Ilya Alexandrovich Musin: pedagogue, conductor, and author.

Abstract

For sixty-seven years, beginning in 1932 and ending with his death in 1999, llya Alexandrovich Musin trained orchestral conductors at the Leningrad (later St. Petersburg) Conservatory in the techniques which have since come to be known as the Leningrad School of Orchestral Conducting. Due to matters both political and ethnic in nature, Musin failed in securing a podium of his own. As a result, he turned to the classroom, educating generations of conductors in a method of non-verbal communication which finds its roots in the commonplace gestures of everyday life. Musin committed his entire life to these methods, which he not only taught, but also included in his writings, four volumes of which have been published to date. Over the course of his lengthy career, Musin is thought to have taught over onehundred- sixty conductors, roughly ninety of which would go on to become professional conductors and teachers of conducting. From Musin's studio have come conductors whose careers are visible and important, including Yuri Temirkanov, Valery Gergiev, Semyon Bychkov, Martyn Brabbins, Sian Edwards, Oleg Proskurnya, Leonid Korchmar, and Alexander Polishchuk, to name a few. The purpose of this study is to document the musical and educational beliefs, activities, and theories of Russian conducting pedagogue llya Alexandrovich Musin, to examine his roles as pedagogue, conductor, and author, to apply his ideas to the preparation of teacher/conductors and to provide possible solutions for solving problems within the current system of conductor/teacher preparation. The importance of this study lies in its potential for use in the field of music education, particularly for conductor education and music teacher education. It is expected that this research will be valuable to the academic community in tracing the pedagogical style and methods of an educator whose career was both long and fruitful, and whose methods may be effective in solving issues in the arena of teacher/conductor preparation.