Marin Alsop, Director of the Graduate Conducting Program

What are some of your main goals as an instructor related to student learning?

I want to give my conducting students a strong foundation and the courage to be daring.

How did your teaching progress after you started teaching remotely?

In many ways I was able to spend much more time individually with each of my students, working on technical details and general principles.

What is a challenge you’ve encountered while teaching, and how did you address it?

The biggest challenge was not having access to an orchestra, our instrument.  This is truly an insurmountable problem, but instead I focused on the many other aspects of conducting that we normally don’t have time to delve into:  one example is rehearsal technique – I had the students mock rehearse certain passages for each other and then offer constructive criticism.

What does your teaching setup at home look like?

I have a large desk and my laptop and external microphone. It is located in my studio where I house all of my scores for easy access.

What advice do you have for other faculty?

Every crisis is an opportunity to rethink, experiment and evolve.  Use this time to explore new ideas and take advantage of the access it has created to reach out widely for advice and to share knowledge with colleagues worldwide.

How do you want your students to remember this time after they have left Peabody?

I hope they will remember how much I and my teaching partner, Joseph Young, worried about them during this crisis and how much attention and caring we offered to them all.

View Marin Alsop’s faculty page and bio.