Learn to make deeply moving music like the world’s top musicians.
It’s time to reach the next level.
Our approach isn’t about reinventing the wheel. Instead, it’s about enriching your existing mastery with insights and strategies seldom explored in traditional training. Here, you’ll delve into the intricate mechanics of music-making, learning to interpret scores with a depth that goes beyond the surface. It’s about understanding the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of every nuance in a piece, translating it into a performance that resonates with precision and emotion.
At the Symphonic Laboratory, we don’t offer miracles, but we do promise rigorous, enlightening work that equips you to consistently create those transcendent musical moments we all love.
Join us, and become part of a community of musicians who are not just playing music, but living it, breathing it, and continuously pushing its boundaries. Your journey towards true musical fulfillment starts here.
In-Person Intensive Workshops
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BEETHOVEN – Symphony No. 8
Fall 2024
52 participants
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TCHAIKOVSKY – Serenade for Strings
Fall 2024
San Francisco34 participants
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![The firebird hands over a feather.]()
STRAVINSKY – Firebird Suite, 1919
Spring, 2025
75 participants
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![Jae Cosmos Lee rehearses Barber's Adagio for Strings in Boston, 2018]()
BARBER – Adagio for Strings
Boston, April, 2018
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![Intensive session - Boston Conservatory, 2017]()
MOZART – Eine kleine Nachtmusik
Boston Conservatory, June 2017
A musical method that works.
Welcome to the Symphonic Laboratory, where the pursuit of musical excellence is driven by concrete methods. Our unique approach is grounded in techniques adapted from the world’s top orchestral masters, including Leonard Bernstein and Sergiu Celibidache. Here, we demystify the practices that have shaped the world’s most prestigious professional musicians and present them to you in a setting where we can try them out in practice, question them, refine them, and then use them to create great musical moments.
This isn’t about abstract concepts. It’s about actionable skills that make a tangible difference in your performance. We dive deep into the nuts and bolts of music-making, exploring the intricate ‘why,’ ‘how,’ and ‘what’ that transform a piece from instructions on a page to a compelling experience. Our aim is to align the sounds we make with the vision expressed in the score, linking the subtleties of interpretation with logic and intelligibility that set apart truly exceptional musicians.
Attending a Symphonic Laboratory event, you’ll gain insights into the nuances of professional orchestral playing, equipping you with the powerful techniques and deep understanding sought after in today’s competitive musical landscape.
So, please join us to refine your artistry, elevate your performances, and align your skills with the standards of the greatest orchestras.
Start With How We All Hear.
We begin at the very foundation of music—understanding how we hear, group, and predict sound. This foundational step is grounded in a universal experience shared by every person. It sets the stage for the subsequent steps, offering a concrete base from which to explore and enhance the more complex aspects of musical performance. By grasping fundamental principles, you'll be better equipped to use the rest of our method, ultimately leading to performances that resonate more deeply with every listener.
Discover the Motion and Functions in the Score
Delve into the score to uncover the underlying motion and the function of each element. By understanding how the score conveys musical motion, you gain a concrete and logical roadmap that directly informs how to organize and shape your sound—its loudness, color, and timing—freeing you to craft a performance that is both faithful to the score and richly expressive.
Align Your Sound
Fine-tune your sound to support and align with the musical motion in the score. This process of refining loudness, color, and timing is more than technical proficiency; it’s about integrating the composer’s vision with the sounds you make, allowing you to deliver performances that truly resonate and move people.
Balance it All
Achieve mastery in the delicate art of balance. This skill involves more than just adjusting volume—it’s about sculpting the scope of the ebb and flow of the music’s energy in the moment and over the long haul to ensure the performance captivates and transports, ultimately creating an experience that exists in a transcendent, ever-present now.