After 57 years of teaching — spanning stops at Wisconsin, Northern Colorado, Michigan State, and Cincinnati before landing at the University of North Texas — Eugene Migliaro Corporon is stepping away from the podium. In that time he has shaped not just a program but an entire generation of conductors, educators, and musicians who carry his influence into rehearsal rooms and concert halls around the world.
In this episode, we sit down with Corporon for a wide-ranging conversation that is equal parts master class and memoir. He reflects on what retirement actually feels like when music has been your life since junior high school, shares hard-won wisdom on the craft of rehearsing, makes the case for repertoire as the lifeblood of any ensemble, and offers a clear-eyed challenge to the next generation of band directors: don't let the urgency of the field eclipse your artistic self.
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