Conducting, composing, and performing: meet Medb Brereton Hurley

Medb Brereton Hurley’s passion for conducting stems from her student years at Trinity College Dublin. Graduating with a first-class honours degree in Music and English Literature, she played the tenor horn in the award-winning Drogheda Brass Band, participated in several Royal Irish Academy of Music performing groups, and conducted the Trinity Orchestra for two years. As a founder and co-artistic administrator of AMGE (the Annual Music Graduate Exhibition) – where nine original compositions by Irish music graduates premiered in November 2022 – she premiered her own choral composition and conducted it in concert. For the past two years, Medb has been the Studio Conductor of Irish National Opera, working on Tosca, Guillaume Tell, Der Rosenkavalier, Werther and Così Fan Tutte (2022-23), as well as Faust, La bohème, Salome, and La Traviata (2023-24). This July, Medb conducted the INO Orchestra and youth hip-hop collective the Kabin Crew in a theatrical showcase of their music – including viral sensation ‘The Spark’ – at The Everyman. She was also recently awarded the Orchestra Prize in the final of the Orchestral Conducting competition in the Feis Cheoil 2024, having conducted the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.

Medb made her debut at Blackheath Halls this week in a special concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Dvořák Society for Czech and Slovak Music. She conducted the Trinity Laban Symphony Orchestra in a new work by composition graduate Kornélia Nemcová, What Remains at Dawn. The Sir Charles Mackerras Junior Fellowship in Conducting is designed to enable an aspiring young conductor to bridge the gap between full-time conservatoire-based study and the music profession. They are provided with the means and time to develop professional skills and contacts with the support of a conservatoire mentor. Medb is the first woman to hold this position – we spoke to her about all things conducting and creating.

You’ve been the Irish National Opera Studio Conductor since May 2022 and you’ve also worked as the children’s chorus director. Tell us about two productions that you’ve worked on that have transformed your perspective on conducting opera.

While all the Irish National Opera productions I worked on were formative and exciting for me in their own ways, Puccini’s La bohéme holds a special place in my heart. This opera premiered in one of Ireland’s largest venues, the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, in November 2023 and I worked as both the studio conductor and the children’s chorus director. Bohéme is such a staple in operatic repertoire and it has been at the top of my list to learn for years, so it was a dream to immerse myself in the stunning music for six weeks and to be a part of such a large-scale production. Notably, the children’s chorus music in Bohéme is quite difficult: they have to learn lots of French vocabulary, mostly describing sweets they would like to eat. They sing on stage for the entire duration of Act 2 and their lines are often out of sync with the chorus and very exposed in the musical texture. I found that, as a result, directing the children’s chorus brought me back to the basics with learning and conducting opera – starting with language as the key element and building the rest of the score from there. Working with children also helped me to find the fun in an ultimately quite tragic opera!

Equally, working on Der Rosenkavalier was extremely enlightening. This production happened relatively early on in my first studio year and it was both my first German opera and my first time tackling Strauss’s operatic repertoire…so lots of firsts for me! The music is vast and yet intricate, with a score for a 90-piece orchestra and with vibrant vocal lines that race through a complex libretto (the infamous bass role of The Baron Ochs jumps to mind here). As a result, the challenge of conducting Der Rosenkavalier was daunting and I imagine I will continue to study this score for the rest of my career. Initially, the weight of this challenge often disconnected me from the music I was listening to and the utter spectacle of what was happening on stage. But, luckily, by the end of our run in the Bord Gáis in February 2023, I had fallen in love with it all; the thrilling music, the beautiful staging, the German libretto that had once seemed so intimidating. The experience taught me not to be afraid of a challenge…and that operatic repertoire will always pose one, in one way or another.

As conductor and director of the ‘The Voice of Darndale’ Community Choir, you premiered an original choral composition ‘Spring’ at the Made in Darndale Festival last year. How does it feel to conduct your own compositions and hear them being performed?

It is so exciting! My composing will always be an integral part of my conducting; I specialised in composition during my undergraduate degree in Trinity College Dublin. I believe that the best conductors are master arrangers and seek to showcase new music, along with standard repertoire. I have worked with the ‘Voice of Darndale’ Community Choir since its foundation in 2022 and I have found a huge amount of inspiration in our rehearsal space. It is incredible how creative, unconventional and open-minded people who are new to the world of music can be with some encouragement. ‘Spring’ came from my desire to write for and with the singers of this community choir, to give them something that I knew they could sing confidently and with passion, music that was made for them and conveyed the spirit of their choir. The composition starts with an improvisation on the line ‘spring sings her song’, which is inspired by and a development on many of the improvised warm-ups I designed for the choir, to get the singers to listen to one another and breathe together. This section was different every time, which made each performance special and specific to the space we were in and the people we were sharing our music with. With that in mind, conducting this composition was often a little scary and infinitely breath-taking!

You’re also a singer-songwriter, having produced and independently released the album Vain. What did your creative process for composing the songs look like?

I have always been interested in music production and Vain was an exercise in developing this skill, as well as a project that encapsulates much of my writing during the pandemic! I worked entirely by myself when making the album which, while giving me absolute creative control, also seems at odds with my conducting, a practice that is forged in collaboration. I learned a lot about self-efficiency and finding creative solutions to accessibility problems during the process. For example, I had very limited access to recording equipment so I had to find ways to create lots of different kinds of sounds in production. For example, I used common household items, like the sound of two spoons hitting each other, to flesh out the soundscape. I played all the live instruments myself, so I also spent a long time practicing on instruments that I’d never played before, like the trumpet, the kalimba, the glockenspiel etc. Above all, I had a lot of fun, and I let myself be completely free creatively.

What is a common misconception about conducting that you’d like to challenge?

I think sometimes there is a conception that there is one way to be a conductor. One certain look, one genre of music, one way to learn and to teach music. And, often, these conceptions were born in an older schooling and can border on conservative. I don’t want to box myself in so early on in my career. I want to try new styles, work with a range of different artists and, above all, direct and shape music that is uplifting and challenges a status quo, which is, ultimately, the function of a conductor, in my opinion. I want to learn from the greats who came before me and use their knowledge to empower the modern musician.

What are you most looking forward to in your position as the Sir Charles Mackerras Junior Fellow in Conducting?

I am excited to immerse myself in the culture of music at Trinity Laban, as well as in London, an opportunity that has been made possible for me thanks to the Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Fellowship. One of my main goals is to develop my knowledge of orchestral repertoire, so I am eager to work with Trinity Laban’s orchestra and varying ensembles. Equally, having access to the fabulous facilities at Trinity Laban, such as the practice rooms and the library, will greatly advance my studies and will allow me to work on my aural and keyboard skills throughout the year. Most importantly, I am excited to learn from the incredible music staff at Trinity Laban, and I will be sure to seek their guidance as I continue to develop my conducting technique.