"The conductor is first and foremost a musical performer. Like an instrumentalist, he must relive the process of reincarnation of the score with all of his being, from the musical conception to the motor and emotional sphere." Ilya Musin
Tchaikovsky 5 2nd mov Rimsky-Korsakov Sheherazade 3rd mov fragments
Ennio Nicotra remembers Maestro Ilya Musin
One of the most frequent questions that children ask teachers from their early years of musical schooling is: "what is the conductor for?". Normally the teacher tries to give as an explanation, for example, that the conductor is the one who "beats time" or who "coordinates the musical performance". In reality, no one has the courage to say the total truth: the conductor, most of the time, is useless!
conversation about Ilya Musin and the teaching of the orchestra direction
The technique of conductorship has been for several years the subject of innumerable discussions. Lots of schools deal with this matter, some of them give more importance to the study and interpretation of the score, unavoidable elements of this art, without analysing the technical aspect.
These schools don't consider the hypothesis that the student could, by a correct use of his arms, interact with the orchestra, and even maintain that the technical component doesn't affect the performance; they consider that the student, through practise and experience , has to elaborate a personal technique.
A new website has just been opened about Ilya Musin, you will find a lot of information and testimonials on the greatest teacher of all times.
The creator of an unrivaled teaching system for conducting.
Until a few years ago, the direction of the orchestra wanted to make it the only art without a codified technique, very few things that could be stated in the time of a coffee at the bar. In reality, Ilya Musin has dedicated her entire life to teaching and a good part of it to codifying the technique; a continuous magisterium from 1927 (when he took over Nikolay Malko's class at the Leningrad Conservatory) to 1999 a few days before his death.
Laboriousness studded with an impressive pleiad of directors baked by his class, (Rudolf Barshai, Yuri Temirkanov, Semyon Bychkov, Valery Gergiev, Teodor Kurrentzis (just to name a few) and the publication in Russia of several books. Nobody has explored the field of teaching like him.
Of the conducting until a few years ago, but someone still tries today, if he wanted to make it the only art without a codified technique, very few things that could be stated in the time of a coffee at the bar.
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory of St. Petersburg
Department of Music Theory
