Margaret has been conducting all her professional life. The challenge of conducting is being the bridge between the composer and the musicians. The conductor has the opportunity to create something new each time a work is explored.
Serious interest in conducting started at university, prompted by the curriculum's strong focus on the techniques of conducting. Establishing string programs in schools and running community music programs inspired Margaret to further her study in conducting. She has taken part in an AUSTA conducting workshop in 1997, the Conductors Workshop of America three times working with William Larue Jones at the University of Iowa and a team of international conductors. Margaret has also attended the International Workshop in Orchestra Conducting in Brisbane in 2001, as well as being an auditor in the Symphony Australia Conducting Workshops in 2002 and 2003.  Musician development It is the quality of the repertoire that attracts players and audiences. Under Margaret's baton, musicians are not able to rest too easily as she demands attention. Exposing orchestras to new composers and different styles stretches their technical and interpretative skills. It gives Margaret huge pleasure to conduct musicians new to orchestral playing and watch how their confidence, skills and enthusiasm grow. She also enjoys conducting musicians who are highly skilled, bringing them together as a unified musical force to interpret the repertoire at hand.
|  Conducting Repertoire As an experienced orchestral conductor Margaret has enjoyed working with a variety of orchestras in Australia and the USA preparing the symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Mozart and Haydn and works of Berlioz and Stravinsky. Over the years, Margaret has conducted a vast range of music for string ensembles. Choral conducting includes musicals and a range of choral repertoire. Orchestras Margaret has conducted orchestras in the USA and Australia. In recent years she has been conducting the Launceston Youth & Community Orchestra and the Melaleuca Orchestra at the Residential Summer String Camp every January. Other community orchestras Margaret has conducted include the Cradle Coast Orchestra in Burnie, Tasmania, as guest conductor at the Upper Hunter Conservatorium of Music, NSW and Strings in the Wild in Melbourne. |
