folio

I am currently a first year performance major and the details surrounding how one actually becomes a conductor are rather fuzzy. I have asked professors and have been told that conductors usually reach a very high level on their instruments first. That I understand. The only conducting courses available to undergraduate students are music education courses and they don't go very in depth. Since they are courses outside my program, I can only sign up after all the music ed. majors have signed up first, which may or may not leave room for me.

What really baffles me is the requirements for admittance into a graduate program for conducting. They greatly vary from school to school, some require score reading at the keyboard, some require sight singing, some require an honors degree in music beforehand, and they all require a video of the person conducting an ensemble. Of course the person has to have had experience conducting before going into the program, but how do I go from playing in ensembles to conducting them?

How is conducting taught? How do I know which schools are good for conducting? Will I still be able to study my principal instrument? Do I need to be a stellar piano player? How am I going to get experience?

Should I go to the school (for grad studies) that is in the city that I hope to work in, even if it is considered "inferior" to the school that I am attending now?

Thanks.