Sound Innovations for Concert Band: Ensemble Development for Advanced Concert Band: Conductor Score

This conductor score synthesizes advanced pedagogy and genuine artistry by pairing 399 carefully sequenced exercises with over 70 original chorales from today's most respected composers for band. Rather than relying on anonymous or historical material, Boonshaft and Bernotas positioned the ensemble building directly within the contemporary concert band literature that your students will eventually perform, making technique inseparable from musicality.

Opening this score reveals the philosophy that ensemble development is not mechanical drilling but deliberate, musical growth. The chorales sound like genuine concert band writing, never simplified or didactic, allowing your ensemble to experience what excellence sounds like while building the technical and musical sophistication to achieve it.

Advanced high school and college concert bands seeking a comprehensive, pedagogically intelligent resource for sectional development and full ensemble refinement. Conductors working with mature ensembles who are ready to study the art of ensemble playing through repertoire will find the range and depth of material essential to their rehearsal library.

• Rotate through the chorales written by different composers rather than working sequentially through the same author; students absorb distinct compositional voices and approaches to voicing, balance, and harmonic language that expand their musical vocabulary.
• Use the keyed exercise groupings to address specific intonation or blend challenges in your ensemble's current repertoire, returning to relevant exercises during rehearsal only when a musical need emerges rather than marching through the entire book.
• Record your ensemble working on a single chorale across multiple rehearsals, playing back recordings to help students hear their own progress in balance, sonority, and stylistic refinement.

Use these exercises and chorales as the foundation of sectional rehearsal time, selecting material that addresses current technical or blend issues in your concert repertoire. The 624-page format supports ongoing use across an entire season, allowing you to return to specific keys or compositional approaches as your ensemble matures through the year.

• Playing in multiple keys with secure intonation and consistent sonority
• Balancing four-part harmonic voicings across the full ensemble
• Responding to stylistic cues and articulation markings from diverse contemporary composers
• Reading and executing advanced rhythmic and technical passages in ensemble context
• Sustaining long tones with vibrato control and dynamic stability