Course Outline

Budapest, Hungary
2025 Dates TBC

The first day will run from 1-8pm, with several breaks. The next two days will be from 10am-5pm, with the final day running from 10-1pm with an optional lunch afterwards.

Each class builds upon the preceding one. For the first three days, to facilitate learning in a low stress environment, students will practice conducting two pianists, before applying their new knowledge to conducting a 28-piece orchestra made up of professional session musicians on the final day.

All sessions will be filmed, and each attendee will receive footage of their participation for their own personal educational purposes, which will be produced by Maestro Music UK.

Course size will be limited to a maximum of 6 students to ensure each student gets a minimum of 30 minutes podium time with the orchestra on Day 4, and at least 50 minutes of podium time during the four-hand piano sessions.

Participants will be expected to fully participate in discussions, even when not at the podium themselves. Students often learn as much from other attendees’ mistakes and successes as they do from their own.

Day 1

Students will go over the basics of baton and conducting techniques, body movement and mechanics, in ways they are unlikely to have experienced before. For example, they will be taught a variety of ways to beat patterns 1 to 12, giving them greater flexibility and nuance in how to create their musical objectives.

Day 2

Here, the more musical elements of conducting will be explored such as:

  • How best to create weight, accents and light textures

  • Learning to cue more effectively

  • Tips to better conduct different groups at the same time – for example, a string section doing staccato notes while the brass delivers a weighty chorale

There will be a particular focus on learning to use one’s body, instead of just words and hands, to tell an orchestra what  is required. Suggestions for how best to “read” the orchestra and motivate the musicians for peak performance will also be shared, along with how best to rehearse them. 

Day 3

Still using the two pianos, but pretending to conduct multiple orchestral sections simultaneously, students will practise applying the various techniques learned to date, using the reduced score of the well-known film cue(s) that they will be conducting the following day.

Day 4

Each attendee will conduct 28 musicians from The Budapest Film Orchestra to deliver one long piece of film music or 4-5 shorter cues, across two stints on the podium. Breaking up the podium time in this way gives students the opportunity to reflect upon their initial experience and improve upon it during their second opportunity in front of the orchestra.

  • Excerpts from Back to the Future

  • Excerpts from Psycho

  • Excerpts from The Great Escape

  • Excerpts from The Mummy

  • Excerpts from:

    Catch Me If You Can
    E.T.
    Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
    Raiders of the Lost Ark
    Star Wars
    Superman

  • Excerpts from Mission Impossible

  • Excerpts from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

  • Excerpts from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Course repertoire

Note: Repertoire is subject to change