Economy-sized seats, cars, and luggage can often be exasperating, but a sense of minimalism in your choral conducting gesture can exhilarate your rehearsals and performances. Bigger conducting isn’t always better; less often communicates more. Session attendees will explore the psychology of conducting and the application of economical conducting to preparatory gestures, stance, hinges, and use of planes. Through discussion and practice, attendees will reimagine how they can communicate nonverbally with greater nuance and ease of physical conducting. Employing subtlety and refinement allows conductors to express their musical ideas and empower singers of all ages and experience levels to create a collaborative environment together.
Less is More: Economizing Your Conducting Gesture
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Brian Murray
Brian C. Murray is the director of choral activities and assistant professor of music at the University of Wyoming. At UW, his choirs frequently perform choral masterworks (Hagenberg’s Illuminare, Mozart’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Takach’s We Are Phoenix, and Handel’s Messiah), host recruiting festivals, and commission new choral works (Wright’s “Imagined Corners” & LaBarr’s TBB voicing of “Love: Then & Still”). Notably, in 2024 the UW Singing Statesmen performed for conventions of WMEA and NWACDA. Prior to earning his doctorate at the University of North Texas, Dr. Murray taught high school choir for seven years in Carrollton, Texas. He also received degrees from The Florida State University and UNT. Annually, Murray serves as an associate director of the UNT All-State Choir Camp and a faculty member for the UNT Choral Conducting Symposium. He has led professional engagements in fifteen US states as well as Canada, Czechia, England, South Korea, and Wales.
