Explore a career in Choral, Orchestral, or Wind Conducting

Our conducting area offers a variety of resources to develop your skills as a conductor, both on and off the podium. Weekly individual lessons, practice with the recently created Instrumental Conducting Lab Ensemble, and a studio class–to discuss, share, and collectively approach not only music and scores, but all of the many aspects around conducting–are at the core of our program.

Choral Conducting

• Contact: Professor Mariana Farah
• Choral auditions for Fall 2024 will be held in person on the UW-Madison campus on Tuesday, February 6, & Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Candidates will be eligible for TA and Fellowship funding throughout the School of Music.
• Please see the Graduate Admissions page for detailed information on application requirements. Be sure to review the Graduate Application Guide as well as the additional information for the Conducting area.

The graduate choral conducting program prepares students for the challenges of professional life in conducting, which includes academic teaching at the college level or public schools, in major church or community jobs, or working with professional ensembles and orchestras. This select graduate choral conducting program gives individual attention to each student with private conducting lessons, small conducting seminars, intensive choral literature seminars, and a large amount of podium time.

Graduate students sing in one or more ensembles, co-conduct the Lab Choir, and assist with Concert Choir, and Advanced Treble Choir, as needed. There are additional opportunities in Madison for church jobs and community choruses. The program has two dedicated Teaching Assistantships and one dedicated Fellowship, which are offered in rotation.

Orchestral Conducting

• Contact: Professor Oriol Sans
• Auditions for Fall 2024 will be held in person on the UW-Madison campus on Tuesday, February 6, 2024.
Candidates will be eligible for TA and Fellowship funding throughout the School of Music.
• Please see the Graduate Admissions page for detailed information on application requirements. Be sure to review the Graduate Application Guide as well as the additional information for the Conducting area.

The graduate orchestral conducting program offers students a variety of resources to develop their skills as conductors, both on and off the podium. Weekly individual lessons, practice with the recently created Instrumental Conducting Lab Ensemble, and a studio class – to discuss, share, and collectively approach not only music and scores but all of the many aspects around conducting – are at the core of this program. All graduate students in orchestral conducting also serve as assistant conductors with the UW Symphony Orchestra and with the opera productions, and Doctoral students have the opportunity to conduct the student ensembles in performance. The program has one dedicated Teaching Assistantship, which is offered in rotation.

Wind Conducting

• Contact: Professor Scott Teeple
• Auditions for Fall 2024 will be held in person on the UW-Madison campus on Monday, February 5, 2024.
• Multiple Teaching Assistant positions in the Band area will be available.
• Must have minimum 3 years of teaching experience or equivalent
• Please see the Graduate Admissions page for detailed information on application requirements. Be sure to review the Graduate Application Guide as well as the additional information for the Conducting area.

The graduate wind-band conducting program offers students a variety of resources to develop their skills as conductors. The curriculum offers weekly individual lessons, seminars, and conducting laboratory lessons by conducting the Instrumental Conducting Lab Ensemble.

All wind-band graduate conducting students serve as assistant conductors within the band program. Graduate students rotate as guest conductors with the UW Wind Ensemble, the UW Concert Band, function as the primary conductor for one of the University (non-major) Bands, serve as staff for the UW–Madison Athletic Band program, and may assist with the undergraduate conducting classes.