We have what I think is a very wonderful MA Choral programme here at the University of
Birmingham which we've had for about 7 years now. It's principally taught by me - my name's
Simon Halsey, I'm the Chorus Director at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as well
as Professor here at the University and I'm assisted by Julian Wilkins who also is on
the staff here and also at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and it's the only choral
conducting course in the world that is done in association with a major international
orchestra and we're teaching people to do the job that I do which is to train a choir
to sing with an orchestra.
I've been wanting to level up my conducting for a while and I thought this would be perfect.
I initially came here actually for my undergraduate degree and then after graduating just got
way more involved with choirs and children's choirs and community choirs and looked around
at a lot of different places but this appeared to be the only place that choral conducting
is taught to the level that it is taught here.
I'll tell you how to rehearse Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Mahler's Second Symphony,
all the big pieces with choir in them.
Nothing is theoretical - it's all hands on. I will take you around and let you watch me
at work in Birmingham, in London, in Barcelona, in Berlin. You'll go to visit the great a
cappella choirs and so on, in addition to the work we do here.
You get to work with many different groups with different levels of experience and you
do a very very wide variety of repertoire.
We'll be working with University Singers which is an absolutely top-notch choral ensemble,
the CBSO Chorus, and the next day we'll be working with an auditioned University chorus
or the staff singers on a Thursday which is really good fun, really sort of nice wholesome
community stuff.
We do early music, we do really modern stuff, we do the big symphonic works, we do smaller
chamber stuff. We give the students their own choir and it's a choir that's of a really
high standard. They assist on three choirs, they conduct another one, they're members
of the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, they get first study singing lessons, they
are much more active on a daily basis waving their arms around, telling people what to
do, dealing with the reactions than quite frankly anywhere else in the world.
Conducting in front of each other means that you really have to get better but it's a safe
space. Rehearsing is when you need to put up your sleeves and really work and explore
because the great thing about rehearsals is that although you plan everything you never
know what is going to happen, you never know how people are going to respond.
We have the budget and the resources to have famous international conductors in charge
of some of them, and our students, our conducting students, assist those people, so Bob Chilcott
who used to be in the Kings Singers and one of the leading composers of the day...
I've been so impressed with the Music Department here. It's a very very vibrant department.
From a choral point of view, it's got teachers and mentors as good as anywhere you'll get
in the world. Even now after we have finished we are still in contact with them and they
are really aware of what we are doing and they are always there for us if we need any
sort of advice.
I'm really proud and excited by what our graduates are doing. One way and another everyone is
in first-class jobs. I am choral director at City of London School for Girls. I also
am participating in a mentoring scheme by Crouch End Festival Chorus in London. I'm
being mentored by David Temple and I get to work with them for a year being assistant
and having one-to-one lessons with him and getting to know more about the life of a symphonic
chorus. Ultimately, I'd like to work with children, with community choirs and community
choruses. I'd really love to conduct the children's chorus of a symphony orchestra or something
in the future.
I'd love to get as much experience as I can. Ideally working with professional or pro-am
kind of choirs.
We need people who have the skills to be able to work with people, bring them together,
make them sing well and the fact is if you study choral conducting in a place like this
you learn how to do that and you learn how to function. It's a very special thing that's
going on here because everyone who does it will end up doing something completely different
within choral conducting but it will all have that value.