Aleta King

Baton has big impact

Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Brenton Stacey
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Brenton Stacey

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Brenton is Avondale University’s Public Relations and Philanthropy Officer. He brings to the role experience as a communicator in publishing, media relations, public relations, radio and television, mostly within the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific and its entities.

Doctoral research shows significant role of conductor as mentor

Maestro! A conductor can greatly enhance teaching and learning for students who enrol in aligned musicianship and ensemble programs, an Avondale lecturer’s doctoral research shows.

Aleta King studied the conductor’s role as musicianship mentor through the rehearsals and performance of three recitals for choir and orchestra. She divided research for her Doctor of Musical Arts (Conducting) into three stages, one for each recital.

In the first, questionnaire and focus group data from 12 students participating in Bach’s Cantata BWV 182 showed the significance of the conductor as a mentor. A key component: the conductor’s ability to develop the musicianship elements of inner hearing, musical memory, sight-singing, intervals and solfège (the language musicians use to think in sound), with the latter as foundational to the other four. The students would later identify solfège and sight-singing as most useful in the future. The relationship between mentor and mentee became clear in this stage. “The more trust the students had in me, the more responsive they were in the performance,” says Aleta.

In the second, Fauré’s Requiem, Aleta used a reflective journal to analyse her ability to self-mentor. “The way I prepare myself is the same as the way I teach my students to prepare themselves.”

In the third, Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace, four of the original 12 students analysed their ability to self-mentor. They not only reported having the skills to do so but over the two years between the first and third recitals became early-career mentors to others. “And that’s the whole point,” says Aleta. “We mentor students until they can take the role on themselves.” Using the conductor as musicianship mentor model to demonstrate best practice “has a legacy attached to it,” she adds. “It’s so rewarding because I feel more fulfilled in my role as director of the conservatorium here.”

The mix of practical and theoretical in the thesis suited Aleta. “I’m a musician, so I didn’t just want to think but do, too.”

Reflecting on the length of the journey—six years from beginning to end—Aleta paraphrases author Charles Dickens. “It’s been the best of times and the worst of times, but I now feel I’ve been recalled to real life.”

While having completed the degree, Aleta is waiting on conferral from The University of Sydney—COVID restrictions may delay graduation.

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