For each piece your choir sings, you, the conductor, need to determine how the choir will engage with you and your audience. You have the following options:
- Singers remain focused solely on you throughout the piece.
- Singers remain primarily focused on you, but are also able to engage at some level with the audience directly.
- Singers remain primarily focused on the audience, but look to you for key moments, challenging entrances, etc.
- Singers always connect directly with the audience, but keep you in their periphery vision.
- You are not on stage with your ensemble.
For every piece you conduct this year, ask which type of engagement will be most effective, and begin practicing it. If possible, aim for trying every variation in the course of your concert year, and for pieces you repeat at more than one concert, aim to increase your engagement type by at least one for each subsequent performance.