Understanding artistry and those “things” that contribute to honest and direct musical expression are concepts that are both difficult to teach and difficult for us to understand as conductors and teachers.

Born out of his teaching at The Choral Institute at Oxford each summer, James Jordan has realized the power of metaphor for teaching the highest artistic concepts involving human connection and deeper listening. The home of The Choral Institute at Oxford is St. Stephen’s House, the very place that C. S. Lewis worshipped.

In this book, Jordan adapts Lewis’s love of powerful and effective metaphors. Jordan uses metaphors as a guide to help conductors engage the most profound the concepts of artistry in music, concepts that are often elusive to teach or learn. These metaphors can be effective doorways to understand our role as artist teacher/conductors in new and vibrant ways.