Teaching Musicality to Orchestra Students

Students can learn to be proactive and perform more musically if taught to recognize “composer clues.” The session will identify many clues and offer suggestions for implementation during rehearsal. Some of these clues are: basic dynamic shapes, following the line, principals of additive phrasing and accelerated motion, chromatic notes as text painting, seeing the simplified phrase, and repeated pitches and octave displacements. Examples from the standard school orchestra literature will be used to demonstrate these principles.

Philip Baldwin serves as Professor of Violin and Viola and Conductor of the University Symphony Orchestras at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, as well as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Spokane Youth Symphony. He earned a DMA at The Ohio State University, receiving the Distinguished Dissertation Award for work on the violin sonatas of William Bolcom. As a fellowship recipient, he attended the Conductor’s Institute of South Carolina and trained at the Saito International Conducting School. He has appeared with the members of the Spokane Symphony, conducted the WMEA Junior All-State Orchestra, and twice directed the Hong Kong Youth Music Camp. He is Past President of the Washington chapter of the American String Teachers Association and Director of the Birch Bay String Teachers Workshop. He has presented lectures at eight ASTA national conventions, the Texas and Arkansas Music Educators Association conventions, and at two International Short Story conferences on the intersection of music and literature.

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