UPBEAT! Sharing the Alexander Technique with Musicians
Created for musicians and Alexander teachers who work with musicians, this series encourages the rich interface between the art of making music and the art of teaching the Alexander Technique.
The Technique has so much to offer the performing arts, particularly musicians, and our profession has outstanding teachers who are also fine musicians and have explored the challenges of bringing the Technique into performing and singing on many levels.
All events take place at Studio One.
Workshops for this Season
From Practice into Performance
With Judith Kleinman and Peter Buckoke
Senior Faculty, Royal College of Music
Sunday 24th June 2018
10.00 AM – 4.00 PM
£75 for teachers per day.
£45 for teacher trainees and students per day.
Following on from our workshop based on the material in our book ,‘The Alexander Technique for Musicians’, we shall run a follow-up workshop developing more ideas about performance skills.
We shall discuss the question, ‘what is a good performance?’ Then we shall consider how Alexander’s ideas can help before and during performance.
We shall look at how to support musicians in their quest to take their best playing from the practice room into performance. Many musicians see this as the Holy Grail but they often get very little help from their instrumental teachers in their search. As Alexander teachers, we all have a great deal to offer.
We plan to explore using video analysis to speed the learning process. We shall have volunteer music students to work with and to discuss the challenges involved in their studies.
There will be Q & A time but an atmosphere of open interaction will be encouraged throughout the workshop.
Judith Kleinman and Peter Buckoke have been teaching the Alexander Technique at the Royal College of Music for twenty-five years. They are both professional double bass payers working in the London music scene. Judith is assistant head of training at the London Centre for Alexander Teacher Training. Their book, The Alexander Technique for Musicians, was published by Bloomsbury in November 2013. Available online at www.amazon.co.uk
Fundamentals of Coordination:
How the Alexander Technique Can Help Musicians
With Imogen Barford and Selma Gokcen
Senior Faculty, Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Sunday 11th March 2018
10.00 AM – 4.00 PM
£75 for teachers per day.
£45 for teacher trainees and students per day.
Join us for an interactive workshop discovering how the knowledge offered by the Alexander Technique can be useful as fundamental training for music teachers and students rather than as a ‘fix’ once problems occur. We will explore the ways in which we can move away from potentially harmful habits and return to natural ease of movement. This workshop will be divided into two parts:
PART ONE: The Power of the Back and Integrity of the Spine
PART TWO: The Arms—Their Structure and How We Use Them
Imogen Barford is Head of Harp at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, where she also teaches weekly classes entitled ‘Move Well, Play Better’. She studied Music at Cambridge University, Harp at the Royal Academy of Music, and AT with Karen Wentworth at the Alexander Technique Studio, where she now teaches. She has an active free-lance playing career alongside giving international masterclasses. In recent years, she has enjoyed touring France, Spain, Austria, Germany and Luxembourg with the London Symphony Orchestra, and playing for conductors such as Sir Bernard Haitink and Sir Simon Rattle.
Selma Gokcen is on the Junior and Senior faculties at the Guildhall School of Music in London, where she works with young cellists, senior instrumentalists and singers. A graduate of the Geneva Conservatoire of Music and The Juilliard School in New York City, she trained with Eleanor and Peter Ribeaux at the Centre for the Alexander Technique in London, and with Ted McNamara. Committed to both performing and teaching music and the Alexander Technique, she established Studio One to bring the two communities together. Selma is also Chair of the London Cello Society, a registered UK charity which has produced films and presents an annual series of concerts and lectures for the general public. www.londoncellos.org
The Breathing Body, The Breathing Bow
With Ruth Phillips and Dale Culliford
Sunday 21st January 2018
10.00 AM – 4.00 PM
£75 for teachers per day.
£45 for teacher trainees and students per day.
This workshop looks at the breath from three different perspectives to promote ease and inspiration during performance: Firstly through the Alexander Technique, secondly as a tool to bring us into the present moment, and thirdly as the link between our physical movement and our musical phrasing. Open to string players and teachers of all levels, in particular those who are seeking greater freedom and release of tension in their playing. Alexander Teachers and trainee teachers are also welcome.
Phone: 0033 6 71 81 53 57
Email: ruth@wintermane.com
Ruth Phillips is a modern and baroque cellist. She plays with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Concert d’Astrée, Les Musiciens du Louvre Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Garsington Opera and Opera Fuoco. Ruth studied with Steven Isserlis and Johannes Goritzki and has a Masters degree from the State University of New York where she studied with Timothy Eddy. She has experience of yoga, African drumming, Indian singing, and has trained in meditation and Voice-Movement-Therapy. For ESTA she presented a Breathing Bow workshop for the 2016 conference, and a workshop in London in 2017 with Jane Fenton. She has clients from all over the world come to her home in Provence for Breathing Bow retreats.
Dale Culliford was born in New Zealand and came to England to study with Tanya Prochazka and Steven Isserlis. She has worked with many of Britain’s top orchestras including the Philharmonia, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and was a member of the Guildhall String Ensemble before joining the orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Dale is currently sub-principal cellist in the Hallé orchestra and still finds time to pursue a love of chamber music, running her own chamber series in New Mills with members of the Hallé. Dale qualified as an Alexander Teacher in 1992 and uses this work in both her playing and teaching. She helps her students find a free, relaxed and dynamic style of playing using the mindful awareness that Alexander work can enable. Dale and Ruth ran their first workshop together in New Mills and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester in 2016.