A few things I've learned on my journey through music direction...

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• Prepare!…The MD must know the score inside and out. 

 

• Plan!… Arrive with a plan for how to tackle the challenges of the material. (As the old aphorism goes, “you can’t change the plan if you don’t have one.”)

 

• There are two types of music-making: Accidental music-making and intentional music-making. The MD's job is to guide an ensemble toward intentional music-making. (What tempo?, style?, articulation?, dynamic?, phrasing?, diction?, cutoff…?  The MD ensures these are not decided by accident.)

 

• …And tempo/time-feel is greatest of them all. Or at least pretty high up the list. And also the hardest — your perception of tempo in the moment is untrustworthy. The metronome is mighty in the pursuit of intentional tempo-making.

 

• …And the operative word is “guide”. A director’s task is to activate and unlock the creativity of others. Rehearsal is a process of discovery. The director guides that process toward intentionality.

 

• Like so many creative endeavors, music direction is an iterative process. Record, listen, evaluate, reshape, repeat…  

 

• God is in the details.

 

• Musical theater is a service industry — the orchestra serves the actor, the actor serves the audience. The actor’s essential and formidable task is to express their own truth to the audience. Every musical decision must support this endeavor.  

 

• Be willing to be wrong.  (It’s hard, the ego is strong-willed.)  

 

• The best idea must win — even when it doesn’t come from you.

 

• Theater is collaborative. The value of collaboration comes first — the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

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• Quoting Alex Lacamoire: "I'm constantly trying to learn because I believe the moment you stop learning, you're dead; you're done." Never stop learning.