After a welcome from National President Jemima Bunn, Conference convenor and ABODAQ President welcomed delegates. 105 delegates have enrolled 9 from Victoria – yay!

Each of the special guest clinicians gave a mini keynote describing what inspired them in their music career. It is worth reading these wise words and keeping them in mind.

Craig Kirchhoff (Minnesota USA)

Craig showed a boy who was three years old conducting Beethoven Symphony in a YouTube clip. Clip here. “The boy understood the music”.

This lead to Craig stating:

“I believe

• every student regardless of age has the capacity to be deeply moved by music
• they need us to move them from a love of being in a band to the love of music
• they need to experience the best possible music that is available to us.”

To support these statements, he read out concert reviews of concert performances experienced by Grade 5 and 6 students. They were moving and enlightening in how they illustrated their rapture.

Joanne Erwin (Ohio USA)

Gave a shorter address. She reflected on the students we meet and have helped. She encouraged us all to say thank you to those who have helped you. Thirdly she shared Conductors Calisthenics from Elizabeth Green. They were warmups which put conductors in contact with the vertical and horiztonal planes in front of us upon which we place our gestures.

Richard Miles (Kentucky USA)

He gave a long story about school bands. He organised his high school band using the “organised captivity centre” called Study Hall. He looked for students who were bored with Study Hall and invited them to band instead. He formed a band of 110.

“We take what we have and we deliver what we can.”

“If we deliver content we must do it with conviction.”

“The speed of the leader is the speed of the gang.” – Mark Twain.

Roland Yeung.

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