Episode 06 - Tania Miller

Staccato

Canadian Conductor Tania Miller guides us through a fascinating journey into the art of conducting. She discusses what’s it like for a conductor starting off when there’s no place to hide and learn what you’re doing except in front of an audience and if an orchestra can be a monster for a young conductor. Tania explains why she’s so passionate about classical music, how she brings out the best in an orchestra and what’s required to communicate with all the musicians in front of her so that her vision of the music is performed as she imagines it. She describes what she looks for when she’s recruiting talent and how the audition process for orchestra applicants is highly challenging – how in the bigger orchestras, there are so many people auditioning…sometimes a hundred applicants so, “you have to have something that really stands out then in order to be succeed.” Tania expresses her conviction about the importance of a music education in people’s lives – how “there’s opportunity to be creative and to soar as a human being through the experience of music.” And she also shares how “I have personally seen as a teacher, the impact that music, school music programs, for instance, have on children, that perhaps have been struggling with self-esteem – suddenly through music they feel that they are special, and they have something to say and they’re part of a team they can feel proud of.” And we’ll hear a dramatic orchestral excerpt conducted by Tania Miller! Sync your metronomes for this one!