"Some personalities don't go together but you have to try to transcend that," he says. "You have to just sit at the piano and do it, with everyone watching and expecting to see some semblance of what it is going to be like on stage. You have to deliver something for the singers so everyone is excited and ready to go."An observation on how repetiteurs can use their work as a springboard to the podium:
"If you want to be a conductor, being a repetiteur is a tried and true way to learn," he says. "So many of the conductors grew up learning the repertoire from that side, then made the logical progress to conducting."
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Your article brought back a memory for me. When I was in 8th grade, my mom was asked to act as repetiteur for our local community theater's Gilbert and Sullivan rehearsals. She brought me along to be her page-turner. Sitting next to her, I learned all the parts to the musical. Even though when I had auditioned to be in the chorus I had been rejected for being too young, when the director saw me singing the parts alongside my mother on the piano bench, he came over to me and offered me a part in the chorus. Being a page-turner for my mother definitely was an entry level position for me!
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