Ingrid Martin

March 30th, 2022 by AUSTA Conference

Ingrid Martin

Session 1: Teach a Kid to Fish: Train students to practice effectively, solve their own problems and LOVE doing it

Session 2: The Successful Mixed-Ability Ensemble Rehearsal

Session 3: Purpose and Passion: Leading thriving community ensembles in a post-COVID world

Session 1 (Teach a Kid to Fish): You’re standing with your student, pointing out the same dynamics, bowings and fingerings as last lesson, and the week before, and the week before that. They say they practiced, and you believe them. So why don’t they get better? So much of our music education trains us to be dependent upon an all-knowing teacher who tells us what’s right, what’s wrong…and sometimes even how to fix it. Students are left helpless to even identify problems, let alone solve them during their own practice. It doesn’t have to be this way! In this session you’ll learn clear, actionable strategies you can apply in your next lesson so your students can independently:

  • Identify and solve musical problems
  • Evaluate their progress
  • Change their relationship with failure
  • Take more musical risks
  • Become more expressive in their playing

Download Notes (Teach a Kid to Fish)

Session 2 (The Successful Mixed-Ability Ensemble Rehearsal): Do you take a school or community ensemble with a range of abilities? Do you find it challenging to keep everyone engaged, while ensuring the music actually sounds good? In this interactive workshop you’ll learn practical approaches and techniques to create valuable learning in every rehearsal for musicians of all abilities. By the end of the workshop you will be able to:

  • Teach repertoire using concepts that allow for multiple levels of engagement
  •  Use strategies to maintaining group participation when focussing on a single section or player
  • Empower players to help each other learn, drawing on their own expertise and knowledge.

Download Notes (Successful Mixed-Ability Ensemble Rehearsal)

Session 3 (Purpose and Passion: Leading thriving community ensembles in a post-COVID world): Now, more than ever, community ensembles are faced with challenging questions: –

  • What is our purpose?
  • Who do we serve?
  • How do we build and maintain financial stability?
  •  Why do we get so few people to our concerts (and does it matter)?
  •  Why do we have trouble recruiting new players?
  • How do we create sustainable, healthy volunteer committees?
  • How do we leverage the energy of our members without burning them out?

Our panel of conductors, committee members and performers will interrogate difficult questions, and pose possible solutions for strengthening and growing this important part of our Australian musical landscape. Bring your burning, most challenging questions for an open Q&A. Panel: Ingrid Martin (Conductor), Susan Eldridge (former President, Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra), other panellists TBC (committee members, players).

Ingrid Martin transforms lives through music.

Her life-long mission: to make classical music relevant, interesting and engaging for everyone.

Insatiably curious, Ingrid constantly asks “Who is it for? Why are we doing this? How could it be
better?”

Her answer usually involves challenging norms and ditching long-held traditions to create meaningful
experiences for audiences.

Ingrid’s projects forge unlikely connections between music, place and other disciplines – whether it’s an orchestra playing Ravel in a pub, or chamber winds playing Kurt Weill amongst modern art.

On the podium, she empowers musicians to uncover and share their unique artistic voices. The result? Deeply human performances that unite musicians and audiences.

2022 sees Ingrid make her debut with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and continue as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Crosswinds Ensemble, Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra and Bayside Chamber Orchestra.

Ingrid shares her unique approach to musical leadership through Conducting Artistry, her online learning platform for conductor development.