Although I had studied conducting at the Conservatory in Moscow and the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen, as well as taking postgraduate conducting courses at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, and conducting courses in England and Sweden, I always had the feeling that there was something missing in the traditional method of conducting.

That changed radically when I became a student of the legendary Professor Ilya Musin in his orchestra conducting class at the Saint Petersburg State Conservatory in Russia. There I learned how conducting gestures can also reflect such elements of music as the rhythmical structure, nuances, character and form, in addition to obvious elements such as tempo and dynamics.

I hope you can see what I mean in the conducting excerpts on this page.

Esther Bobrova