• Sign In
  • ACDA.org
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
ChoralNet

ChoralNet

The professional networking site for the global online choral community.

  • Home
  • Blog
  • ACDA News
  • Events
  • Community
    • Announcements
    • Classifieds

You are here: Home / Others / Which hand should I hold the baton in?

Which hand should I hold the baton in?

October 25, 2010 by Allen H Simon Leave a Comment


Beethoven's fifth, by a conductor who could give us all lessons in enthusiasm:
 
 
h/t Podium Speak

Filed Under: Others

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. William Miller says

    August 27, 2013 at 1:27 am

    What a pleasure it was to watch not only his skill but his absolute joy and body movements. Wishing him all the best for his future. William Miller. 
    Log in to Reply
  2. Frank DeMiero says

    September 28, 2011 at 6:12 pm

    Every child has so much music and creativity inside them. I is always a thrill when we allow them to share it. Blessings to the parents who made this video and shared it with us all!
    Frank DeMiero
    Log in to Reply
  3. Archive User says

    May 2, 2011 at 10:58 pm

    Yes, he is enthusiastic, he likes music indeed, but he is just kidding like a child should be.
    Log in to Reply
  4. Carol Ray says

    February 27, 2011 at 7:29 pm

    This is my favourite video of 2010. Whenever I feel my choral conducting is getting a bit dull, I know I can turn to this wonderful, talented little boy for inspiration. 
    Log in to Reply
  5. Shizuko Sakurai says

    January 17, 2011 at 12:52 am

    Oh Jonathan!  So Marvelous Power !! Not to express Music, but he himself is Music
    itself indeed!     I’m very much pleased to hear Muse’s Parent ‘s smiling a little in this film.   I would like to toast  for Jonathan’s Parent who can enjoy his smiling everyday..  You are living  with The God of Music… Thanks a lot  again & again!!       
    Log in to Reply
  6. John Wheeler says

    January 16, 2011 at 2:28 am

    Thank you so much for posting this! But my first thought was, “Wow, this is one observant kid. Nobody just gets this good, all by himself, at such a young age. He was watching a top-notch model.” I hesitate to say this, but in different fields I and others I’ve known were doing as much as young or younger and for the same reasons: talented nature plus talented nurture. So indeed, let’s give little Jonathan’s parents a big round of applause as well. Without them Jonathan wouldn’t be what he is right now.
     
    Jonathan is very likely an ESP child and very likely will be an ESFP adult – explaining many things, including his powers of sensory observation, his deep feeling and sense of rhythm, his enthusiasm and his joie de vivre. And the thought of what such a person will do if he turns to classical conducting, or anything else in music, just boggles my mind. But this ENFP Celtic harper and songwriter hews to cellist Pablo Casals’ lines below. There are sixteen overall patterns that people fall into with regard to their thought processes, so common threads of talent and outlook will reappear repeatedly as if growing from the same psychic soil; but every person is unique just as every individual tree within every species of tree is unique. Jonathan isn’t some great person of the past reincarnated. He is Jonathan, a potentially great person of the future. Let’s appreciate him as such. I know I do.
     
    “Do you know what you are?
    You are a marvel. You are unique.
    In all the years that have passed,
    there has never been another child like you.”

                          — Pablo Casals
     

    Log in to Reply
  7. Christy Barber says

    January 10, 2011 at 9:00 pm

    The nuances of his musical expressions truly capture the music!  Phenomenal..we should all take lessons!  I wonder how many times he had heard the piece before this video was captured.  Bravo!!
    Log in to Reply
  8. Jennifer Breedlove-Budziak says

    January 10, 2011 at 8:34 am

    Do a YouTube search for “3-year-old Jonathan,” and there are also a couple of clips of him playing violin. Remarkable clarity, rhythm, and musicality with a remarkably low degree of excruciating-Suzuki-squeakiness for a kid this age. I suspect Jonathan may be the real deal.
     
    peace,
    Jennifer
    (who has absolutely no issues with the Suzuki method; it’s just that inevitable period of Young String Player Screech which I suspect every student has to go through to some extent–and which as a cellist I never quite grew out of, which is why I finally gave it up after college and concentrated on choral music!)
    Log in to Reply
  9. Robin FitzGerald McAvity says

    January 7, 2011 at 8:19 am

    It is obvious that this marvellous child has been immersed in music (and certainly in this particular piece) since probably before birth.  Congratulations to his parents, who have instilled in him not just the love of music, but the freedom to create such magic!  He will be a force to be reckoned with down the line.  I’d love to see his debut as the conductor of a major symphony orchestra!
    I’m presuming his name IS Jonathan Simon, and that the author at the top is his father!
    Log in to Reply
  10. Janice Timm says

    December 23, 2010 at 5:02 pm

    Thank you, Jonathan! (And thank you, Allen, for sharing this.) I hope I get to see you conduct a live orchestra soon.
    Log in to Reply
  11. Evelyn Michaels says

    December 20, 2010 at 1:47 pm

    He feels the music in each and  every fiber of his being!!!  Love to see that and hope it stays with him!
    Log in to Reply
  12. Tom Baynham says

    December 20, 2010 at 4:56 am

    My goodness; he reminds me of myself when I “conduct” the record player………..his sense of tempo and anticipation are outstanding!
    Log in to Reply
  13. Archive User says

    December 19, 2010 at 3:57 pm

    This kid of yours is awesome! I sure hope that you have him started on violin or piano or at least soon! He has so much enthusiasm and talent already. Capture it before he gets hold of a football!!!!! Keep exposing him to classical music and conductors!
    Log in to Reply
  14. Jack Horner says

    December 14, 2010 at 6:09 pm

    I’m crying tears of joy!  Isn’t this what we all feel when we conduct a work like this but are afraid to release? 
    Log in to Reply
  15. Diane Langleben says

    December 13, 2010 at 11:38 am

    This film really put a smile on my face. I think that with the amount of publicity this little guy is going to get, he should get Gap to sponsor his studies at the Juillard!!
    Diane Langleben, London, UK
    Log in to Reply
  16. Renee Burkett says

    December 7, 2010 at 8:05 pm

    It looks to me as if he knows the piece and he’s actually anticipating the changes in tempi and mood rather than just reacting to them.  Could Beethoven be reincarnated?
    Log in to Reply
  17. Elizabeth Murray says

    November 23, 2010 at 7:17 am

    How amazing to see this little guy know the music.
    I feel like him when I’m sitting in the seat at a concert by the “Space Coast Symphony.”
    Only this kid is a little more right on then I am.
    EAM
    Log in to Reply
  18. Sally Denkert says

    October 28, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    Darn itchy nose…keeps a guy from really getting into it!
    Log in to Reply
  19. Joshua Oppenheim says

    October 28, 2010 at 3:00 pm

    pretty good for a right-handed conductor.   😉
    Log in to Reply
  20. Jack Senzig says

    October 28, 2010 at 11:16 am

     Did I see a gesture of syncopation?  OMG he is not just responding to the music he is anticipating!   Bravo Maestro!
    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • ACDA.org
  • The ChoralNet Daily Newsletter

Advertise on ChoralNet

Footer

Connect with us!

  • Home
  • About
  • Help
  • Contact Us
  • ACDA.org

Recent Blogs

  • Choral Ethics: Why Music?
  • ChoralEd, Performing Choral Music – Nigeria – Jude Nwankwo
  • The Conductor as Yogi: “The Only”
  • Choral Ethics: Being Grateful
  • Choral Ethics: Old School or New?

American Choral Directors Association

PO Box 1705
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
73101-1705

© 2025 American Choral Directors Association. All rights reserved.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy