The initial chaos gradually subsides.

Here and there a bow is drawn or a music stand is straightened out.

Suddenly there is complete silence.

This is interrupted shortly afterwards by the bright and clear sound of an oboe.

Little by little, all the other instruments join in until the hall vibrates to the sound of the entire orchestra.

The first conducting student enters the stage to the applause of his fellow students.

Shortly afterwards, the first bars of Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird” can be heard.

From November 18th to 21st the “Masterclass Campus Conducting” took place at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt.

36 conducting students from 18 music colleges in Germany were able to learn to conduct different orchestras in four different musical fields.

Two professors each taught the students new music, early music, musical theater and symphonic music.

The students were divided into groups and attended a different master class each day.

Different conducting styles

"Everyone has their own interpretation, and the conducting style is also completely different," explains cellist Carla Schuld from the college's symphony orchestra. On closer inspection, even the untrained eye will recognize the different conducting styles and how different the same piece, even the same measure, can sound when it is conducted by two different people. New music in particular leaves a lot of leeway for interpretation, so that it doesn't get boring to listen to a piece several times.

In this master class there is much more detailed feedback than in the parallel symphonic event. The reason for this is that most of the participants in the workshop have not yet had much experience with new music. “It was incredibly exciting, precisely because I didn't have that much connection to new music myself,” says Friedrich Praetorius, a conducting student from Weimar, after he was allowed to direct the International Ensemble Modern Academy for 15 minutes. Despite the short time he received “very good and concise input” from the professors. Praetorius also appreciates the time he spends as a spectator: "You have a great learning effect by just watching."

The “Campus Conducting” workshop is taking place for the second time this year and is intended to replace the discontinued university competition in conducting.

The Conducting Group, consisting of the conducting professors from the German conservatoires, created a new, unique format in 2018.

"You need a strong personality"

“It was important to us to focus on the learning effect and the exchange. This is how we launched the hybrid format. A master class combined with a competition, ”says Vassilis Christopoulos, director of the university orchestra and conducting training at the Frankfurt University of Music. The focus of the first phase of the workshop, which takes place in Frankfurt, is the exchange with other students. "A lot of networking, a lot of inspiration from fellow students and the various professors and a repertoire expansion" should bring the courses in Frankfurt, says the director of the university orchestra.

The twelve best students will take part in the second phase, which will take place at the Cologne University of Music at the end of January. In Cologne it will primarily be a question of competition among each other. The finalists are allowed to conduct the Beethoven Orchestra from Bonn. The winner receives prize money and is allowed to conduct concerts. Of course, this will also open one or the other door for the winner, says Christopoulos. “The competition is enormous. You need a strong personality, a very clear punching technique, a clear musical idea, charisma and a bit of luck or good luck. "He himself is glad not to have to start all over again:" The job gets easier with increasing age - that's the big advantage. "

Many of the students have known since childhood that they would like to become a conductor one day.

They are glad that after a break of more than a year it is possible to play concerts again.

Chanmin Chung, master's student in Leipzig and Kapellmeister at the Theater Aachen, says: “The audience was missing, I missed that very much.