Apprentice Conductor

The Ripieno Choir is proud to support an apprentice conductor position, created to provide choral conducting experience and training to a young musician for whom this is an important area of interest. This novel initiative attracted coverage in Making Music’s High Notes magazine. You can read the article here

What is the Apprentice Conductor position?

The Apprentice Conductor will receive regular tuition in choral conducting from our music director, Patrick Allies, free of charge, all whilst singing with the choir in our weekly rehearsals. As their skills and confidence grow over the year, the Apprentice Conductor will take on some conducting responsibilities within rehearsals, and will have the opportunity to conduct in our concerts. For further information about our repertoire, please go to the next concert and season programme pages of this website.

Who is it for?

The position is designed for a sixth form music student who aspires to conduct choirs as part of a musical career, perhaps as an organ scholar. Students should appreciate that conducting, like any other branch of musical performance, requires study and practice, and is prepared to commit it over the long term. This is not a ‘quick fix’ to someone a month before they have a university music award audition, for example.

The apprentice conductor will currently be in school year 11 or 12 and will begin their work with the choir during school years 12 or 13 (lower or upper sixth form). The ideal candidate will probably, but not necessarily:

• be studying, or intending to study, music to A Level
• be intending to read music at university, perhaps as a Choral or Organ Scholar
• be a confident sight singer (even if singing is not their main ‘instrument’ – vocal quality is not the issue)
• have achieved at least a merit at grade eight in their principal instrument
• expect to sing in the choir
• if a fluent keyboard player, occasionally accompany the choir (although much of our rehearsal is actually unaccompanied, whatever the repertoire).

What is the commitment?

The Ripieno Choir rehearses near Thames Ditton on Sunday evenings from 19:45 to 21:45 during term time. Tuition for the apprentice conductor will normally take place before rehearsals, as agreed between them and our Muscial Director.

In addition, the Ripieno Choir has a history of offering short-term membership (usually for one or two years) to young singers who might be preparing for university choral scholarship auditions. Such singers typically rehearse and perform with the choir in their sixth form or gap years.