“Conducting with a Bird on Your Hand – musical leadership and connection”

My new book, “Å dirigere med en fugl på hånden. Om musikalsk ledelse og kontakt” was  published in November 2023 at Norsk Musikforlag, and in Swedish at Ejeby Forlag in 2024.

The English title is  “Conducting with a Bird on Your hand – Musical Leadership and Interaction”, and is now out on Amazon as e-book and physical book.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/826938710X

Great review in the Swedish Church Music Magazine, January 2025:

Conducting with a Bird on Your Hand
– Tone Bianca Sparre Dahl
Ejeby Förlag

“What does it mean to be genuine and true?”
This is how the foreword begins, and as I started reading, I became completely captivated and sold on this book. Tone Bianca spans the entire spectrum of what it means to be human, something I have never encountered before. The content can be applied to everything—what it means to be a human, a leader, a choir conductor, a musician.

In 2002, Tone Bianca released her book “Körkonst”, and here she delves even deeper into the interplay between these elements.

The book is structured around seven axes—the existential, the physical, the technical, the listening, the practical, the emotional and social, and finally, the self-knowing axis—each with its own chapter. Tone Bianca reflects on each subject from different perspectives, interspersed with exercises, both for individuals and for the choir as a group.

All of this is aimed at collectively creating those goosebump moments—kama muta—that we strive for. In addition to kama muta, two other aspects are addressed, namely flow and communitas. Tone Bianca is not afraid to touch on the deepest and most intimate emotions, which can be difficult to put into words, but that are brought into the light, giving us tools to deal with our own fears and anxieties.

Read the book! From the first to the last page, I have felt so deeply joyful! You don’t need anything other than this “bible”… it’s essentially about how to build a human being. Genuine and true!

Charlotta Holmgren Nemeth