Lessons from the Evaluator's Table
Dr. Andrea Brown
YOU are the connection between the composer and the players
YOU are the engineer at the “mixing board”
YOU are quality control of ensuring your musical ideas are shared
This class will present common observations and takeaways from my experience as an ensemble clinician and evaluator. Suggestions for helping the composer's stylistic intent and your own interpretation come to life with clarity through your gesture will be shared.
We'll discuss the conductor's simultaneous responsibilities of being the connection between the composer and the ensemble, the sound engineer at the mixing board, and the quality control agent of ensuring your musical ideas are communicated. Participants will also gain techniques in matching articulation styles between individuals, creating more variation in articulations, as well as more contrast & direction with phrase shape. Strategies for creating clarity, balance, and expression in full textures and dynamics will also be discussed. All of this information will be shared in the spirit of moving past focus on pitch and rhythmic accuracy, and on to creating the musical expression you desire.Â
Topics Include:
- Matching tutti articulations
- Creating more difference between articulation styles
- Connecting crescendos to arrival moments
- Pace & balance of decrescendos
- Creating more difference between various dynamics
- Clarity of melodic/primary line
- Rubato / ritardando / fermata
- As a rule (knowing rules are made to be broken) - exaggerate
- Excellent pitch & rhythm accuracy, intonation, balance, & ensemble timing are not the end goal - it’s only the foundation for being expressive & MAKING MUSIC
Meet Your Professor
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Dr. Andrea E. Brown was appointed the Associate Director of Bands at the University of Maryland in 2018. In this position she conducts the University of Maryland Wind Ensemble, serves as the Director of Athletic Bands and teaches conducting. Brown is formerly a member of the conducting faculty at the University of Michigan where she served as the assistant director of bands and was a faculty sponsor of a College of Engineering Multidisciplinary Design Project team researching conducting pedagogy technology. She also served as the director of orchestra and assistant director of bands at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. She is a frequent guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator in the US, Europe and Asia.
Brown completed a DMA in instrumental conducting at UNC Greensboro where she was a student of John Locke and Kevin Geraldi. While at UNCG, she was both guest conductor and principal horn on UNCG Wind Ensemble's fireworks! and finish line!CDs released on the Equilibrium label. Brown has also had several rehearsal guides published in the popular GIA Publications series, "Teaching Music Through Performance in Band" and has presented at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, Oxford Conducting Institute, Music For All Summer Symposium, the Yamaha Bläserklasse in Schlitz, Germany, the International Computer Music Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the College Music Society International Conference in Sydney, Australia and multiple times at the College Band Directors National Association National Conference.
A proponent of inclusion and equity issues in the music profession, Brown is a frequent guest speaker on these topics. She currently serves on the CBDNA Diversity Committee and was a founding member of the Drum Corps International InStep Committee. Brown is the founder of “Women Rising to the Podium”- an online group of over 4700 members supporting and celebrating women band directors. Additionally, she also served as the chair of the Sigma Alpha Iota Women’s Music Fraternity Graduate Conducting Grant for eight years and is an advisor of the SAI chapter at the University of Maryland.