Rethinking Gesture
Dr. Jo-Michael Scheibe
The premise has been for decades that conducting is all about the pattern, but there is so much more to consider. While the premise may be good to keep things together, there are more facets to consider when developing our skills as a conductor.Â
What would happen if we became imaginative with our text, audiate what we want to hear, give our singers enough time to breathe well, with informative gestures, and engage them in art of music making?
Topics Include:
- Teaching conducting in the manner we were taughtÂ
- Function of breath when singing and conductingÂ
- How to embrace the gesture when thinking about the singer?Â
- How soon to prepare the breath?
- Rethinking Rhythmic Function – Part of rethinking the function of rhythmÂ
- Audiation – Edwin Gordon Audiation: The Foundation of Music Learning TheoryÂ
- Characteristics of the conductorÂ
Meet Your Professor
Â
Jo-Michael Scheibe, a Southern California native, has spent years cultivating his passion for choral music and higher education. He currently chairs the Thornton School of Music’s Department of choral and sacred music in the University Park neighborhood of LA at USC.
Dr. Scheibe received his B.A. and M.M. degrees from California State University at Long Beach and D.M.A. from USC. At CSU, he received Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2003. Jo-Michael Scheibe began teaching high school, starting in California at Vintage High School and Huntington Beach High School. His longest time out-of-state was fifteen years in Miami directing Choral Studies at University of Miami’s Frost School of Music.
Jo-Michael Scheibe believes in the community of choir singers and directors. Dr. Scheibe sang in the very first national ACDA convention in Kansas City with Frank Pooler in 1971. As a young singer, this exposed him to all the wonderful choirs across the country. Like many in the profession, Jo-Michael Scheibe gives back through the ACDA because he has been given so much through music.
Scheibe works to prepare choruses at USC and around the world. These include works with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra, Helmuth Rilling, Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony, Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Formosa Singers in Taiwan. Under his leadership, ensembles have performed at National ACDA Conventions and National Conventions of the Music Educators National Conference.
Jo-Michael Scheibe has worked alongside notable conductors such as Jeffrey Kahane, Alain Lombard, Jahja Ling, Max Valdez, James Judd, Edoardo Müller, Thomas Sanderling, and Professor János Czifra at Jubilate Mozart. Walton, Albany, Colla Voce Music, and Naxos publish recordings of Scheibe’s ensembles. See: Jo-Michael Scheibe Choral Series.
Jo-Michael Scheibe recently served at the Western Division of the American Choral Director’s Association. He is currently the vice president of International Affairs at the ACDA. In May 2016, he will travel to Taiwan to perform with the Formosa Singers, one of the best choir groups in the country.