The Lady Chapel on the Coudewater Estate near Hertogenbosch was host to a Feldenkrais & Music Festival led by Alan Fraser at the beginning of June 2024. In this three days of chamber music, solo piano and Feldenkrais, the performing musicians raised the level of their playing - their virtuosity, their warmth and depth of sound, and most important, the intensity of emotional expression.
Reconnecting with the whole self through Feldenkrais allowed the musicians greater freedom, greater ease, greater precision, and a greater sense of true artistic communication - much, much more than just the notes. Audience members who also participated in the Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) lesson, reported an enhanced listening experience: their ears became more acute, and the musical communication was experienced with increased intensity and joy.
Let's start this survey of highlights from the festival with the four core ATM lessons that were taught. As you watch and listen to these lessons, don't just sit in front of your computer screen - get down on the floor and do the lesson. For much of the time these videos are audio only anyway - so do the lesson, don't just listen!
These four seminal ATMs were preceded on Friday night with a Recital ATM, an experiment where the players along with the entire opening recital audience did a sitting ATM designed to enhance listening. First watch the pre-ATM concert performance, then do the ATM, and then watch and listen to the post-ATM performance. Can you hear a difference? Is the difference more in your listening... or more in their playing... or both?
Interspersed with Saturday's and Sunday's pure ATMs were instrumental lessons where we explored how Feldenkrais can be applied in practice to transform one's sound, one's agility and one's emotional expression while playing, as well as togetherness in an ensemble. When one plays with one's whole self, the communication becomes both personal and profound.
A young Ukrainian pianist plays a very capable Winter Wind etude, but his body seems overly inert - almost divorced from his hands as they move virtuosically over the keys. Alan uses a simple perceptual strategy to connect the periphery (the fingers) to the core (the body). The resulting explosion of sound and passion took everybody by surprise - even Fraser, and most of all, Dennis!
Eventually we will have more video exceprts from the Festival. In the meantime, browse other Alan Fraser teaching videos on YouTube or at Piano Technique.org.
Here is a summary of the events held at the festival. If we were to repeat the experience, would you like us to add any other types of lessons?
ALAN FRASER
Canadian pianist Alan Fraser gives master classes and recitals worldwide and conducts ongoing research and refinement on the ideas put forth in his three books, The Craft of Piano Playing (also in DVD), Honing the Pianistic Self-Image, and All Thumbs: Well-Coordinated Piano Technique. He is at work on several new volumes. Visit here for more on Alan Fraser.
If you have concerns or questions about your participation in the institute and would like to address them directly to Alan Fraser, send him an email.
Pianist and pedagogue Marie-Astrid Vermaasorganized the Festival. She is a long-standing resident of Hertogenbosch, and teaches at her studio, The Piano Touch. She is a volunteer curator of the instruments at the Geelvinck Piano Museum, is an accomplished chorister, and has translated Alan Fraser's book, Skeletal Wisdom into Dutch. This Festival also served as the book launch for De wijsheid van het skelet. Marie-Astrid performs regularly as both a solo and chamber musician, and first attended an Alan Fraser Piano Institute in 2018.
Marie-Astrid's contact information: Email Marie-Astrid
