Page 26 - CJNov_Dec24

An Interview with Stephen Cleobury

skills. Leadership is about being on top of your subject. the start of each Christmas Eve service for decades. As
Nobody is going to respect you if can’t conduct five in a Cleobury and previous conductors have confirmed, the
bar or if you haven’t learned the score. It’s about lead- soloist is chosen merely seconds before the broadcasted
ing by precept, leading by example—being punctual, performance begins. One can only imagine the kind of
being efficient, being organized—hoping that people fortitude and trust that must be practiced to maintain
will want to emulate those various qualities. Obviously, that level of high-profile performance creativity. Cleo-
some leaders are, how should we say, more forceful bury appreciates the need of every musician to have
than others. That’s the same in all walks of life, and some kind of relationship with their director beyond
in a way, I think what comes out in the differences in the perfunctory greetings and professional interac-
different conductors or different football managers, or tions, especially in groups that work together regularly.
whatever it is, in the end goes back to their own inher- People need to feel encouraged and supported knowing
ent personality. that the conductor cares for the music, the ensemble,
Sometimes, of course, you’ve got to put on a bit of a and their own well-being and development.
persona. Most people who meet me in a social context
think I’m reasonably a quiet and reserved person. But
if you’re going to conduct Mahler’s 8th Symphony in the NOTES
Albert Hall, it’s no good being weak and watery. You’ve
got to project yourself. You’ve got to gain the respect of 1 Pronounced [‘kliːbəri]
the people you’re directing. Nowadays, by and large, 2 Ian Carson, “Cleobury, Stephen,” Oxford Music Online, Ox-
I’m happy to say, respect is not accorded by virtue of ford University Press, accessed September 11, 2015.
the position you hold. You have to earn it, and indeed I 3 A program broadcast to listeners around the world since
would not want to be respected merely because I have 1928.
a particular title, like Director of Music. I would prefer 4 Website of King’s College, Cambridge, “Sir Stephen Cleo-
to be respected, if I am to be respected, by people say- bury (1948-2019),” website accessed on September 10,
ing, “This chap does a good job, he’s professional, he 2020, https://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/news/2020/sir-
prepares his work, he’s efficient and doesn’t waste our stephen-cleobury-1948-2019.
time, and we know that we’re going to enjoy it and get 5 Christopher M. Smith, “A Comparative Study of Select
a good result.” Choral Conductors’ Approaches to Unification of
Choral Sound, Rehearsal, Conducting, and Leader-
ship: Frieder Bernius, Tõnu Kaljuste, Stephen Cleo-
Summary of bury, John Eliot Gardiner, Weston Noble, and Robert
Leadership Questions Shaw” (DMA diss., University of Kansas, 2016).
Stephen Cleobury is keenly aware of the psychologi- 6 Brian Robins, “From Rutter to Rachmaninov: An Inter-
cal state of his singers, particularly as it relates to per- view with Stephen Cleobury of King’s College, Cam-
formance anxiety. He learned from his viola teacher bridge,” Fanfare—the Magazine for Serious Record Collectors
as a youngster that to overcome anxiety, he needed to 22, no. 2 (November 1998): 138.
concentrate 110 percent on the music to avoid thinking 7 Ibid.
about the audience, and by extension, his own state of 8 Martin Cullingford, “The World’s Greatest Choirs,”
nervousness. This practice is passed along to his young Gramophone, accessed September 11, 2015, https://
singers, particularly the ones in their first year in the www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/the-world-s-
King’s College Choir. greatest-choirs.
There is an annual tradition at King’s that at the start 9 Stephen Cleobury, Boris Ord, David Kremer, James Whit-
of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, the choristers bourn, Philip Ledger, and David Willcocks, Carols from
do not actually know who will sing the opening solo King’s, Opus Arte, 2001 DVD [S.l.].
of “Once in Royal David’s City,” which has marked

24 CHORAL JOURNAL November/December 2024 Volume 65 Number 4