Directed by Mark Shapiro, the EAMA conducting program is embedded in EAMA’s renowned composition-driven curriculum that includes counterpoint, harmony, analysis, score-reading, choral singing, and solfège, as well as conducting lessons and seminars. The pedagogy draws on the Nadia Boulanger tradition, consolidated and streamlined by EAMA faculty under the direction of EAMA Director Philip Lasser of the Juilliard School. Conducting pedagogy is informed by recent research in music cognition, and is adapted to each student’s particular needs and interests. Every summer, the repertoire is chosen through advance consultation with students who have been accepted into the program, and includes orchestral and choral literature as well as operatic excerpts. This ensures that students will be working on projects that are important to them.
Conducting students may have occasional opportunities to conduct instrumental works composed by peers in the composition program, and may also conduct the EAMA Chorale; conducting students also conduct one another (at the piano, singing, etc.) in bi-weekly seminars. However, EAMA does not emphasize podium time. Rather, we position our students to make the most of future conducting opportunities (including workshops, individual and institutional study, and professional engagements), first by helping you hear more clearly, and then by guiding you toward a conducting technique that integrates what you have learned to hear. Students typically report major breakthroughs and insights in both musicianship and conducting as a result of their time at EAMA, as well as the acquisition of greater subtlety, flexibility and musical vitality.
EAMA’s conducting program is ideal for young and mid-career conductors who have come to feel they need to hear more deeply in order to make authentic progress as musical leaders. Students in the program may be enrolled in, or have completed, graduate and undergraduate programs in universities and conservatories; students may also be current members of the conducting staffs of regional and local orchestras. Classes and lessons are taught by experienced, dedicated and sympathetic faculty from The Juilliard School, Mannes College The New School for Music, the Paris Conservatory and the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris.
Apply for entrance into the EAMA Summer Conducting Program.
Conductors take the following courses:
Counterpoint
Keyboard Harmony
Musicianship and Score Reading
Analysis
Chorale
Conducting Seminar
Indiviual Conducting Lessons
STUDENT FEEDBACK
EAMA Conducting Alumni comment on their experiences at the program:
“I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you again for everything you’ve taught us this summer. Not only did I learn a lot about the specific works we studied, but I now feel that I know what I need to work on and how to approach a new piece.”
“Thank you for all of your guidance and patience. I greatly appreciated the new insight that EAMA provided and am very eager to get started on my next recital.”
“I had a great time at EAMA. I recently got a score for a concert I am appearing on as a guest. I feel much more confident with my knowledge of the piece and I feel emotionally connected to the music already after just a day and half of focused study. I cannot say how much it means to me to have good tools for study. Thank you.”
