Online-based Collegiate Wind Conducting Pedagogy in the Pandemic Era

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected instructional practices at universities around the world, necessitating mostly virtual instruction for safety reasons. Particularly impacted were the performing arts, which often rely on live, in-person interaction. In the field of music, professors of conducting were forced to reconsider their teaching methods, as the nature of the practice depends on live, non-verbal visual communication that is adjusted in real-time in reaction to performer output. Conductors of wind musicians also faced an additional barrier to meeting in-person: wind instrumentalists inevitably spread aerosols while playing. In order to understand the challenges virtual instruction presented in the field of wind conducting, it is helpful to review the pre-pandemic state of wind conducting instruction at the university level. The teaching of conducting within academia is a relatively recent phenomenon, with widespread prevalence in the United States only occurring after World War II. Since then, many general trends have emerged within the field of conducting pedagogy. Most conducting programs combine private study with podium time in front of full ensembles, which was no longer feasible during the pandemic. The instruction of music within a virtual setting is not yet a widely studied phenomenon. Regarding conducting, there does not yet exist a study examining the use of distance-learning methods to deliver instruction. As online-based virtual instruction became a new paradigm during the pandemic, several professors of wind conducting were surveyed and interviewed about how they adapted their philosophies, curricula, and teaching methods during this unprecedented time. Based on these findings, the author has developed curriculums for online-based conducting courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level, which will be presented in this document.