On Tuesday, September 15th I left for Berlin to visit the Rilling daughters and also to attend a conducting masterclass with the Berlin Radio Choir under the direction of English conductor Simon Halsey and Norwegian conductor, Grete Pedersen:
www.rundfunkchor-berlin.de/content/e43/e2137/e490/e544/index_eng.html
Eric Whitacre and the Berlin Radio Choir : http://youtu.be/Y8ZTpWjXxi4
I applied as a passive participant (observer) and was involved in the masterclass from Wednesday through Saturday, observing eight active conductors work with the Radio Choir on selected movements from Bach's St. John Passion, Mozart Requiem, Rachmaninoff Vespers, John Harvey's 'Remember Me' and Morton Lauridson's 'Sure on this Shining Night'. The active conductors were between the ages of 23-35 and came from Europe, Asia, and Israel. They arrived on Saturday and worked with Simon and Grete for three days prior to the arrival of the choir and passive conducting students. Our day began at 10 am and concluded around 5 pm with a morning session and two afternoon sessions. It was a wonderful experience for me to observe these young conductors, together with two experienced master teachers, interact with the Radio Choir. What was especially interesting was the feedback that individual choir members provided at the end of each student's rehearsal. While insights varied and even contradicted each other, it was clear that the choir really wanted to connect with each conductor musically and emotionally.
The masterclass was slightly challenged by daily 'strike' activity revolving around the choir's negotiation of their contract:
http://slippedisc.com/2014/08/rattle-and-berlin-phil-show-support-for-striking-chorus/
Unlike an American strike, the choir would undertake strike activity for 1-2 hours each day and then participate in the masterclass. I believe they are also paid during their strike which is quite remarkable for us in the USA. I know that the entire situation was and is very stressful for both the choir and Simon. However they were so focussed and supportive of the conductors during the masterclass that one would hardly have known that they had just come from a rally or meeting with upper management. Truly, the mark of professionals! The masterclass ended with a lovely 90-minute church concert moderated by Simon Halsey and featuring the eight conductors leading the Berlin Radio Choir.
The pictures which follow, document a little of my experience with the conducting masterclass.
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Each morning, I crossed the Spree River at the Friedrichstrasse, which was the final stop of the East German train. Here, the East and West Germans would bid each other goodbye at the Palace of Tears: http://www.hdg.de/berlin/traenenpalast/
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| Walking underneath the S Bahn and across the river.... |
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| Looking across the River Spree... |
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| The House of Broadcasting: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haus_des_Rundfunks |
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| Statue in the main foyer by Georg Kolbe -- Die Nacht (The Night) |
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| The other statue in the foyer...unsure of artist or name. |
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The Pater Noster, a sort open elevator that brought us to and from the masterclass.
http://www.rundfunkchor-berlin.de/content/e43/e2137/e490/index_eng.html
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| The Heilig Kreuzkirche -- site of the final concert. |
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| An enthusiastic audience... |
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| applauding the choir, conductors and teachers. |
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| Our eight conductors with Simon Halsey and Grete Perdersen. |
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| Grete and Simon with Ofsar, a young Israeli conductor who was also at OBF this summer. |
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