Conducting Masterclass
with
Dominic Grier
Sunday 18th February 2024
10:30am - 5:30pm
at
The Royal Academy of Music (Forsyth Room), Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5HT
Repertoire
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73
Highly-regarded conductor Dominic Grier (Tutor in Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music and Director of the George Hurst Foundation) leads this masterclass with a small number of selected participants.
The class provides observers with an opportunity to gain an insight into the Toscanini-Barzin method of conducting, and into a specific interpretative approach to performing this repertoire based on the practice of the late internationally-renowned conductor and teacher of conducting, George Hurst.
Denise Ham (Director, London Conducting Academy), will lead an optional technique session as part of the day, and will also offer expert advice to the participants.
The class is accompanied by two professional pianists and is open to observers for a cost of £35
(£20 for students and £10 for RAM students)
Pianists: Julian Chan & Anastasia Matkovskaia
SCHEDULE
There are two sessions: 10:30am-1:15pm and 2:30pm-5:30pm.
At the start of the afternoon session there is an optional technical workshop. Observers wishing to take part in the technique session should bring their own batons.
BOOKING
Places to observe the masterclass must be booked and paid for in advance. There will be no on-the-door availability, as numbers are strictly limited. The observers' fee is non-refundable except if the masterclass is cancelled by the organiser.
Places for observers will be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis, until full capacity is reached.
ENQUIRIES
Please send any enquires to dgmasterclasses@gmail.com
DIRECTIONS
For detailed instructions on how to get to the Royal Academy of Music, please click HERE
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Dominic Grier is widely acknowledged as being among the most versatile conductors of his generation, equally at home in opera, ballet and symphonic work as well as contemporary music and orchestral training. He has served as a frequent guest conductor with many of the foremost ballet companies in the UK and Europe, including The Royal Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, OperaBallet Vlaanderen, Northern Ballet and Scottish Ballet. He enjoys a particularly strong connection with Birmingham Royal Ballet, where he has conducted a wide repertoire every season since 2012. He was Staff Conductor for The Royal Ballet from 2008–10, and a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists programme at the Royal Opera House. He served as Assistant Conductor at the Opéra National de Lyon in 2007-2009 and made his own critically acclaimed guest conducting début there in March 2010, with the French premiere of Copland’s The Tender Land.
He has worked with a wide range of orchestras and ensembles throughout the UK, Europe and further afield. Recent engagements include The Nutcracker for The Royal Ballet, Faust for Ballet Vlaanderen with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, a new version of Eugene Onegin for Maribor Opera and Ballet in Slovenia, David Bintley’s acclaimed production of Cinderella for Birmingham Royal Ballet, and concerts with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, the Covent Garden Camber Orchestra, and the Purcell School Symphony Orchestra.
He was Music Director of the King's College London Symphony Orchestra (2009–12), the Ashover Festival Orchestra (2007-9) and the London International Orchestra of Academia (2006–8) and is currently Music Director of the Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra. His performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, France Musique, and throughout the UK as part of the Royal Opera House’s live screenings, as well as being released on DVD for the Opus Arte label. He recently recorded Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade with the Orchestra of Flanders Opera and a critically-acclaimed recording devoted to the music of Michael Berkeley with The Berkeley Ensemble, for Resonus Classics.
Orchestral training and music education are a fundamental element of his work and he has been conductor of the Symphony and Classical orchestras at the Junior Royal Academy of Music since 2017. He is a much-respected and established teacher of conducting, serving on the academic staff at the Royal Academy of Music as Tutor in Conducting, where he directs and teaches the entire Undergraduate and Postgraduate elective provision. At Sherborne Summer School of Music, he is Director of the Chamber Orchestra course, and also teaches on the prestigious George Hurst Conductors’ Course. He established the George Hurst Foundation in 2020, and co-founded the highly-esteemed Girton Conductors' Course in 2021.
For more information, please visit https://www.harrisonparrott.com/artists/dominic-grier
Denise Ham, HonARAM, ARCM, GTCL, LTCL has an international reputation as a teacher of conducting. She taught conducting at the Royal Academy of Music from 1986-2009 and in 2006 established the Conducting Course at Blackheath Conservatoire, London. In 2016 she became Director of London Conducting Academy. For many years she has been on the staff of the George Hurst Conductors’ Course at Sherborne (formerly Canford) Summer School of Music.
She has held principal conductorships with the the Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra, Worcestershire Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Conservatoire Junior School, Aberdeenshire Youth Orchestra and currently the Bournemouth Rehearsal Orchestra. From 1987-2007 she was an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.
Denise’s instructional DVD, “The Craft of Conducting”, has a worldwide market, with many conductors testifying to its effectiveness in their work and study.