The last day of this year’s workshop.
On paper, it looks like the most laid-back schedule of the week- we start a little later, have only one teaching session and the concert. It wasn’t unreasonable of me to think that this would be the one day I could get a few things done….
Of course, that is forgetting all the private consultation time, answering last minute questions on breaks, and dealing with performance logistic issues all day. Now 2:02 AM, post-workshop, and the day has come and gone like a hurricane. Hardly a second’s rest.
Last things first- the concert. Frankly, I’m somewhat ambivalent about the concert. We included it in the curriculum in year one because we were keenly aware that we needed to make the workshop sufficiently attractive to enough applicants that it would be a viable project. There are any number of conductors who will come to a workshop just for the chance to get some video footage of themselves. They may not be approaching the workshop with the most positive attitude, but at least they help make possible the infrastructure that allows those who are truly coming to learn the chance to do so.
Two years in, and I’m sure I have yet to see a single student who’s come for any reason but to learn. I don’t know if doing a concert helps recruit students (we know it was not a prime factor for last year’s students),  but it does add an aspect of culmination to the weekend, in ways both good and bad. A long evening of difficult music that hasn’t been rehearsed being directed by student conductors who haven’t actually conducted the entire piece before may sound like a recipe for disaster.
In fact, we did have the odd disaster, and, fair enough, that might have been predictable. Concerts should be rehearsed. Music is important, and we ought to always allow for the pieces we love to be heard in a sympathetic environment. Nevertheless, the concert gives each conductor a chance to test themselves in the music we’ve worked on, and it adds a level of gravitas to the project. Even with a tiny audience, it’s a different kind of pressure.
Fortunately, I think there were more than enough fantastic moments to justify the risks and wrecks. More on those later. Now, at 2:30 AM, having said goodbye to students, orchestra musicians and colleagues, I’m callin’ it a day. We’ve survived two years, and, though I’m kind of heartbroken to be done for this summer, it feels like the RCICW has turned the corner that will let it really endure.
KW