Meet our deputy conductor, Emma

Hi there! I’m Emma and I’m BADCB’s deputy conductor. So how did I end up with this role? After all I am normally a clarinet player, and by day I’m a doctor not a musician! Well, it happened by accident…

Emma conducting at Highcliffe Castle

I joined BADCB eight years ago after my job relocated me to Dorset. I think I’d only been in the band for about a year when we turned up to rehearsal one week; our conductor was on holiday and the replacement he had arranged for us didn’t show up.

The band chair asked if anyone had any conducting experience. I (perhaps foolishly) joked that I had once conducted my youth wind band, after a swimming pool-related injury left me with stitches and I couldn’t play, and the next thing I knew I was conducting the band for the rehearsal! Honestly, I think I was just the only person mad enough to give it a go, as I think I’ve only ever had one conducting lesson as part of my music GCSE (and that was a VERY long time ago!). However I can’t have been too awful, as I’ve been the band’s deputy conductor ever since!

Over the last seven years I’ve filled in for three successive conductors (covering for holidays, work commitments and episodes of man-flu), and also been joint conductor for six months in a gap between full-time conductors.

Band would probably describe my conducting style as “enthusiastic and individual” as I’m a bit prone to singing and dancing along as I conduct! I think my favourite moment was conducting the band in concert on my birthday when they played Holst’s First Suite so beautifully and perfectly in tune – I got goose bumps. But they all know that the way to my heart is with Pirates of the Caribbean!

By Emma, BADCB’s deputy conductor and clarinet player