The Conductor as Yogi: (Become) Aware, Adapt, Repeat

“Awareness is like the sun.  When it shines on things, they are transformed.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

I recently presented a webinar entitled, “Our Voice as Our Superpower: From Sound to Mission” for the yoga and Brain Longevity® Specialist community, sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation.  It was an interesting opportunity to explore the singing and speaking voice with a population not necessarily trained or experienced as vocalists, and to expand our definition of “voice” to include our mission or unique perspective and way of expressing ourselves in the world.  I love working at these intersections, where music and yoga and living life come together.

As I prepared my notes and thought about how to connect to participants in a way that didn’t distance us as “singers” versus “non-singers,” I remembered a rehearsal a couple weeks ago with our Chorale, after a particularly detailed segment of finessing a challenging piece.

Breath.  Posture.  Vowels.  Connection to text and line.  Breath again.  Blend, that unified color we achieve so well in warm-ups . . . what about applying it now to the actual music?  “Did you hear that?”  “Can you hear it before you sing it?”  “What did you do, or change?  What effect did it have?”

A pause.  “Chorale, you know what my job really is?”  (I leaned in and lowered my voice and waved them to lean in, as well—always a fan of a little drama when it serves our musical goals.) “Yes, we work on a lot of skill-building, on text and context, on being a unified, professional ensemble.  But my real job?”

“To teach us to become aware.”

That’s it, isn’t it?  Every time we step in front of an ensemble, every time we stop in rehearsal, we are drawing attention to something.  Even if they are singing at the top of their game, we call attention to that.  “What’s working now that wasn’t a moment ago?” From beat to beat, there is always something to attend to, to become aware of—from the details of technical skill to the quality of the sound to the experience singers are having, which can change from day to day, moment to moment.  It’s all about awareness.

On the yoga mat or in a mindfulness session or a walk in nature or in a significant eye-to-eye conversation, becoming aware is central to the experience.  Awareness unlocks a heightened aesthetic, a stronger sensibility that requires us to become engaged.  We have to move off the sidelines and get in the game. We can always obediently follow someone’s instructions but without awareness first, little change will happen, and most certainly, it won’t last.  And we can completely miss the experience, going on auto-pilot and never really seeing or feeling the moment we are in.

Framing rehearsals as an opportunity to heighten awareness is, at least for me, a refreshing distinction.  I move beyond the traditional diagnose-and-prescribe conductor role, which is more about my awareness than theirs, towards an invite-and-guide role, bringing singers into a mindful state where learning and experience can be richer, regardless of their age or the experience of the ensemble.

Once aware, we can attentively adapt—change, refine, experiment, enjoy—and then repeat the process, starting the cycle over at a better place than the time before.  Singers naturally take more ownership of their own sound and connect with the room in a different way, extending their awareness outward.  Awareness is not just a mind experience.  It’s being in the body and embracing the spirit—sensing, connecting, feeling, and melding it all into expressive sound.

Presenting the webinar with this three-part approach helped participants apply the mindful awareness they had developed in their yoga practice or brain longevity training to their voice, adapt their sound in various ways, and then repeat the process to become more effective and confident.  To open up pathways for using our voice as our superpower, on and off the mat.  (Or in and out of the rehearsal.)

Dr. Ramona Wis is the Mimi Rolland Endowed Professor in the Fine Arts, Professor of Music, and Director of Choral Activities at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois and the author of The Conductor as Leader:  Principles of Leadership Applied to Life on the Podium.  Dr. Wis is a 500-hour CYT (Certified Yoga Teacher) and a certified Brain Longevity® Specialist, a research-based certification on yoga and integrative medicine for brain health and healthy aging. Reach her at: or ramonawis.com.