Conducting Lessons in Wisconsin

Conducting is the only musical discipline where the practitioner makes no sound themselves. Everything a conductor communicates — tempo, dynamics, phrasing, character, architecture — must be conveyed through gesture, posture, eye contact, and preparation so thorough that the ensemble can read intention before it becomes instruction. It is the most collaborative of all musical roles, entirely dependent on the musicians in front of you, and one of the most misunderstood: the baton is the last thing a conductor needs to worry about.

The foundational work of conducting happens away from the podium. Score study — learning every instrument’s part, understanding the harmonic structure, knowing where the climaxes are and why, being able to sing any line in the piece — is the core of the discipline. A conductor who cannot hear a passage going wrong while simultaneously managing the ensemble has not prepared the score deeply enough. Most conducting teachers will spend as much time on score reading and analysis as on baton technique, and rightly so.

For students pursuing conducting seriously, university programs and masterclasses are the primary path, but private study is valuable at every level. When choosing a teacher, ask about their performance experience — someone who has stood in front of professional ensembles will have a fundamentally different understanding of what works in rehearsal versus what looks correct in a practice room. Ask also whether they can arrange opportunities to conduct real ensembles, even student or amateur groups, because conducting cannot be learned without musicians to conduct.

Three conductors whose work repays careful study: Leonard Bernstein, who brought an intellectual clarity and physical expressiveness to the podium that communicated directly to audiences and musicians alike. Carlos Kleiber, who rehearsed with an almost obsessive exactness and then conducted performances of remarkable spontaneity — his recordings of Beethoven’s Fifth and Seventh symphonies are essential. Gustavo Dudamel represents a more contemporary model of conducting as total immersion, shaped by Venezuela’s El Sistema and capable of reaching audiences with no prior classical exposure.

The Beethoven Fifth Symphony, Brahms Fourth, and Mahler First are the three scores most conducting students spend their early years inside — each one teaches something irreplaceable about structure, phrasing, and the relationship between score markings and living sound. Learn them deeply before touching any others.

Before every rehearsal, sing or play through every principal line in the score — a conductor who cannot hear a passage in their head cannot lead it convincingly in the room.