Conducting training with maestro Robert Houlihan

I spent last weekend on the lovely UL campus honing my conducting skills with international conductor Bobby Houlihan. The campus looks really splendid at this time of year and it was a pleasure to inhabit the futuristic Irish Chamber Orchestra building for a few days . The architecture of the various buildings looks quite adventurous even if the gold wall of the Taj Micheál looks a tad ott. There was lots going on on campus with the Irish Youth Choir, the Blas Summer School and NYOI Camerata all active on campus
The course was run by the Irish Association of Youth Orchestras and the participants came from all parts of the country and were at varying levels committment and ability. Bobby Houlihan did a good job adapting his approach to the different levels. A quartet was engaged and we augmented the ensemble on our own instruments, which I enjoyed very much as I do not so much regular orchestral playing these days. Particularly hard wrorking was pianist Rhoda Dullea

So what did I learn. Too much flicking. Try to reduce the frame as you increase speed . Think of transferring the beat. We learned basic patterns for subdividing beat , very useful.