Host and Location:

The Conductors Guild is excited to offer a Workshop especially dedicated to conductors from all disciplines willing to expand their conducting experience under the guidance of internationally renowned master faculty, Dr. John Farrer, by working in the heart of one the most advanced and established Núcleos of Venezuela’s internationally renowned music education program El Sistema. 

Twelve selected participants will each receive over 90 minutes of podium time, including 40 minutes with Falcón Symphony Orchestra, 30 minutes with quintet, and participation in a final concert in Teatro Armonía with the Falcón Symphony Ochestra, the leading professional regional orchestra of El Sistema in Venezuela. 

Additionally, during the week, all participants and auditors will experience a close view and interactive visit to the city Núcleo of Ateneo in historic Coro, as well as an interactive visit to the Núcleo of Las Panelas in suburban Coro, as well as an interactive visit to the rural Núcleo of Cabudare, located in the middle of the mountains of the Sierra Falconiana. 

Detailed conducting technique master classes will be given daily by master faculty, Dr. John Farrer, to all participants and auditors, as well as a comprehensive video mentoring session. 

For this Conducting Training Workshop the Conductors Guild is willing to provide the maximum amount of specific and insightful guidance on both technical and musical matters to each attendee in a constructive, encouraging, and non-competitive environment. Although no podium time will be given to auditors during this Workshop, auditors will attend and participate with questions in all technique master classes, rehearsals, and interactive visits. 

The Conductors Guild requires membership in the Conductors Guild in order to participate in this Workshop. We would like to take this opportunity to invite all our perspective Workshop participants to take advantage of the benefits of joining the Conductors Guild. If you would like to join the Conductors Guild now, please complete our online membership form HERE.

Questions? - [email protected]

Dr. John Farrer, Faculty

John Farrer has been the Music Director of the Roswell Symphony Orchestra for 44 years.  He is in his fifteenth season as Music Director with the Santa Maria (CA) Philharmonic. He was associated with the San Francisco Symphony as cover conductor for the orchestra's subscription concerts.  Dr. Farrer has been a frequent speaker in the San Francisco Symphony's series of Inside Music talks, and he has led the Orchestra in Concerts for Kids, and in a concert in the Stern Grove, which attracted 20,000 listeners.  Dr. Farrer is music director emeritus/conductor laureate of the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra of which he was music director for 39 years.
 
Dr. Farrer is a frequent guest with orchestras in England, including the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, the Bournemouth Symphony and the London Mozart Players. His all Tchaikovsky recording with the London Philharmonic Orchestra received wide critical praise and led to further recordings with the Royal Philharmonic, the Bournemouth Symphony and the English Sinfonia.  He is in the process of recording the symphonies of Brahms with the New Queens Hall Orchestra. 

Dr. Farrer is senior guest conductor of the English Sinfonia, and his recordings of English string music with that ensemble have been enthusiastically received.   Dr. Farrer led the English Sinfonia on a tour of Northern France and conducts concerts with them throughout England.

Dr. Farrer is the Founder and Director of the California Conducting Workshop, and he is also director of the London Conducting Workshop at the Royal Academy of Music.  These two programs have attracted conductors from all over the world.   He also leads conductor training programs in Paris, Venice and Brazil.  Workshops in Montreal, Canada and Cape Town, South Africa are scheduled for 2016.

In 2003 Maestro Farrer was nominated and appointed by Senators Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman as one of the Trustees of the National Symphony Orchestra, the advisory board of the Orchestra and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. As provided in the National Trustees’ information statement from the National Symphony Orchestra Development Office, “Trustees are prominent persons from throughout the United States and from several countries around the world. They are accomplished leaders in civic, cultural and philanthropic enterprise as well as in their chosen professions and careers. Trustees serve as valued counselors and patrons of the NSO and as advocates in Washington, as well as in their home states, communities and countries, for the causes of symphonic music, of the performing arts and of music and arts education.”  The Roswell Symphony Orchestra takes great pride in Maestro Farrer’s position on this prestigious Board.
 
Maestro Farrer has received the Governor's Award for Excellence and Achievement, New Mexico's highest art honor.
 
In 2014, Maestro Farrer received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Trustees of the California State University System.  In July 2015, Maestro Farrer was elected president of the Conductors Guild, an organization representing the interests of more than 1,600 conductors from all over the world.

Conservatorio de Música “José Maiolino Conte”

Newly inaugurated in 2016, this facility offers state of the art music classrooms in colonial architecture from the end of the XIX Century.

Questions? - [email protected] 

Tuition and Fees 

Application Fee: $80

Participant Tuition: $1,600

Auditor Tuition: $700 

Participant and auditor tuition includes roundtrip ground transportation from Las Piedras International Airport to Coro, as well as the transportation to all activities and interactive visits of the Workshop.  Hotel accommodation will be provided in single, air-conditioned rooms at the conveniently located and modern Eurobuilding Hotel, the same location where all of the meals, most technique sessions, and video review sessions will be held (subject to change). Buffet breakfast, as well as lunch and dinner is also included in the tuition fee.  All rooms have free wireless Internet Access. It is possible to arrange for spouses/partners to stay at the Hotel for a small additional cost. Spouses/partners will also receive the three meals each day and will have access to all the public events and interactive visits of the Workshop. 

A non-refundable deposit of $800 (Auditor $350) is required upon Participant/Auditor acceptance to the workshop, and must be received by the Guild no later than May 15, 2018.  The full balance of the Participant/Auditor, registration fee is required by May 30, 2018. 

The non-refundable deposit ($800) (Auditor $350), and balance of the registration fee ($800) (Auditor $350) should be submitted using this online payment form, or paid by check or money-order made out to the "Conductors Guild" and mailed to the Guild office - see address below.   Participant /Auditor deposits reserve each attendee’s place in the Workshop. 

Conductors Guild
15 E. Market Street, #22
Leesburg, VA  20178

[email protected]
(202) 643-4791

Hotel:

The hosting venue for group master classes, video review lessons and for the accommodation, room and board for the entirety of this Workshop will be the Coro Eurobuilding Hotel -

Eurobuilding Hotel & Suites, Coro
Av. Independecia, Sector La Floresta
Coro, Falcon     Venezuela

https://www.hoteleuro.com

Questions? - [email protected] 

Traveling to Historic Coro:

The Venezuelan government requires US Citizens to obtain a Tourist Visa in order to travel to Venezuela. Las Piedras International Airport is the closest international airport to Coro. Although there are no international flights from the US to Las Piedras International Airport, there is one daily flight from Queen Beatrix International Airport in Aruba, to Las Piedras International Airport. We strongly recommend that our prospective participants make their own travel arrangements to Queen Beatrix International Airport in Aruba

arriving in Aruba no later than Sunday June the 24^th, in order to take the flight on Sunday, June 24^th at 5:00pm from Queen Beatrix International Airport in Aruba, to Las Piedras International Airport, Coro.

Given the academic nature of this Workshop, the Conductors Guild and the Falcón Symphony Orchestra will complete the application visa process of each participant and auditor with the Venezuelan Government upon receipt of the full payment of their tuition. 

Also, if necessary, the Conductors Guild and the Falcón Synphony Orchestra will complete the booking of the round-trip flight from Queen Beatrix International Airport in Aruba to Las Piedras International Airport of each participant and auditor after the reception of the full payment of their tuition with the following itinerary: 

Sunday, June 24, 5:00pm: Aruba - Las Piedras

Saturday,  June 30, 10:00am: Las Piedras - Aruba 

The approximate cost of this Aruba-Las Piedras-Aruba round-trip ticket is $200 and it will be paid in full by each participant and auditor directly to Albatros Airlines http://www.albatrosair.com.ve once the Conductors Guild and the Falcón Symphony Orchestra have completed the booking process of their flights. Tickets will be issued directly by Albatros Airlines, and will be sent directly to each participant and auditor by Albatros Airlines. 

It will be the responsibility of each participant and auditor to pay and arrange his round-trip travel from the US to Aruba in order to complete the above mentioned itinerary. 

Questions? - [email protected]

WORKSHOP APPLICATION:

Applicants should first complete our online application by submitting education, work experience, references, headshot, and video samples, through our online application portal no later than May 1, 2018.

Given the limited number of available positions (12), we strongly recommend that all applicants fully complete and submit  the online application at your earliest convenience. Applications will be reviewed in the order in which they are received.

All Participant Conductors and Auditors will be notified of their acceptance no later than May 5, 2018.

DVD’s are not accepted. You may upload your video, or submit links to YouTube, or Vimeo, etc. via the online application portal.

An application fee of $80 must be submitted using the online application portal, mentioned above.  Application fees are non-refundable.

Please allow extra time to familiarize yourself with the new application process.

A non-refundable deposit of $800 (Auditor $350) is required upon Participant acceptance to the workshop, and must be received by the Guild no later than May 10, 2018.  The balance of the Participant, and Auditor, registration fee is required by May 15, 2018.

The non-refundable deposit ($800) (Auditor $350) and balance of the registration fee ($600) (Auditor $300) may be submitted using this online payment form, or paid by check or money order made out to the "Conductors Guild" and mailed to the Guild office - see address below.   Participant and Auditor deposits reserve each attendee’s place in the Workshop

  Questions? - [email protected]

SCHOLARSHIP: 
 Participants in this workshop will be eligible for the 2019 Thelma A. Robinson Scholarship/Award of the National Federation of Music Clubs. This $1,250 award is given biennially to a U.S. Citizen who has participated in at least one Conductors Guild Conductor Training Workshop and who has not reached his/her 35th birthday by March 1st of the season of participation. The faculty at each workshop will nominate one eligible Participant who demonstrates accomplishment, musicality, and promise in the field of conducting. The present skill level of the candidate and his/her degree of improvement within the workshop itself will be considered. The candidate from each workshop will be asked to submit his/her video from that particular workshop to the Conductors Guild office for subsequent evaluation by the Thelma A. Robinson Scholarship/ Award selection committee.

REPERTOIRE:

Haydn – Symphony No. 97 in C Major 

Beethoven – Symphony No. 7 in A Major

Berlioz – Les Nuits d'ete 

Bartok – String Divertimento 

Sibelius – Symphony No. 2 in D Major 

Participants will be given some choice of the segments they will conduct for the Orchestra Sessions in consultation with the faculty. Quintet Sessions will be addressed to specific technique and interpretation aspects from specific excerpts of the repertoire. Participants will be expected to have a thorough preparation of the score in the assigned excerpt of the repertoire to be conducted in the Final Concert.

Video coverage will be provided for all quintet sessions, orchestra sessions, and the final concert. The individual video files will be given to each participant at the end of the Workshop, before their departure. Also, participants are welcome to bring their own video cameras, if they would prefer to use their own equipment.

 Questions? - [email protected]

SCHEDULE: 

2018 Conductors Guild - El Sistema Coro
Conductor Training Workshop
Falcón Symphony Orchestra, Coro, Venezuela
June 25 - 29, 2018
Faculty - Dr. John Farrer, Conductors Guild President