Some conductors use their entire bodies — practically dancing — to evoke sounds that make the heart race.

Some simply raise their eyebrows, and musicians magically punctuate the tune.

Others tap a slender white baton and 100 eyes are instantly fixed, awaiting the cue.

All conductors take center stage and seem to coax beautiful music from paper, metal, wood and humans.

Whether a small band or large orchestra, the job of conductor requires much more than standing at the podium during a performance.

ON WEDNESDAY EVENING, that truth was demonstrated at Butler Intermediate High School as concertmaster Thomaslav Dimov rehearsed and conducted the string section of the Butler County Symphony Orchestra in a waltz.“The notes are too short,” he instructed the violins. “Instead of ‘eek eek ah ah’, play ‘tee tee tah tah,’” he sang in waltz time.The violinists understood what sounded like an alien language, and when they tried it again, it really was “tee tee tah tah.”“That was much better. Now that sounded like Tchaikovsky,” Dimov said.To impart the composer’s intention, Dimov explained the tale of a rejected lover, the story behind the opera, “Eugene Onegin,” from which the waltz was taken.“There is something ominous in the music,” he explained and then began to conduct the next section, lunging forward to emphasize a slower, more deliberate waltz time, cupping his left hand as his right held a baton that firmly indicated the downbeat.“Good! We changed the attitude of the sound,” he announced.Then on to another, more lively section.“It’s not dolce enough!” Dimov corrected. And in seconds, the sound became sweeter. “That’s right. That was beautiful, very musical, very artistic,” he said, smiling broadly.Thus, he demonstrated the transformation from notes to music as Butler Symphony conductor Elisabeth Heath-Charles observed the miracle.

“Before there were conductors, there were concertmasters,” said Heath-Charles.“Concertmasters directed from their chairs as they played, but sometime between the classical and baroque period, when music became more complicated, conductors became necessary.”Heath-Charles said she likes to let Dimov, who is also her first violinist, “work his magic” with the string section. She does the same with the brass and woodwinds. But when it all comes together, it is Heath-Charles who steps up to the podium. Her role is an important one — one that is filled by careful selection.Charles Norton, who has played with the Butler Symphony for the past 56 years, is among those who have helped to choose the orchestra’s conductors.“Clarity” is the most important quality that he and the symphony’s committee looks for in a conductor, he said. “If a person is sloppy … you will be tentative in your playing. If a conductor knows the score, it reflects the player’s performance.”Teaching ability, congeniality, knowledge of tonality and balance of instruments and a gift for working with a community orchestra composed mostly of musicians who are there for the enjoyment are also important, Norton said. Heath-Charles has those qualities.“I always knew I wanted to do something in music,” said Heath-Charles. “I started out as a piano major, but when I took a conducting class, it just felt right and natural,” she said. “I wanted an outlet to make music, and be with people at the same time.”People skills, Norton pointed out, also allow a conductor to connect with the audience, promoting the symphony to the community.Heath-Charles said the most difficult part of her role is choosing music for the symphony’s 56th concert season, though she does get a lot of help from the organization’s committees.What Heath-Charles likes best is the variety conducting provides.In addition to conducting the Butler Symphony, she is the director of Athletic Bands for Duquesne University and guest conducts often for other symphony orchestras, choral groups, jazz bands and Pennsylvania Music Educators Association district band concerts.“Betsy is exuberant and upbeat and it’s reflected in her conducting,” Norton said. “In rehearsal, she’s up, to keep the orchestra motivated. That shows up in the performance.”At Wednesday night’s symphony rehearsal, Heath-Charles lived up to Norton’s praise.Dimov tuned up his violin and took first chair as she prepared to direct the section that he had just worked out with the string players.“One, two, three; one, two three; one!”Bounding with energy, Heath-Charles shouted out the count. Like a cat, she clawed the air with her left hand to stress a downbeat as the baton in her right continually reinforced the lively waltz tempo.In that brief moment, faces lit up the whole room. She instantly energized and unified the group and the music with her mere presence.“Communication to the orchestra and the audience is important to me,” she said. “If the music is soft and lyrical, it’s reflected in the way I conduct the beat pattern. If it’s energetic, I am too,” she added.“The most important thing is to be the music.”

BEING THE MUSIC is an entirely different story when a director conducts a jazz band, according to Dale Hertrick, who conducts high school and college students from all over southwestern Pennsylvania in one of two Pittsburgh Jazz Society Big Bands. He also directs junior high students at Rodger’s CAPA Middle School in Pittsburgh.“You just count the tune off and wave your arms when you have to,” he said. “The rhythm section keeps the time.”Seneca Valley High School junior Claire Rhein, who plays piano for one of the Jazz Society’s Big Bands, agreed. “I’m at the bottom of the band. Once he counts it off, the rhythm section keeps a solid beat. We’re the pulse.”At a recent Jazz Society Big Band concert at Butler’s Succop Theater, Hertrick counted off a unique arrangement of “When You’re Smiling,” and kept the beat going for a few measures by tapping his foot and snapping his fingers as he allowed his forearm to swing from his elbow, making quick, full circles like a pendulum gone wild.As various musicians took their solos, Hertrick strolled across the stage, bouncing to the music, coming back to the center only to punctuate entrances and endings.“I try to stay out of their way,” he said. “I like to force myself to walk away so that the audience can see the band.”But it isn’t as easy as it looks.“The toughest part is getting the tempo right from the beginning and keeping it there. Young kids who are less confident tend to speed up. Professionals slow down. For the younger ones, a whole note seems to last 10 minutes, for older musicians it’s like a New York second,” he said.Hertrick likened directing improvised “open solos” to directing traffic. “It changes every time you play. If someone is playing good, you give them a little space.”When he feels the solo coming to an end, he makes eye contact with the soloist and simply puts up his fingers, like a traffic cop, folding each one down, measure by measure, to bring the band back in together.“You don’t overdirect in jazz, or you become Lawrence Welk,” said Hertrick, who threw his baton away four years ago.“Beating time for a jazz band is corny,” he said, but he doesn’t use a baton when conducting his junior high string orchestra either.Though Hertrick likes to get out of the way once in awhile, he does like to stay where his players can see him “so it doesn’t die,” he said.“Light moves faster than sound, so entrances are going to be more accurate if the band is watching the conductor as well as listening. They have to do both,” Hertrick said.He explained that a lot of marching bands have three conductors because when sound travels from one end of the band to the other, you have a delay. “It helps to have someone to look at.”Trumpeter Ralph Guzzi is the director of the other Pittsburgh Jazz Society Big Band. He was on stage with his group for the second half of the concert at the Succop Theater.Guzzi played trumpet with the band on every tune and still managed to conduct.“The kids look at Ralph’s eyebrows,” Hertrick said. “Duke Ellington would stand up and conduct when it needed to happen with a wink and a nod. Benny Goodman stood on the side and played and cued with his instrument. It’s always individual.”Rhein agreed that each conductor has his or her own ideas about the way they approach the music, the way they use gestures and the way they interpret a piece.Rhein is accomplished enough at her young age to have been selected to play alto sax in the prestigious Pittsburgh Jazz Society Big Band last year, and piano this year. She has played in both the wind ensemble and jazz band at Seneca Valley since ninth grade and knows the value of working with good conductors, whether they wink an eye or wave a baton.“A good conductor loves what they do and is as excited about the music as you are … you can always learn something from each of them.”

MONITEAU SCHOOL DISTRICT’S band director, Rita Ferrare, has been teaching students from grades 3 through 12 to that kind of communication for the past three years.“I’m getting them ready. Even in beginner’s band, I’m showing them where the count is, how to count while I conduct, where to cut off and so on,” said Ferrare, who sometimes plays along with beginners until they learn what tonal quality should sound like.As Moniteau’s sole band director, Ferrare juggles elementary, junior high and senior high bands, plus marching band, pep band and jazz band. Senior school and junior high bands rehearse during the school day, but full band rehearsals for fifth and sixth graders is after school.“The kids are great. They come after school but they really work for me,” she said.In addition to managing her full schedule, Ferrare has just begun conducting the pit band rehearsals for the school’s spring musical, “Bye Bye Birdie.” The pit band, comprising students and a few adult players, rehearses two or three nights a week, and more often as opening night nears.“We need to add adults because playing in vocal keys is much more difficult than playing in band keys. It’s easy for a singer to go up a couple of steps but a lot harder for a trumpet player,” she explained.The only band director hat Ferrare doesn’t wear is the tall one with the pom pom in the front. When it’s time to conduct the marching band, her drum majors take over.“I teach them the drills and music, and then watch from the stands,” she said. She enjoys the break, but said she loves the variety provided in her job. “There is never a dull moment.”Ferrare said it’s more “unusual than usual” to be the district’s only band director. For instance, the bigger Seneca Valley district has three. But she said her challenge is not her hectic schedule or dealing with students who play at so many different levels.For Ferrare, the hardest thing is getting her 128 students to watch her while she is conducting, so that they don’t play “mechanically,” but “musically,” focusing on dynamics (where the music is softer, louder, faster, etc.)“They like to stare at the notes, but it’s a lot harder to play music than it is to just play notes.”Conductors bring it all together.

<B>Butler County Symphony</B>“Sweet Suites” is the next concert in the Butler County Symphony Orchestra’s 56th season. The concert will begin at 8 p.m. Feb. 12 in Butler Intermediate High School’s auditorium.Featured soloist is Henry Doktorski, one of the leading concert accordionists in the U.S. He will team up with vocalist Evie Barnes on a medley.Reserved seat tickets in advance cost $15 for adults and $8 for students and are available at the symphony office, 259 S. Main St. At the door, any remaining tickets will cost $18 and $9, respectively.Other remaining concerts are:- “Irish Spring,” including the 2005 Young Artist Competition winner, 8 p.m. March 19- “Sliding Home,” with Butler native Jim Pugh in “Concerto for Trombone,” 8 p.m. April 30.For more information, call 724-283-1402.<B>Pittsburgh Jazz Society</B>The Pittsburgh Jazz Society will host Jazz-fest 2005 from Feb. 25 to 27 at the Rhythm House Café, 3029 Washington Pike, Bridgeville, PA 15211.For more information, call 412-221-5010.