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I’m heading back to Oregon this week for one of my favorite projects of the year. From June 22-25, I’ll be working with two outstanding colleagues as director of the Rose City International Conductors Workshop in Portland, Oregon.

This workshop was the brainchild of the musicians of the Rose City Chamber Orchestra, a player-run orchestra who I’ve been working with for a couple of years now. When they asked me if I would be interested in creating and directing an advanced symposium I was completely surprised, but delighted. I’ve been even more delighted to see us have a successful first year and be looking forward to a very exciting second. This year, the international aspect of the workshop has really come to the fore- we’ve had applications from Israel, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Korea, Japan, Great Britain, Mexico and Germany.

 Joining me on the faculty is the sage Christopher Zimmerman, director of orchestras at the Hartt school and music director of the Symphony of Southeast Texas who was with us last year, and our new colleague, the wise and estimable David Hoose, director of the Cantata Singers and head of orchestras and conducting at Boston University. They are both true gods of the podium, and exceptional teachers.

So, over the next week or so, I’m hoping to use these pages to talk a little bit about some of the key aspects of conductor training, and give readers a chance to understand a bit more about how a conducting masterclass really works.