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“In order to achieve artistic performances, the performers must understand the details of the score that determine their role in the overall scope of the work.”

Gordon Lamb

Former Interim President of the University of Missouri

Source: cnx.org

“Lesson learned, score studied, performance humiliation averted.”

Charles Noble

Assistant Principal Violist of the Oregon Symphony

Source: www.nobleviola.com

“He (Mstislav Rostropovich) came to college and gave a master class. And boy, he took no prisoners. He immediately zeroed in on my weaknesses and proved to me that I didn’t know what was happening in the score even though I was trying to wiggle out of admitting it, and basically it’s one of those things where someone comes into your life and tells you the things that other people have been telling you but because it’s that person it makes you pay attention much more.”

Yo-Yo Ma

Grammy Award-winning Cellist

Source: “Yo Yo Ma Reflects on Rostropovich.” All Things Considered, National Public Radio, 27 Apr. 2007.

“Some music departments allow you to study music without being able to play an instrument and without knowing harmony and counterpoint. I’m appalled by this . . . The best players are actually the best intellectually.”

Curtis Price

Principal of the Royal Academy of Music from 1995 to 2008

Source: Alberge, Dalya. “‘We need to compete with the world’s best’ – Curtis Price of the Royal Academy of Music.” The Times, 4 Aug. 1995. Print.

“Doyle is constantly studying scores and going to concerts. He does not sense that the students, let alone most composers, are doing the same . . . That attitude is taking its toll on standards, he said: ‘If they are not going to the theatre and not watching actors, how can they bring anything to the table?’”

The Times

National newspaper published in London, England

Source: Alberge, Dalya. “Rivals recycle scores, says star composer.” The Times, 16 Aug. 2005: 24. Print.

“Great composers knew what they wanted. The interpreter must have the means at his disposal to grasp the composers’ intentions. Music must be read with knowledge and imagination – without necessarily believing every note and word that is printed.”

Erich Leinsdorf

Grammy Award-winning Conductor

Source: Leinsdorf, Erich. The Composer’s Advocate: A Radical Orthodoxy for Musicians. New Haven: Yale UP, 1981. viii. Print.

“My fascination with the score lies with all its aspects, not just nice tunes or loud spots. It (consists of) thousands and thousands of details. The details make no sense unless coordinated into the whole, which is more important than the sum of the parts.”

Herbert Blomstedt

Conductor Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony

Source: Hertelendy, Paul . “A Conversation With Blomstedt.” San Jose Mercury News, 8 Jun. 1986: 18. Print.

“Schwarz had always studied the whole orchestral score – not just his trumpet part – to get the whole picture.”

The Seattle Times

Newspaper published in Seattle, Washington, United States

Source: Bargreen, Melinda. “A Life In Tune – Gerard Schwarz Orchestrates A Life That Blends Family, Fund Raising And Mozart.” The Seattle Times, 2 Nov. 1997: 14. Print.

“If I’m familiar with a piece, I may already have an idea of what I want to do with it, but first I have to learn all the notes. Then, I do a harmonic analysis of the piece, then I do a melodic analysis, then I do a structural analysis of the piece, and stroke analysis – the bow strokes. This is something Miss DeLay is very big on – and extraordinarily right about. I have yet to meet anyone (else) who taught me so much about the importance of knowing the entire work, and of also learning the score and analyzing the orchestra parts.”

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg

Avery Fisher Prize Winning Violinist

Source: O’Reilly, David. “A Young Violinist Soars Toward The Top.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 10 Nov. 1984: C01. Print.

“You cannot only be the servant of the music. You must also be its master. You have to put a lot of yourself into it, intertwine yourself with the composer.”

Byron Janis

Internationally Renowned Pianist

Source: Wilson, Frank. “A Piano Virtuoso’s Latest Are Very Late.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 5 Jan. 1995: E01. Print.

“Violinists today will play three or four sonatas. No virtuoso pieces at all. And they’ll use a music stand — they don’t even know the scores. The music should be a part of your brain.”

Aaron Rosand

Professor of Violin at The Curtis Institute and The Mannes College of Music

Source: “Aaron Rosand: In The Grand Tradition – Learning From Masters – An Appetite For Variety – Left To His Own Devices.” Sun-Sentinel, 15 Oct. 1989: 1F.

“Moyse, who chaired Marlboro’s music department from 1949 to 1981, committed the score of each cantata and master work to memory during her lifetime. ‘This obliges you to get so much detail in your head that you’re much more aware of everything inside,’ Moyse said in a 1997 Recorder interview. ‘It’s like you have a better microscope every time.’”

The Recorder

Newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, United States

Source: “Following her death last February at age 101, legendary Bach choral interpreter Blanche Honeggar Moyse was quoted reflecting on her long musical career in a New York Times obituary.” The Recorder , 29 Sep. 2011: Arts & Entertainment.

“Never was the precision of the musicians questionable. This was virtuoso playing and artistry of the highest order, derived from intimate knowledge of both score and style.”

The Courier Mail

Newspaper published in Brisbane, Australia

Source: Hebden, B. “Aust Orchestra Scores US Success.” Courier-Mail, 3 Apr. 1993. Print.

“What did I learn? How to look at a score; that is where the instructions are. The importance of musical and emotional architecture. And color. I didn’t have much color in my voice then. I learned to be more expressive.”

Cyndia Sieden

Acclaimed Soprano

Source: Campbell, R.M. “Being Prepared Served Soprano Well In Met Debut.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 8 Jun. 2001: 12. Print.

“As a violin player he (Guy Braunstein) is something else. He has the secrets of violin playing and score reading.”

Anu Tali

Music Director of the Sarasota Orchestra

Source: Rife, Susan. “Brahms, Dvorak, Copland on Masterworks program.” Sarasota Herald Tribune, 6 Mar. 2016: 4. Print.

“I practice from four to eight or nine hours a day. This is very strenuous for the hand. Sometimes I practice for three hours and then practice with the orchestra. I study scores while riding my exercise bike.”

Elizabeth Pitcairn

Acclaimed Violinist President and Artistic Director of the Luzerne Music Center

Source: Orlemann, Betty. “Budding Musician Liked Fit Of A Fiddle.” The Morning Call, 14 Sep. 2000: N03. Print.

“All I did was study scores. I wanted to know everything there was to know about Western music – and I’ve been an addict ever since.”

Daniel Gaisford

Acclaimed Cellist

Source: Noble Jr., Clifton J. “Cellist Gaisford, SSO present Bartok, Dvorak.” Sunday Republican, 4 Feb. 1996: D1. Print.

“For me today, to ‘study the score’ is maybe to read letters of composer or to look at symphony of Shostakovich, which I conducted many times, or maybe to listen to my own radio, let’s say broadcast tapes of 1991 and to simply question, ‘What was wrong with this young conductor?’”

Valery Gergiev

Artistic Director of the Mariinsky Theatre

Source: Turnevicius, Leonard. “Conducting with charisma.” The Hamilton Spectator, 16 Sep. 2005: G12. Print.

“Because Michael has conducted only two of the four ‘Ring’ operas, he is devoting every spare moment to study; he figures it will take at least 400 hours of preparation to master the scores.”

The Seattle Times

Newspaper published in Seattle, Washington, United States

Source: Bargreen, Melinda. “Conductor Tosses His Hat Into The ‘Ring’.” The Seattle Times, 5 Dec. 1986: 29. Print.

“With such a monumental work (Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5) that is so familiar and that has been led by so many great conductors, I thought, ‘What can I have to say about it?’ Then, I thought, ‘I don’t have to have anything to say. Study the score thoroughly and let the music speak for itself.”

Kate Tamarkin

Music Director of the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia

Source: Dierks, Donald. “Don’t Ms. around with This Conductor.” The San Diego Union , 26 Jun. 1990: D-6. Print.

“First, we learn our own parts, separately. We study the score, then ‘woodshed’ it on our own, in our own practice rooms. Then we get together.”

Sharon Robinson

Professor of Cello at the Cleveland Institute of Music

Source: Hudson, Jeff. “Ensemble visits UCD – Concert will premiere new double concerto.” The Davis Enterprise, 11 Feb. 2008.

“What I try to do, before thinking how to make the sound, is re-study the score. Every time, I discover new elements, which I couldn’t see before – say a note in the bassoon line, or a harmonic modulation. If I put the emphasis on it – the spotlight, say – it completely changes everything I did before.”

Gianandrea Noseda

Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra

Source: Ashley, Tim. “‘I am not a creator. I just deliver the message’: Conductor Gianandrea Noseda has a reputation for forcing audiences to question their musical beliefs.” The Guardian – Final Edition, 21 September 2007: 17. Print.

“I also really try to learn my words with the orchestra score so that I know which instrument is playing when I sing. Sometimes the voice has to melt into the orchestra, sometimes it has to go through like a trumpet.”

Petra Lang

Grammy Award-winning Soprano

Source: Kishinami, Yukiko. “Happy twist of fate led Lang to opera.” The Daily Yomiuri, 24 October 2002: 9. Print.

“Charlie Parker used to carry around Stravinsky scores. He used to get solo ideas from the ‘Firebird Suite.’”

Kevin Sims

Percussion Instructor at The Music Academy in State College, PA

Source: Rosenblum, Chris. “He’s Got The Beat.” Centre Daily Times, 3 Dec. 2000: 1C. Print.

“We have to know more than strings, but the whole orchestra . . . The real responsibility is that the concertmaster has to know exactly what the conductor wants. He communicates in the best way he knows how – and the variety is fantastic. If I don’t pick up exactly what he’s saying, this lack of communication goes through the whole section, through the other members of the orchestra, and finally the whole piece of music itself.”

Barry Wilde

Former concertmaster of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra

Source: Rolnick, Harry. “I can tell you that every orchestra has their problems. All musicians know about them.” South China Morning Post, 11 Sep. 1993: 04. Print.

“You try to study the composer in depth, then each of the composer’s works, to find out what’s in character for this composer: equally, what’s not. All of this means that when you are suddenly thrown a score you should be able to say after the first four or five bars, ‘ah, that’s so-and-so’. It’s knowing a composer the way you would recognise an author.”

Proinnsías Ó Duinn

Principal Conductor of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra from 1978 to 2003

Source: Battersby, Eileen. “In the driving seat Confined to bed at length, aged 10, with a piano, a score and some recordings for company, Prionnsias O Duinn became convinced he wanted only to conduct.” The Irish Times, 22 Oct. 1998: 15. Print.

“He (Pierre Boulez) always said that the form and the expression of most Western art music come from the harmony. If you don’t know the harmony well, you cannot understand, let alone convey, the sense of the form to anybody. On a practical level it means you have to go through every chord when you go through a score . . . There are no shortcuts. You have to learn what the principles of the harmony are, and then you can plan your so-called interpretation.”

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra

Source: Woolfe, Zachary. “Sharing an ‘Infinite Respect’.” The New York Times. 22 Mar. 2015: 18. Print.

“If you were to play or sight-read a simple song of Brahms, wouldn’t it help to know what else he wrote? Listen to his symphonies, the violin concerto, the little pieces, etc. When you read the notation and directions in the score, you’ll then have something to compare it all to. It gives you context. Works for orchestra, concertos, and symphonies also teach you a thing or two about orchestration. You can then bring this knowledge back to your Brahms song. But you can’t do it if you don’t know a thing or two about his other works. I always tell my students that you are the sum of everything that you’ve ever heard.”

Martin Katz

Chair of the Collaborative Piano program at the University of Michigan

Source: Ho, Elijah. “Interview with pianist Martin Katz.” San Francisco Examiner, 13 Jul. 2013.

“There is the private preparation time, the thorough and far-reaching study of the score which an opera-going public is mostly unaware of, but which to the musician is one of the essential and most rewarding parts of the work.”

The Independent

National newspaper published in London, England

Source: Maycock, Robert. “Caught within the Ring; The next stage of the Royal Opera’s Ring opens on Thursday.” The Independent , 29 Sep. 1990: 31. Print.

“The valuable thing for me is to study the score without the instrument, I can hear it in my mind’s ear, and I form an image of what it ideally should sound like. Then, when I do finally pick up the violin, I can try to work on whatever technique it takes to get as close as possible to that image. If one starts practicing before one has the musical idea, then the technique becomes the ideal, and the music ends up conforming to whatever is the easiest things for the hands to do. But the easiest way isn’t always the best way – and it certainly isn’t what the composer intended.”

Joseph Swensen

Professor of Violin at the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University

Source: Brown, Steven. “Joseph Swensen: A Prodigy Who Hasn’t Stopped Growing.” The Orlando Sentinel. 19 Oct. 1989: E1. Print.

“It was like heaven’s gates just opened. The most incredible thing I ever heard in my life. I can’t describe it . . . (Mozart) had figured out the perfect balance between tension and release, like an algorithm. It sent me to the library. I took out his scores, anything I could get my hands on, orchestral music in particular. I’d sit there at the piano and play through all the different lines.”

David Braid

Professor of Jazz and Piano at the University of Toronto

Source: Rockingham, Graham. “Key of Success; It’s not that David Braid isn’t jazzed for the Junos. The Hamilton piano virtuoso is in the middle of a classic conflict of interest.” Hamilton Spectator, 30 Mar. 2005: G12. Print.

“I have also discovered that with some works, I actually end up hearing differently when I listen with score in hand . . . The majority of my colleagues agree, however, that score reading can be invaluable during rehearsals, particularly when the work in question is new or simply unfamiliar. Under those circumstances, one can better grasp the work’s structure, musical language and orchestrational devices.”

Rick Rogers

Fine Arts Editor for The Oklahoman

Source: Rogers, Rick. “Knowing the score on scores.” The Daily Oklahoman, 27 May 2001: 1. Print.

“It’s been proven that when you connect your hands and your fingers to a musical score, you are creating higher intelligence in that child . . . They learn determination, dedication, focus, the ability to concentrate for long periods of time and problem solving.”

Patricia Lee

Director of Education and Hill Country Youth Orchestra Conductor Chair

Source: Clark, Caitlin. “Local students growing, learning through music.” Kerrville Daily Times, 12 Dec. 2014.

“I have played the pieces before, but it helps to return to the score afresh. Beethoven is always difficult.”

David Coucheron

Concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Source: Angermann, Chris. “Making strings radiate.” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 17 Jun. 2010: E21. Print.

“If he can, Turner tracks down the score of the work he’ll be playing to understand his bassoon part in context of the entire work. Even if it’s a piece he’s played many times before, he always goes over it again, never allowing himself to get complacent, he said. ‘I owe the audience more than that,’ Turner said. ‘I owe them everything I can give them.’”

Casper Star-Tribune

Newspaper published in Casper, Wyoming, United States

Source: Matray, Margaret. “Behind seamless performance, musicians research, study and sweat.” Star-Tribune, 21 Jan. 2011.

“I don’t see dances in my head — nearly never. I listen to music and I study it. If I know a piece well enough, I can just study it from the score. I don’t have to hear it. That’s what I like best, is just reading it and making notes or analyzing it in some way. Then what I am doing in the studio seems improvised and off the cuff, but it’s actually from a lot of preparatory brain work.”

Mark Morris

Acclaimed Dancer and Choreographer

Source: Brock, Wendell. “Mark Morris: – Mixing silly with sublime.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 7 Feb. 1999: L1. Print.

“Mehta, however, never once took his successes for granted, staying up as late as 3am on numerous occasions to study musical scores till he could commit much of it to memory.”

The Business Times

Newspaper published in Singapore

Source: Yusof, Helmi. “Mehta, maestro – Zubin Mehta rose from being a starving student in Vienna to a hotshot conductor of top orchestras to an elder statesman of music diplomacy. But he believes his work is not done.” The Business Times, 1 Nov. 2014.

“He goes to the score, the source of the music, and studies it from inside, instead of outside. Most young players, when they learn technically how to play, they come at it like a technician, like piecework. But Jackson looks at it as a whole, and wants to know about all the structure of the piece, the background of the composer. He wants to know the intricacies of the harmony . . . He has a clarity of vision and focus that is extremely rare for his age.”

Paul Ellison

Former Principal Bass of the Houston Symphonic Orchestra

Source: Nelson, Roberta. “Musicians On A Mission.” The Bradenton Herald, 20 May 1998: P1.

“When I teach form and analysis, what I try to do is to get my music students to discover this musical trail that composers have left for us. We need to dig beyond the notes. The notes are nothing more than instructions to make music. The music is produced by the individual. So it is our job to dig behind the notes on the page to try to find the reality and the true meaning of this music.”

Wayne Allen Romer

Former Conductor of the York Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Spring Garden Band

Source: “My Job Conductor Designs Concerts, Leads Band And Orchestra.” York Daily Record, 24 Jun. 1999: 09. Print.

“One always restudies the music one does. One can study these pieces forever and there’s always more to discover about them.”

Paul Polivnick

Former Music Director of the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestras

Source: Amarante, Joe. “New Haven Symphony Orchestra takes kids to ‘Jupiter’ with guest conductor.” New Haven Register, 9 Jan. 2015.

“Students at the New York music conservatory loved Dvorak as well. He insisted they carefully study the structure of the world’s greatest musical scores. He was as passionate about teaching as he was composing: Dvorak often scolded his students for giving the wrong answers. But he hugged them when they got the answers right.”

Investor’s Business Daily

Newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, United States

Source: Bonasia, J. “Old World, Meet New World; Sound Of Success: Dvorak combined musical styles to create timeless masterpieces.” Investor’s Business Daily, 18 May 2006: A03. Print.

“In an interview before the concert, conductor David Wiley explained that his study of the original score brought to light discoveries about Schubert’s intentions in the first movement that made the piece cohere in a more pleasing way.”

The Roanoke Times

Newspaper published in Roanoke, Virginia, United States

Source: Williamson, Seth. “Orchestra, Soloists Shine.” The Roanoke Times, 11 Feb. 2004: 1. Print.

“Everyone has a special chord that opens his heart, mine is music. I practise every day, five or six hours. I don’t keep track of the time. At home, I have space for my violin and my score, I start playing and when I finish – oh my God!”

Alexander Souptel

Professor of Violin at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music

Source: nanda, akshita. “Passionate virtuoso – Violinist Alexander Souptel is retiring this year, but his youthful exuberance for music is undeniable.” The Straits Times, 26 Mar. 2012.

“Perahia analyzed score after score, using the theories developed by Heinrich Schenker. ‘Music is always in motion,’ Perahia explains. ‘It begins and ends in stability, but along the way there are dramas and tensions and relaxations. A lot of pianists practice away and stop searching. Why is that B-flat there? Where is that F-sharp going? You see, it’s like an airplane – it’s quite difficult to make the machinery take flight. Practicing alone is not going to do it.’”

Newsweek

News magazine published in New York City, United States

Source: Chang, Yahlin. “Perahia’s Progress – Pianist Murray Perahia was devastated by a hand injury. Now critics are giving him the thumbs-up.” Newsweek, 12 Jan. 1998: 64. Print.

“There’s a lot of latitude within a score as to how to play things – the speed, the tone, the dynamics, the manner. So if you listen to recordings of Beethoven’s fifth symphony, each one is different.”

Sir Nicholas Kenyon

Managing Director of the Barbican Centre

Source: Carnwath, Ally, et al. “50 arts secrets revealed.” The Observer, 2 Mar. 2008: 6. Print.

“Most of the composers whose works we perform now have already died, so the (original) scores are our bibles.”

Tomomi Nishimoto

Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the IlluminArt Philharmonic Orchestra

Source: Tsukahara, Mami. “Revolution in the concert hall: Bolshoi’s nonconformist conductor to lead orchestras in Japan.” The Daily Yomiuri, 26 Feb. 2004: 13. Print.

“Before playing a program, Campestrini spends hours analyzing the scores and reading up on the literature, painting and politics that pertain to the music. ‘The picture gets much broader,’ he said. ‘And it makes working on the score much richer, because then you find out new aspects that you haven’t thought out before.’”

The Press Democrat

Newspaper published in Santa Rosa, California, United States

Source: Peterson, Diane. “Season’s Penultimate Concert – Music Director Candidate Campestrini’s Passion Became His Profession.” The Press Democrat, 10 Apr. 2005: Q 8. Print.

“My approach is always to look for the true or fresh element in the music, regardless of how many times I played it. The truth of the matter is, one must discard the pieces of the puzzle and go back to the piece itself and study the music in the score. It’s like a true golden treasure waiting to be discovered. Music will be seen through different eyes and heard with different ears in youth. Consequently it will grow and mature as it lives with the person.”

Sergiu Schwartz

Professor of Violin at Columbus State University

Source: Hay, Bryan. “Sergiu Schwartz Finds Oneness with His Violin.” The Morning Call, 1992: F03. Print.

“When I get a score, it’s like digging a garden. I look at rhythms and pitches. Study can go slowly. But in rehearsal with instruments, I can hear their color, and I respond to that.”

Susan Narucki

Professor of Voice at the University of California, San Diego

Source: Mantay, Marilyn. “Soprano Of The Ages.” The Davis Enterprise, 31 May 2001.

“I thought the piece (Handel’s Messiah) was dull. When I was asked to conduct it in San Francisco, I said no. Then I began to look at the score, study it, listen to it and realized what a phenomenal piece it is. A revelation. What had I been missing? This was not the work I had been hearing as dusty and frumpy.”

Alasdair Neale

Music Director of the Marin Symphony

Source: Campbell, R.M. “SSO Guest Conductor Promises An Exciting ‘Messiah’ Full Of Joie De Vivre.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 9 Dec. 2005: 32.

“I really relish in learning a score and getting inside the composer’s head. Why did he put those instruments there? Why would that be going on and how are we going to make it like that when we get into rehearsal? I find that joyous. Then you get into rehearsal and you hear the sound and it’s beautiful. I’m inspired by that. It’s really powerful.”

Gemma New

Music Director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra

Resident Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

Source: Hunter, Paul. “The New Music – Hamilton Concertgoers Are Witnessing a Rarity – a Female Conductor in What Is Still a Male-dominated Profession. For Gemma New, a New Zealander Who Founded Her First Orchestra as a Teenager, Picking up the Baton Came Naturally.” The Toronto Star, 6 Mar. 2016: IN4. Print.

“It is my responsibility to see that the strings play as one voice. I must study each score thoroughly and exert my authority in matters of bowing, articulation and phrasing. Yet at the same time, I must be totally subservient to the conductor, and convey his ideas about the music to the rest of the orchestra. Understanding and passing on the conductor’s concept and inspiration is the concertmaster’s greatest challenge.”

Lillian Eisenberg

Former concertmaster Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Scarsdale Symphony, and Putnam Symphony

Source: Hershenson, Roberta. “The Role of a Concertmaster.” New York Times, 30 Jun. 1985: 6. Print.

“Claudio will study a score that he has conducted thousands of times as if he is seeing it for the first time.”

Gustavo Dudamel

Grammy Award-winning Music Director The Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar

Source: Patner, Andrew. “The Young and the limitless – Aided by his ‘three angels,’ rising conductor Gustavo Dudamel ventures forth on his lifelong cultural crusade.” Chicago Sun-Times, 15 Apr. 2007: D13 / FRONT. Print.

“After you have the knowledge of the music, the style, the composer; after you know the score, there is a mystical element in the performance of a work that transcends just practicality.”

Zubin Mehta

Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

Source: Da Fonseca-Wollheim, Corinna. “The mystic maestro.” The Jerusalem Post, 21 Nov. 2003: 24. Print.

“I think with any composer you play, you have to know the background of the composer. In order to really go to the core or depth of the piece, you have to know the composer. When you play the music, you should know about the composer’s life and the circumstances it was written in. Meaning is not necessarily written on the score. In order to play a really convincing piece for the audience, you have to tell the story of the piece. That’s what you call interpretation.”

Andreas Klein

Acclaimed Pianist

Source: Duckett, Richard. “The story behind the music. Pianist Andreas Klein digs deep to interpret composers’ work.” Sarasota Herald Tribune, 22 Feb. 2011: B6. Print.

“I think the seriousness with which they (Richard Goode, Mitsuko Uchida and Andras Schiff) go about their work, their absolute integrity, the respect for the score that one hears in all of their playing, those are qualities which had a big impact on me.”

Jonathan Biss

Professor of Piano at the Curtis Institute of Music

Source: Morley, Christopher. “There’s no place like home – despite the accolades.” Birmingham Post, 10 Jan. 2008: 15. Print.

“Nothing beats analyzing a score or listening to one while the music plays. Music exists in time and sound, but listening to it can take you only so far. Classical music’s many details and mysteries are often best understood with the full score . . . anyone who has read music on any instrument should try to follow along with a score to a symphony. I guarantee you will gain a new perspective.”

Andrew Druckenbrod

Lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh

Source: Druckenbrod, Andrew. “To Appreciate Music, Curl Up With A Good Musical Score.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 28 Nov. 2004: G-3. Print.

“As a trombone player, you don’t play that much in the orchestra. Me, I was always a music fanatic. I brought scores to all the rehearsals. The conductor saw that I was very keen.”

Alain Trudel

Music Director of Orchestra London Canada

Source: Turnevicius, Leonard. “Trudel’s turn at bat.” The Hamilton Spectator, 2 Dec. 2005: G16. Print.

“No matter how scrupulously a piece of music may be notated, no matter how carefully it may be insured against every possible ambiguity through the identification of tempo, shading, phrasing, accentuation and so on, it always contains hidden elements that defy definition because verbal dialectic is powerless to define musical dialectic in its totality. The realization of these elements is thus a matter of experience and intuition, in a word, of the talent of the person who is called upon to present the music.”

Igor Stravinsky

Composer, Pianist, and Conductor

Source: Jacobi, Peter. “Understanding the importance of being a conductor.” The Herald-Times, 16 Mar. 2014.

“One not only needs to learn one’s own part, but has to learn the score and see how one’s part fits into the overall scheme of things . . . one has to learn how to listen. One has to learn how to compromise. One has to learn how to be supportive of one’s colleagues, and one has to learn how to make multiple voices into one.”

Frank Salomon

Administrator of the Marlboro Music Festival

Source: Lowe, Jim. “Arts.” Rutland Herald, 14 Jul. 2016: 1. Print.

“Giving composers their due is something that has made Luca one of the most admired violinists of his generation. He has the reputation of being a musician’s musician, someone who is not afraid to take a fresh look at a familiar score.”

The Orlando Sentinel

Newspaper published in Orlando, Florida, United States

Source: Wigler, Stephen. “Violinist Dusts Off Old Music To Find The Luster Beneath.” The Orlando Sentinel. 4 Oct. 1985: E1. Print.

“As a rule, Lin finds that the best way to freshen over-familiar music is to ‘discard all the recordings and go back to the score. When you look at what Mendelssohn originally wrote, study his markings and indications, it’s startling. He wrote something entirely different from today’s ‘standard’ interpretations.’”

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Newspaper published in Richmond, Virginia, United States

Source: Bustard, Clarke. “Violinist Takes Fresh Approach.” Richmond Times-Dispatch, 17 Apr. 1988: J-1. Print.

“When I walked in for my first lesson (with DeLay), what I got instead was basically, ‘Sweetie-pie, come over here and let’s look at this.’ She was pointing at something in the score. I was totally taken by surprise — it’s not the sort of thing you would have expected from a ‘violin culture.’ She encouraged ‘thinking for oneself,’ made you teach yourself, basically — which is very important.”

Catherine Manoukian

Acclaimed Violinist

Source: Clark, Bob. “Violinist refuses to limit repertoire.” The Calgary Herald, 4 Mar. 2005: D6. Print.

“The period between being an instinctive musician and becoming an aware musician, a reasoning musician, is a very important one and has to happen early in your teens. Karajan taught me to find the common thread that runs through a score, to think the music through to its logical conclusion and impose a sense of direction on it. Karajan taught me not simply to juxtapose notes in long, overarching paragraphs but to place them in the service of the musical idea.”

Anne-Sophie Mutter

Grammy Award-winning Violinist

Source: Cunningham, Harriet. “‘We don’t have to downsize it…Music is out there in all its beauty and all its complexity.’ Anne-Sophie Mutter; Interview.” Sydney Morning Herald, 3 Dec. 2011: 4. Print.

“The first thing to do when one finds out about an audition is to collect all the recordings, and if possible, scores of all the requested literature.”

Guglielmo Manfredi

Principal Horn of the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra and Amarillo Opera

Professor of Horn at West Texas A&M University

Source: scholarlyrepository.miami.edu

“One of the hallmarks of my teaching technique is a heavy reliance on the study of full orchestras scores in preparation for learning orchestral excerpts and taking auditions . . . I have often advocated using the formula ‘for every hour of practice on the trombone, spend five hours studying music.’”

Douglas Yeo

Bass Trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1985 to 2012

Source: www.yeodoug.com

“I spent one whole night with the score of the Sibelius, and I totally re-discovered this work.”

Maxim Vengerov

Grammy Award-winning Violinist

Source: www.violinist.com

“The better you know the pieces, the better you’re gonna play your excerpts in your audition, and the more authentic you will sound.”

Mark Sparks

Principal Flute of the Saint Louis Symphony

Source: musaic.nws.edu

“The commitment to the whole work is the first thing I try to urge students to take on. I can tell when a student has no idea what else is going on while they’re playing. It’s painfully clear.”

Jorja Fleezanis

Former concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra

Source: musaic.nws.edu

“Students should stop trying to cut to the finish line and stop drilling audition excerpts all the time. This will not be good for music in the long run. First, train yourself to become a fine interpreter and learn as much music as possible. Study full orchestral works, not excerpts, and use a score to develop a view more like the conductor’s.”

Elaine Douvas

Principal Oboe of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York City since 1977

Instructor of Oboe and Chairman of the Woodwind Department at The Juilliard School

Source: www.metorchestramusicians.org

“The interpreter, whether it’s a clarinetist or a conductor, has one obligation to illuminate the score to the listener.To illuminate the composer to the listener: what the composer wrote to the listener. And that takes a lot of thought processes. And a lot of students have the wrong idea.”

Robert Marcellus

Former Principal Clarinetist of the Cleveland Orchestra

Former Professor of Clarinet at Northwestern University

Source: www.clarinet-saxophone.asn.au

“It’s so easy to fall into the trap of just learning the excerpt, never studying the rest of the piece. Always know the context from which an excerpt is taken. Know an entire symphony.”

Leone Buyse

Professor of Flute at Rice University

Former Principal Flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Source: musaic.nws.edu

“All of the aspects that surrounded the creation of that work can’t be ignored if you’re going to truly understand it.”

Erica Muhl

Professor of Composition at the University of Southern California

Source: www.artistshousemusic.org

“What I’ve learned and try to pass along to my students is that the key to getting to those ‘aha!’ moments is to simply do the hard work. That is, listen to music critically and study as many scores with audio as you can.”

Jerry Gates

Professor of Contemporary Writing and Production

Berklee College of Music

Source: blogs.online.berklee.edu

“I may ‘practice’ for an hour and a half, meaning I’m in the room for that time, but I’m not playing the whole time. I may play, then I may spend 10 minutes marking the score, or putting on a CD and listening.”

Phil Smith

Principal Trumpet of the New York Philharmonic from 1978 to 2014

Source: www.edition.cnn.com

“Taking the time to really study the score prior to any rehearsal will not only save time, but also deepen the process.”

Francesca dePasquale

Member of the violin faculty

Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts

Source: www.theviolinchannel.com

“In time, you start seeing more and more things in the score; then, you realize that the score becomes more transparent, and you are able to use some details in a certain way: physically, psychologically and through everything related to the interpretation.”

Valeriy Sokolov

Acclaimed Violinist

Source: en.romania-muzical.ro

“Have a deep love for the repertoire you are studying, a profound respect for the composer’s art, and an awareness of the responsibility that we musicians hold in presenting these works to the public.”

James Sommerville

Principal Horn of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Former Conductor and Music Director of the Hamilton Philharmonic

Source: www.jamesstrecker.com

“I spent many hours studying and copying scores of music that interested me. These two years have taught me more by going straight to the score and learning from the greats than any other class I attended in my undergrad or masters classes. This by no means devalues what I learned, but score study brought me closer to my goals.”

Gerald Massoud

Bassist, Composer, and Arranger

Source: www.music.allaccess.com

“I studied classical scores by Strauss, Strawinsky, Mahler, Brahms, Bach and Prokoviev; they were all brilliant orchestrators. Studying the scores increases the awareness of the mixed instrumentation in their work.”

Vince Mendoza

Grammy Award-winning music arranger, conductor and composer

Source: www.fransabsil.nl

“Mozart assumed that whoever was playing the violin solo part would have been leading the orchestra, therefore, the violin soloist would have been studying the score just as much as a conductor would, and the violin soloist would have been absolutely aware of all of the dynamic markings in the orchestra parts.”

Rachel Barton Pine

Acclaimed Violinist

Debuted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 10

Source: www.violinist.com

“Each work requires score study. Understanding each excerpt’s musical context, and translation of all musical directions and vocal texts is the foundation of artistic excellence.”

Randy C. Gardner

Professor of Horn at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music

Former Second Hornist of the Philadelphia Orchestra for 22 years

Source: www.ccm.uc.edu

“Careful score study by instrumentalists and putting some thought into all of the minutiae in one’s part can solve most issues that would be brought up in a coaching.”

Jason Heath

Double Bass Instructor at DePaul University

Source: www.doublebassblog.org

“He reported the use of computer and other forms of technology to solve musical problems. Most enlightening was his use of these together with scores and recordings as part of his regular practice.”

Jennifer Misha & Barbara Fast

Music Performance Research

Royal Northern College of Music

Source: www.mpr-online.net

“One always has to play in relation to a musical context that requires deep knowledge of the score.”

Theodore Baskin

Principal Oboe of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal since 1980

Source: www.le-roseau.ca

“We’re talking about a piece of paper with notes written on it, and that’s something which requires an educated eye in order to make the work flower. But in and of itself, that is a work of art. If I look at a page of a score, it has a certain aura, and that, for a musician, is very important.”

Kim Kashkashian

Grammy Award-winning Professor of Viola

New England Conservatory

Source: www.bruceduffie.com

“Music is more about responding to sounds than making them. Listen more and play less.”

John Goodell

Director of Orchestras at Greenhills School

Founder & Artistic Director of The Music Project

Source: www.johngoodell.com

“Remember that score study is not about dry, antiseptic, statistical analysis. It is about the exploration of details and relationships — with an eye towards illumination and inspiration.”

Robert Ponto

Assistant Dean for Admissions

University of Oregon School of Music and Dance

Source: www.windrep.org