US conductors converge on London in first UK conference
NewsThe International Conductors Guild, turning 50, will hold its annual convention in London for the first time.
The meeting is on January 2-5, 2025, at the Royal College of Music, and more than 100 conductors are expected to attend.
Julian Lloyd Webber and Mark Wigglesworth will give keynotes and workshops.
Wigglesworth is under-rated, Lloyd Webber is super-annuated.
Gripping.
Will any decent conductors attend this?
All attendees will undergo a psychological test beforehand.
And just who is a ‘Decent’ conductor ? …..An egohead?
How condescending and priggish to say that. There are hundreds of excellent, hard-working conductors around the world who deserve to meet with their colleagues. Nearly 800 conductors belong to this nonprofit organization, including many famous conductors. Take a look at the conference agenda and the history of the International Conductors Guild.
Ouch! I don’t know if the top-tier, world-class maestros belong to the Guild. In the US, most of the membership consists of mediocre, but dedicated, baton owners who work with smaller, regional orchestras. Community orchestras, amateur orchestras and the like. Some members aren’t even conductors but they like the feeling of belonging and being a part of something important. The Guild does provide contact and networking information for these guys and that’s ok. And the Guild also maintains an extensive file of errata in commonly used scores and parts. It’s all harmless fun. Few of the members are good enough to ever get picked up by major artist management and this somehow gives them a sense of fulfillment.
Perhaps more semiconductors than superconductors…
I wasn’t invited!
At a time of desperate arts funding drought, Brexit touring damage and post COVID collapse, the time is long overdue to closely examine the exorbitant fees conductors and their agents demand of struggling orchestral budgets…and the complicit managements who blithely cave into such demands.