Conductor Nicholas McGegan stands in at a Philadelphia Orchestra master class to instruct Baroque performance style.

The Best Intimate Concerts: Master Classes

Everyone knows how to get to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice… Thing is, sometimes some of that practice actually happens at famous concert halls, not just en route. And that practicing can be as thrilling to watch as more polished performances, especially when some of the world's most renowned musicians are helping up-and-coming superstars hone their chops. This is what happens in master classes across the country. They're where the best come to learn from those who are even better.

A young musician learns from Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster David Kim at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

Audiences at master classes will watch everyone from child prodigies to world-renowned soloists discover the intricacies of a sonata.

The audience at master classes will watch everyone from child prodigies to world-renowned soloists discover the intricacies of a sonata; you'll have the opportunity as a mere mortal to watch, or, in some cases even join, these musical superstars. One of the most famous master classes took place 1971, when Maria Callas came to instruct students at the Juilliard school in New York City; it was such a momentous moment in musical history that, several decades later, the event was memorialized in a Broadway play.

The Joan and Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall has a stage that not many visitors to the Big Apple (or even that many New Yorkers) have seen. The auditorium on the third floor of Carnegie Hall seats only 268 people and is home to one of the most unique concert series in the nation. The Weill Music Institute offers Professional Musical Training Workshops given by cellist luminaries and Latin jazz impresarios. Think you already know all you need to know? Sorry to break it to you, but there's usually someone out there who knows more. Or are you the type that can't tell a C-sharp from a C-note? Auditing these classes allows for a rare opportunity to see how great music is actually made and maybe even to learn a thing or two.

At the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, PA, genuine masters of their craft offer up trade secrets for less than the price of a movie. Philadelphia Orchestra players and guest soloists regularly hold court on everything from proper practice technique to artistic interpretation of the classics during these master classes. Ever wanted the chance to talk shop with the first chair in this city's famous orchestra? Or learn the piano from EMI recording artist Lars Vogt and violin from Julia Fischer? At these master classes, you can.

On the west coast, it's the teachers who are the students, in the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Music Education Laboratory, where Los Angeles classroom teachers and teaching artists receive instruction from members of the philharmonic. But all eyes aren't just on the musicians at master classes - conductors can also take center stage. In some classes around the country you can learn conducting from, well. . . a master. World class conductors have been known to teach others how to prepare and conduct performances. If you don't possess the touch of a maestro, don't sweat it - you are still welcome to watch the classes. It's a golden opportunity to see tomorrow's best conductors today . . . and maybe even learn a thing or two, to boot.

Posted on August 28, 2006