PYS Alumni
Last edited: 01/27/2007 10:52 AM

I studied conducting with bob for about 2.5 years while I was attending ASU as a violin performance major. He is the one that prepared me for my grad school auditions.

While taking lessons with bob, I was offered an opportunity to conduct a piece on the music memory concerts both in March and May 2005. This was my conducting debut ( so to speak, I conducted a few things in High school, but never a concert at this level).

In large part due to the video I made of those concerts, I was 1 of 5 people invited to audition at the Eastman school of music, where I conducted Brahms 1 and Petrouchka with one of the best college-level orchestras in the country. It was possibly the scariest day of my life, but certainly one of the most exciting! I was the only student accepted to the masters program that year.

I am currently studying with Maestro Neil Varon here at Eastman, and having a great time. This is truly an amazing place! Music happens here in its purest form, and I am very grateful to be a part of it.

My current conducting opportunities include running string sectionals (and soon to be winds as well) with the Eastman Symphony. In addition I appear regularly as a guest conductor with a student-run outreach orchestra called NEO (the new Eastman orchestra). This spring I will conduct Barber's second essay for orchestra with the SO on a main-stage concert. Furthermore I will conduct readings and live recordings of the student-composition finalists, the winner of which will have a piece performed in the fall.

I hope this gives you an idea of what I've been up to. Let me know if there are any details that might interest readers. And, of course, feel free to edit as you see fit!

 

It was good to hear from you.

Take care

Matt