What does every conductor wants under their tree this year? Whether someone's buying for you, or you're buying for yourself, here are my top picks for last minute conductor gifts to suit every budget.
Pilot Frixion Pens - 8 Pack $9.99
Hands down the best pens for score marking - because they're erasable! Changed your mind about that trumpet cue? Re-evaluated your chord analysis? No problem. Want to erase a whole score that you've borrowed from someone else or from school? Just heat it up with a hairdryer or in the oven (briefly!).
This is Marketing - Seth Godin (book) $11.29 Hardback
Read this with your 'audiences' (ensembles, students, parents, concert-goers) in mind, and it will change the way you think about how we transform others through music. How can we offer value to others? And how will people know about what we offer (our music)?
Completing the Circle - Bud Beyer (book) $19.99 Paperback
A life-changing, perspective-altering read. From the book: After all, why do audiences come to the concert hall? Bud Beyer writes that they come for hope hope that, in the rarest of moments, they would find in the music a connection with themselves, with each other, and with the tone and dream they have searched for all their lives...hope that the dynamic of the performance would not be us, passively, watching you search, but would rather be us, together, searching for the same dream.
Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall - 30 Day Subscription 19.90Euro
The Berlin Digital Concert Hall is to conductors what Netflix is to teenagers. This will keep you or your conducting friend glued to the screen for hours for all the right reasons. Watch any concert from the hundreds in the archive, explore interviews or any of the many full length documentaries about conductors like Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado, Herbert von Karajan, Wilhelm Furtwangler and Carlos Kleiber.
Palomino Blackwing Pencils - 12 pack $24.99
Once I started using these pencils I've never gone back. Clear black markings that are easy to see on scores. Soft enough leads that they don't make dents on your scores. Totally worth the spend.
Conducting Bootcamp (online course) $249
Want a gift that will keep giving the whole year? Our Conducting Bootcamp course has bucketloads of techniques to solve all the most common musical and conducting issues. With over 2.5 hours of video, it will keep you or the conductor in your life feeling on top of the game.
Why do I shudder when people use the word ‘talented’ to describe me? Why would I ask journalists and marketers to remove it from articles about me? Though it might seem like praise, the word ‘talent’ actually holds us and our people back.
How can we get our ensemble members to better connect rhythm with a consistent beat or subdivision AND to become aware of when they're out of sync?
A simple approach to instantly approach every piece with more musicianship, storytelling and emotion - for us, and our ensembles!
