A Perspective on Conducting Courses in Music Education Programs in Japan

In the second semester of 2012, I had my first opportunity to teach conducting for the music education program at the University of Miyazaki in Japan. My experiences in preparing for the course has made it clear to me that there is no uniform approach to teaching conducting among similar programs at national universities in the country.

This essay is composed of two parts. In the first part, I looked at the syllabi of 60 conducting courses offered by music education programs at 44 national universities in Japan. The syllabi have been translated into English. Information drawn from the syllabi is listed in charts and compared in graphs. For the second part of the essay, I interviewed 5 conducting professors to discuss their insights into the current circumstances in which conducting courses are offered in music education programs. I also interviewed former students of the professors above in order to discover what they have accomplished following their study and what challenges they currently face conducting classes and/or ensembles in their schools.