Seminar 2019 Beyond The Baton Jo Heaton

Jo Heaton

Public Seminar Wednesday 26 June 2019 5.20pm for start 5.30pm to 6.40pm at Blackburn High, enter Music Centre via Williams Road car park.

Abstract “Beyond The Baton”

Conducting can be understood to be an exchange of energy and innate leadership.  The physical technique of conducting may be the means to communicate musical data such as style, dynamics, tempo and articulation, however the essence of the art of conducting exists beyond (and often in spite of) the technique.  Pedagogical approaches to conducting teach the technique, however it appears that there is not a widely accepted method to teach communication skills that are beyond the technique, and therefore students of the art of conducting are expected to develop these skills on their own.

This presentation will explore:

• How does one conductor create a completely different musical result from another, despite comparable levels of technical proficiency?

• How do conductors inspire the musicians before them? 

• What intangible forms of communication are in operation whilst conducting?

• Can they be identified and explored?

• Can they be taught?

The data for this research that supports this presentation was collected by interviewing participating professional musicians to gain an understanding of the experiences and perceptions of conducting from a variety of perspectives.  Understanding how musicians experience conductors’ intentions as they are subliminally communicated provided information regarding their reception of those intentions.

Joanne Heaton – Biography

Joanne has worked as a music educator in many varied environments in Australia and in the USA.  She completed a Bachelor of Education – Music and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education Studies at the University of Melbourne. Joanne then received a scholarship to complete a Masters of Music majoring in Conducting Performance at the University of Utah, USA. Before returning to Australia, Joanne undertook the position of Band Director at Eastmont Middle School at Sandy, Utah. 

Joanne is in demand as an adjudicator, conductor, guest lecturer and educative consultant in the USA and Australia and was recently appointed Head of Bands at Haileybury College in Melbourne.  In 2001 Joanne served as the music education representative for the curriculum writing project; Schools to Careers for the Utah State Office of Education. Joanne has been a guest lecturer and conductor at Monash University and The University of Melbourne.  In 2000 she was awarded the Jordan Education Foundation’s Outstanding Educator of the Year for her work in Utah schools, and in February 2017 she was honoured with an ABODA Victoria Excellence in Music Education award. Joanne was invited to be a guest conductor of the Southern Mississippi University Honor Band in February 2007, clinician at the 2012 Mid-West Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, guest conductor of the Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asian Schools Honour Band in Kuala Lumpur in 2014 and guest conductor for the Colorado State University, Pueblo, Festival of Winds in 2018. Appearances in 2019 include presentations for the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles in Spain, Oxford University International Conducting Studies Conference in Sydney and the Australian Society for Music Education conference in Perth.

Joanne is in the final stages of completing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree specialising in Wind Band Conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Once awarded, Joanne will be the first recipient to achieve this degree with a wind band focus at an Australian institution.

Further details about the Conducting Workshop Program

This seminar is part of the Conductors Workshop Program hosted by The Grainger Wind Symphony. Interested people can just attend the seminar.

To attend the Seminar, bookings are essential using TryBooking. To book, click here (bookings will be open in June). Bookings will close Sunday 23 June for planning and catering reasons. Please also submit Application Form A and send via email to Roland. Please note that as this is an unsponsored event, concession is only made to full time university students.

Immediately following the seminar, Full Participants who selected the One-on-one Conducting Tutorial and Video Workshop where full participants have podium time conducting The Grainger Wind Symphony with their conducting mentor. To be a full participant, special bookings have to be made using Application Form A, and also through TryBooking click here. Bookings for full participants will close on Tuesday 18 June.

Another Conducting Program runs parallel to the above.

The Conducting Intensive is spread out over several weeks spanning the school holidays. This enables full participants to make permanent changes to their conducting. The class program also allows full participants to ask any questions about conducting and build their conducting network for future collaborations.

For more information go to this page click here.