Stephan Smoktunowicz (England)

"The late great French cellist, Paul Tortelier, once said in a masterclass that to be a musician is ten things: a singer, a dancer, a poet, a thinker, an architect, a sculptor, a story teller, a painter, a missionary and a sportsman. To bring a musical performance alive, a conductor must be all of these and more - but where do you begin? 

 

For me, it was seeing a You Tube video of Maestro Ennio Nicotra teaching the slow movement of Tchaikovsky’s fifth symphony. Everything was so clear and musical and I immediately thought, I’d love to have a lesson with this man! In 2014, speaking no Italian and without any real conducting experience, I set out on a trip from England to Zagarolo, a small hilltop town with a fascinating toy museum, 30 minutes from Italy’s capital, Rome, where I met Maestro Ennio Nicotra for the first time.

 

After the first 5 minutes of my first lesson, I quickly realised what a useless conductor I was and just how much I had ahead of me to learn, but over an espresso the next morning, Maestro Nicotra in his typically relaxed style said to me "As a young French horn player, did you learn how to play a Mozart concerto straightaway? No of course not. And it's the same with conducting, so don’t worry, it’s a long journey!” I’ve remained a student ever since.

For anyone who is thinking of becoming a conductor, I can’t recommend studying with Maestro Nicotra enough. You will immediately feel welcomed and there is a really supportive environment from everyone in the class. Not only will his lessons equip you with the essential foundations of how to gain an excellent conducting technique, approach musical and compositional analysis and develop your listening skills, but they will also help you to develop your communication and expressive skills, so that you can help an orchestra to bring out the story and drama of every piece and the composer’s imagination and intention, no matter what genre. With students from all over the world, you will also make great friends and get to eat some wonderful food too!

During my career as a professional French horn player, it was always very frustrating to work with conductors who spent most of the rehearsal stopping to talk and trying to describe what they wanted, but who then did something completely different with their gestures and then blamed the musicians for getting it wrong when the music wasn’t together! Not only does that create a difficult working environment, but it also affects the confidence of the musicians, creating fear and anxiety, from which a good performance can never result.

In a performance, musicians play what they see and by gently encouraging you to also focus on how the musicians experience your conducting, Maestro Nicotra helps you to build the all-round awareness that you need in order to develop your communication skills and to show the musicians what you actually want through your gestures, rather than becoming wooden and leaving your musical intentions ‘physically-stuck’ inside you.

What is fantastic about studying with Maestro Nicotra is his connection to St. Petersburg and the rich heritage of the Ilya Musin school of conducting and the ‘Musin Method'. For me, there is no better conducting system or school in the world and to hear first hand, Maestro Nicotra’s own experiences of studying with Maestro Musin in St. Petersburg and the stories that Maestro Musin told his class enrich the whole learning experience. Understanding how conductors in St. Petersburg would often be called in to do a concert without a rehearsal at very short notice, makes you appreciate how important it is for conductors to not only be clear, but in order to take a performance to a higher level, they must also to have a full artistic palette of expressive colours at their fingertips with which to mould and paint the orchestra’s sound (particularly in a modern world where time is money for orchestras and rehearsal time is therefore, often scarce).

For me personally, one of the best things about learning with Maestro Nicotra is that you can fit your studies around your job or other studies, because the class meets one weekend per month for eight months of the year. Alternatively, there are several short courses throughout the year which give students who might be new to conducting, the opportunity to try out some lessons. Unlike many formal conducting courses, there are no exams and each student develops at their own natural pace, which removes the fear of learning that you sometimes experience in music conservatoires.

After 7 years working as a professional French horn player, I had to retire because of a repetitive strain injury in my lip muscle. Having re-trained into law, I never thought that I would ever stand on a stage and perform again and I missed the music scene enormously. However, thanks to Maestro Nicotra, I’ve met some amazing musicians, visited new places and conducted orchestras from Italy, Russia, Romania and the UK. More importantly, I’ve made friends for life and studying with such an inspirational teacher and mentor has re-ignited my love and passion for music and allowed me to embark on a new musical journey. For any aspiring conductor, there really is no better person to learn from."

 

Stephan Smoktunowicz former french horn London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic