Report on Conducting Workshop

The Washington DC Stake Conducting Workshop took place from 9am to 12pm on Saturday, September 24, 2016, at the Washington DC Stake Center.  The workshop was sponsored by the Washington DC Stake but an open invitation was issued to any interested attendees from surrounding stake.  Attendance by stake resulted in the following distribution.

3, Annandale VA

6, Ashburn VA

2, Centreville VA

1, McLean VA

2, Mount Vernon VA

24, Washington DC

2, Winchester VA

To begin the workshop, President James Baird, Washington DC Stake President, conducted an opening exercises in the chapel.  President Baird related his vision and testimony about the importance of music in our spiritual growth in the gospel by sharing some of his personal experiences with music.  Sister Baird followed by sharing her testimony and then dismissed the participants to the sessions after informing them about logistics.

Classes were held in the Relief Society Room and the Multipurpose Room.  Two parallel sessions were held with two hour-long workshops per session.  Our four qualified instructors were Melinda Baird (Washington DC Stake, Rockville Ward), Rebecca Green (Washington DC Stake, Kensington Ward), David Hardin (Annandale VA Stake, Fairfax Ward), and Helen Horton (Washington DC Stake, Kensington Ward).  The two pianists who served as accompanists during each session were Paul Andreason (Washington DC Stake, Rockville Ward) and Robyn Rowley (Washington DC Stake, Kensington Ward).

The presenters were kind to share their handouts online.  The outlines are available for download in the Music Directors Tab on the DC LDS Music Resources website at http://dcldsmusic.blogspot.com/.  The titles of the four workshops were as follows:

Advanced Music Conducting, Rebecca Green

Beginning Music Conducting, Melinda Baird

Conducting Presence, Helen Horton

Conducting Choirs, David Hardin

Including the instructors and accompanists, a total of 40 people participated in the workshop.  26 attendees registered online beforehand, and 14 attendees were walk-ins.  Of the registered attendees, 5 identified themselves as novice music conductors, 6 as intermediate, and 8 as advanced.

After the sessions, the participants ate some prepared lunch as they mingled and shared notes.  Overall, everyone felt that the workshop was successfully and should be repeated in the future.  A survey was given, in which some additional topics and suggestions for improvement were recommended for future workshops.  We are grateful to Melinda Baird and the instructors for preparing fine presentations and for serving as the organizing committee for the workshop.  We look forward to having you in a future conducting workshop.