Conducting Without an Ensemble: Promising Practices for Smaller Conducting Classes
Dr. Daniel Johnson
Wingate University
Pecos I
Thursday, March 27th
8:50 am
Clinic Synopsis
We as teachers of undergraduate conducting are responsible for helping students create a merger of the prepared mind and trained body. In conducting classes, this fusion is often strengthened through conducting experiences with an ensemble; students are asked to bring their instruments to class and play for student-conductors. While recreating an ensemble is an ideal model, how can students develop in similar ways when recreating an ensemble is not possible? This session offers promising alternatives for training the bodies and preparing the minds of undergraduate conducting students without a traditional ensemble. Participants will be guided through exercises related to universal principles of movement, methods to help students develop an aural image, and ways to help students merge these areas of study. It is the hope that these practices will benefit teachers and student-conductors in smaller classes and/or at smaller colleges and universities.
Biography
Daniel Johnson (he/him) serves as Director of Bands and Assistant Professor of Instrumental Music Education at Wingate University. In this role, he conducts the Wind Ensemble, instructs courses in conducting and music education, and advises students in the instrumental music education program.
Dr. Johnson holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Band & Wind Ensemble Conducting from the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre, & Dance, the Master of Music in Wind Conducting from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, and the Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Kentucky. At Michigan, he served as a Graduate Student Instructor for the Symphony Band, Concert Band, and Michigan Marching and Athletic Bands, assisted with courses in undergraduate conducting, maintained a private conducting studio, and led the Alumni Concert Band. As an Associate Instructor at Indiana, Dr. Johnson assisted with all ensembles in the Department of Bands, courses in instrumental conducting and marching band techniques, and designed and led the Virtual Marching Hundred in the fall of 2020. He served as a band director in the Fredericksburg City Public Schools of Virginia and the Fayette County Public Schools of Kentucky prior to his time in higher education. Dr. Johnson is a conducting student of Michael Haithcock, Rodney Dorsey, and Jason Fettig and tuba student of Skip Gray and Dan Perantoni. He has completed additional conducting study with Courtney Snyder and Steve Peterson.
Dr. Johnson is an advocate for new music, and recent premieres or recordings include Ryan Lindveit’s Bass Clarinet Concerto with bass clarinetist Andrew Koeppe of the Akropolis Wind Quintet, Griffin Candey’s Double Aviary: Concerto for Tenor Saxophone and Chamber Winds with saxophonist Drew Hosler, Alexander Blanpied’s Ousu Doue/Ik-Ik Imi with the Converge Quartet, and Karl Ronneburg’s chamber opera The Precipice. In 2023, he conducted Grey Grant’s Little Histories: A Folk Opera in Four Acts at the Strange Beautiful Music Festival hosted by Detroit New Music in the Fisher Music Center. Dr. Johnson is a member of the College Band Directors National Association, the National Band Association, the National Association for Music Education, the North Carolina Music Educators Association, and the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.