentioned that he has a process for this and will be sharing that during the session. So don’t miss that! Keep in touch with the SNYO calendar of activities to make sure you do miss next year’s conducting masterclass.

So what did I take away from this experience?

I learned that Singapore has many aspiring and inspiring conductors. Conductor training is a vital element of a conductor’s growth and we need more of it. Having participated in conducting masterclasses, conductors must also find opportunities to practice what they have learned. This is vital for the knowledge gained to be internalised. Finding groups to conduct can be a challenge. If you need help with this, let’s talk and discuss how we can form an ensemble together! Email me at yusri.conductor@gmail.com