Wind Ensemble Conducting

Master of Music in Performance

The master's degree program in wind ensemble conducting can be studied on the basis of a bachelor's or diploma degree. Or also by musicians who have already spent some time in professional life.

The focus is on an individual curriculum: students can expand their previous professional qualifications to include the segment of leading and conducting a wind orchestra (non-professional or professional) and thus improve their professional opportunities.

Components of the program include the teaching of basic skills on a second and third instrument (woodwind, brass, percussion) as well as seminars on the topics of work analysis, arrangement, composition and instrumentation.

The major (80 ECTS) includes combined individual and group instruction in wind band conducting. In addition, the practice of rehearsal work with one's own ensemble, or selected wind orchestras from the region, is studied in a wind orchestra internship. The NBMB, as an association of music clubs in Franconia and the Upper Palatinate, was happy to cooperate with the university in this area, because only through close cooperation between the university and the association is it possible to directly implement the needs of the scene.

In addition, a Minor Ensemble (40 ECTS) is studied, which includes making music in the various ensembles of the university. These include the university orchestra, the ensemble for new music, the brass ensemble and other ad-hoc ensembles, as well as the university's wind philharmonic orchestra, which performs a large orchestral project every year. In addition to students of the university, experienced and motivated musicians from the orchestras of the NBMB (Nordbayerisches Jugendblasorchester) and the surrounding music clubs play in this ensemble, which comprises the instrumentation of a large symphonic wind orchestra. In the meantime, a second project of the wind philharmonic orchestra of the university has been carried out.

The four-semester course of study begins only in the winter semester and includes as examination achievements one teaching rehearsal after each of the second and fourth semesters as well as the master's project (concert with a wind orchestra) at the end of the course.

Prof. Ernst Oestreicher

Conducting (wind ensemble conducting)