- It will refresh them. Leading a choir is an immensely fulfilling job. It is also draining. The Symposium will reinvigorate and excite your conductor – to push themselves and the choir further, and to keep challenging their audience.
- It will feed them. Creatively, that is. Conductors give out constantly – programming, rehearsing, teaching, shaping – but too often lack the time, opportunity and impetus to receive that vital professional sustenance they need in return.
- It will educate them. Everybody, from international expert to complete beginner, goes to a Symposium to learn; the standard is so high, no-one feels threatened. And with at least eight concerts and 20 presentations per day, there’s a lot to learn from. This is the best choral PD your conductor will ever get!
- It will empower them. Choral leaders, especially in a smallish, faraway country, can feel rather isolated; yet they still have to be resilient enough to motivate a whole group of singers. Meeting hundreds of other conductors who do what they do will give them a much stronger sense of career and self, and that’s good for the choir.
- It will give them new ideas. They’ll come away with new warm-ups, rehearsal techniques and repertoire, along with fresh thoughts on choir maintenance, concert-programming, staging and publicity. It will encourage them to innovate, while giving them confidence in what they already do well.
- It will resource them. A huge trade expo of sheet music (the lifeblood of a choral conductor) and a host of other music industry products await them: folders, uniforms, risers, acoustic screens, fundraisers, tour companies, festivals, competitions and so on. They’ll meet several world-renowned composers selling their wares. Expect them to bring back the choir’s new favourite piece of music
- It will bring them new contacts. One of the main benefits of a Symposium is the people you meet, and they will meet lots! Some they’ll share ideas with, others they’ll befriend for ever, still others they’ll talk to about shared concerts or reciprocal tours. You know, where they sing over here and then you join them back in Paris.
- It will give them context. Our theme People and the Land / He Tangata, He Whenua is about where we live and our relationship with that place. NZ conductors at WSCM2020 will enjoy being a part of this country’s unique culture and international choral standing, while also appreciating the importance of choirs and singing in the community and throughout the rest of the world.
- It will inspire them. Our conductors may attend future Symposia in other significant world cities, but the one they helped to host here in Aotearoa NZ will always be special. We hope they will remember it proudly for years to come, and that it will in various ways inspire their careers.
- It will benefit you. The renewed enthusiasm, new ideas and sheer joy that a conductor brings back from Symposium can be hugely infectious. They can also last for a long time. It could be the best thing you ever did for the choir!
DOWNLOAD THE TEN REASONS PDF HERE
Photo courtesy of its subject, Dr Debra Shearer-Dirie