37th International EPTA Conference in Amsterdam

From October 22nd-25th  2015 EPTA Netherlands will host the International EPTA Conference at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Key Connections is the theme: how do we manage important connections within our profession? How do we connect to our instrument and its manifold music, with our students and their world, with our audience, to other art disciplines, and to science? Questions and answers from each EPTA country. Come and meet your colleagues from all over Europe and outside.

EPTA European conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Thursday October 22nd – Sunday October 25th 2015

Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Oosterdokskade 151, 1011 DL Amsterdam

Contact: hetty.floors@planet.nl .

News: website EPTA Europe completely renewed. See: epta-europe.org

Below you will find the following information:

Theme of the conference

Program

Workshops

Partners and supporters

Organising committee: Hetty Floors, Flor Verhey, David Kuyken, Steven Faber, Christo Lelie.

Key Connections

Key Connections is the theme of the conference: how do we manage important connections within our profession? How do we connect to our instrument and its manifold music, with our students and their world, with our audience, to other art disciplines, and to science? Questions and answers from each EPTA country.

Program

Thursday october 22nd

13.30  Welcome – reception of guests
14.30   Opening, lectures/lecture recitals

• 14.40 Jean Jacques Dünki (Switzerland) – Antonin Reicha and his 36 fugues for keyboard
• 15.20 Niklas Pokki (Finland) – Striving for the talented
• 15.40 Marcel Baudet (NL – YPF) – The Principles of Musical Education
• Discussion
• 16.45 Murray McLachlan (UK) – On sound

19.30  Key connections recital 1
Marcella Crudeli (Italy) , Ida Gamulin (Croatia), Mariann Ábrahám (Hungary) with Zen Hu (China/NL), Hande Dalkiliç (Turkey), Michal Tal (Israel).
Presented by Remon Holsbergen (NL).

Friday october 23rd
10.00 Two workshops 
10.00 Theme Science

• 10.00 Lois Svard (USA) – What neuroscience can tell musicians about learning and memory
• 10.40 Frank Bakker (NL) – The study lab, preparing students for a public recital
• 11.45 Vera Fonte (Portugal) – ‘Fugue state’ in Bach’s fugues
• Discussion

13.45 Two workshops 
13.45 Lectures/lecture recitals

• 13.45 Kris Verhelst (Belgium) – Bach and Dance
• 14.30 Steven Faber, Hannie van Veldhoven (NL) – Assessment methods in final exams piano
• 15.30 Bart van Oort (NL) – Understanding Classical and Early Romantic Dynamics 1750-1830

16.30 Dinner in the Conservatorium

18.00 Key Connecting Excursion in old Amsterdam: transport by canal boat to two historical places.
NB: maximum 120 people can go by boat. The rest will walk.

• • 18.30 Waalse Kerk: The Walloon church, built as a catholic chapel, dates back to 1409. After undergoing some alterations it eventually became a protestant Walloon church in 1568. In 1734 a Christian Müller organ replaced the organ of Nicolas Langlez. In the late 20th century this Müller organ was restored several times, and is now known as the best kept Müller organ; back to its original and very suitable for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Dietrich Buxtehude. The Walloon church is famous of its acoustics. Gerben Gritter will explain and play.
  • 20.15 Felix Meritis: for centuries a centre of art, science and political debate, now on the brink of a new era. We will attend an innovative concert that is part of the Geelvinck Pianoforte Festival which takes place from 8th-25th October in several locations. Under the title New Frontiers: Contemporary Compositions for Square Piano Michael Tsalka (Israel/Spain) and Megumi Tanno (Japan/Switserland) and others will present new compositions for square piano from The Netherlands, Iraq, Mexico, Denmark, Japan, Israel, Russia and Australia. 
  • NB Prior to EPTA’s conference a symposium takes place as part of the Geelvinck festival, with lectures and discussions on the subject of the historically informed performance practice.

Saturday october 24th
10.00 two parallel programs
1. PechaKucha Theme: Authors of recently published teaching materials

• Olga de Kort (NL) – Historical background
• Primož Mavrič (Slovenia) – Fun piano games
• Mara van Pommeren, Annemieke Boot (NL) – ‘Piano lions and stage animals’
• Mieke de Jong, Erna Fransen (NL) – ‘Handy Hands’, an auditive piano method for 5- to 8-year old children
• Karin Groß (Germany) – Pianimals in motion
• Kari Fekjar (Norway) – Opus Blå, Grønn, Rød and Gul
• Lieven Strobbe, Hans van Regenmortel (Belgium) – Tonal Tools for keyboard players
• Remo Vinciguerra (Italy) – Jazz rhythms
• Discussion chaired by Jan van den Eijnden

2. (parallel program) Lectures/lecture recitals

• 10.00 Geoffrey Madge (Australia/NL) – Ferruccio Busoni and the art of piano playing
• 10.45 Mary Lennon (Ireland) – Interconnections: Performance, pedagogy, research
• 11.55 Luís Pipa (Portugal) – Iberian flavour in Scarlatti and Carlos Seixa, played on the modern piano

12.30 Annual General Meeting, for EPTA presidents

14.00 Two workshops 

14.00 Theme Health

• 14.00 Sang-Hie Lee (USA) – Hand biomechanics
• 14.40 Hara Trouli (Greece/UK) – Pianists’ Muscles – A Key Connection
• 15.45 Gail Berenson (USA) – Forming key connections with the medical community

16.30  Ralph van Raat (NL) – Living composers

19.30 Key connections recital 2
Teresa Trevisan/Flavio Zaccaria (Italy) , Nadia Lasserson (UK) /Alberto Urroz (Spain), Diāna Zandberga (Latvia), Kestutis Grybauskas Trio (Lithuania), Irina Osipova / Kirill Kashunin (Russia).
Presented by Remon Holsbergen (NL).

Sunday october 25th (WINTERTIME!!!)

09.30 Lectures/lecture recitals

• 9.30 Einar Steen-Nøkleberg (Norway) – Lasse Thoresen, Solspill (Sun Reflections)
• 9.50 Alberto Urroz (Spain) – Recital with graphic arts
• 10.20 Justin Krawitz (South Africa/USA) – Linguistics in teaching
• 11.15 Michal Tal (Israel) – Erwin Schulhoff
• 11.45 Guus Janssen (NL) – Key Connecting Surprise!!

± 12.30   END

Workshops

• Audience is welcome. Those who want to be an active participant in one of the workshops, please contact conference2015@eptanederland.nl.

Friday october 23rd

• 10.00 Dianne Bolte (NL) – Dispokinesis    max. 5 active participants
  Dispokinesis = the ability to freely employ posture and movement. The purpose in this workshop is: to find your optimal playing form with your instrument, reaching great expression with a minimum of tension. 
• 11.45 Robijn Tilanus (NL) – Improvisation    no maximum
  The art of improvisation can be of a great help in teaching your students how to connect with their sound. In this workshop you’ll get the basics and a lot of tricks to do so! 

• 13.45 Heribert Koch (Germany) – Feuchtwanger technique  3-6 active participants
  I would like to introduce, explain and then to demonstrate with the collaboration of several members of the audience (maybe 3-6 people).
  
• 15.30  Angelin Chang (USA) – Taubman technique  max. 10 active participants
  Introductory overview about the Taubman Approach and a technique clinic with about 10 students. 

Saturday october 24th

• 14.00 Dagmar Schinnerl (Austria) – Multifaceted Concert Performances in Music Schools   no maximum
  Two established concepts for designing music school concerts will be presented. In the workshop you will work out different possibilities and gather ideas. 
• 15.40 Damjana Zupan (Slovenia) – Disconnecting fear and anger    no maximum
  Emotions, especially fear and anger, can have specific effects on teaching, playing an instrument and performing. Various techniques and methods, including Grindea Technique, will enable us to distinguish between necessary and excessive tensions as triggered by thought patterns and emotions. Furthermore, we will be challenged to master our ability to focus on what is necessary and pleasant at the same time. 

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Partners and supporters

EPTA wishes to thank all partners and supporters. Without your cooperation and funds this conference would have been impossible.

Further information (alphabetical order)

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Mariann Ábrahám (Hungary) with Zen Hu (violin)

Together with violinist Zen Hu who lives in Amsterdam, Mariann Ábrahám is going to perform a cross-section of a Hungarian and two Chinese composers:
– Paul Kadosa: Partita opus 14 (1932), I. Entrada & II. In Modo Rustico from Partita
– Sha Han Kun: Shepherd’s Song (1953)
– Yang Shan Lo: Summer Night (1953).

Mariann Ábrahám received her degree from the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy in Budapest in 1961, under the tutorship of Pal Kadosa. Her training continued with A. Webersinke in Dresden (1963/64) and with J. Zak at the Tchaikowsky Conservatory in Moscow (1971/72). As the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship Mariann Ábrahám spent a longer period in the USA, where she did research, gave concerts and lectures and held master classes. She is well-known for lectures at conferences and as a jury member at national and international competitions. All her life she  was an active concert performer. For a detailed lists of her recordings concerts and other performances see:  www.abrahammariann.hu She has held a number of master classes both in Hungary and abroad and has received numerous awards and distinctions from the State in recognition of her musical activities. Since 1996 she is the President of the Hungarian section of EPTA.

Zen Hu was born in Chengdu, China, where she started to play the violin. She continued her studies at the Menuhin Akademie in Switserland and at the Hochschule für Musik in München. She is active as a soloist and chamber music player in many countries all over the world. Together with Ning Feng she recorded the highly praised cd ‘China Connection’.

www.channelclassics.com/ning-feng-80309.html

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Frank Bakker (The Netherlands) – Lecture The study lab, an experimental approach to preparing students for a public recital

Department of Human Movement Sciences, VU University, Amsterdam
Conservatorium van Amsterdam CvA), AHK, Hogeschool van Amsterdam

For achieving the highest performance level musicians must study and practice a lot: Making hours! However, more important than the quantity of practicing is the quality of practice. We demonstrated that in our so-called study lab: an experimental setting in which six CvA students in the final year of their bachelor program prepared themselves for a public recital of 30-40 minutes within a time frame of less than two weeks. Key elements in the study lab are:

• ‘Deliberate practice’ (planning of study, goals, awareness of progress)
• The application of mental training techniques
• Practicing with an external focus (that is focus on the music and its effects)
• Training under pressure.

Al six students experienced the study lab as very valuable, an experience that prompted them to a structured, planned and goal directed approach and an efficient way of studying. They learned a lot in a relatively short time period. They argued to incorporate the elements of the study lab in the CvA curriculum. The project focuses on the similarities between performance in sports and music, and explores the applicability of insights from sport psychology and training sciences in music education programs.

Until his retirement in 2013, Dr. Frank C. Bakker was associate professor in sport psychology in the Faculty of Human Movement Sciences (HMS), VU University, Amsterdam. Since his retirement he is guest lecturer and researcher in this Faculty. Since 2014 he is affiliated to the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (CvA), and involved in the project ‘Taking the Hurdles of Performance”. He published over 50 articles in international scientific journals and is author of the first study book on sport psychology in the Dutch language (Bakker & Whiting, 1984, translated in English, German, French and Spanish). In 2012 a completely new version was published (Bakker & Oudejans, 2012).

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Marcel Baudet (NL – YPF) – The Principles of Musical Education

When setting off on the journey of musical education, we need to be aware of the nature of the content goals to be attained. Content stands for internalized musical understanding. Hence the principle task is to teach music and to make our pupils listen and hear, to open the doors to the language of music and teach them to speak ‘music’ as a mother tongue. Any teacher of a talented pupil must be ‘a professional’ himself. He must understand how both the musical process and the body function. He must have the persuasiveness and charisma to encourage the pupil to be seriously demanding on himself, especially in terms of musical expression and control.
These many challenges make our work continually fascinating. Observing the actual landscape of music education of young pianists in the Netherlands, we can see lots of improvement in the recent decades.  The Young Pianist Foundation is constantly striving to approach an ideal condition. We should however always realize that there is one thing for which we should be very grateful: the continual emergence of new talented children, loving music and eager to learn.

Marcel Baudet is professor of piano, currently at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Stoke d’Abernon (UK) and till 2011 also at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague. He teaches at various summer courses among which MusicAlp in Tignes (France), Vila-Seca (Spain) and Blonay (Switzerland). He studied piano, music theory and conducting and, simultaneously, social and economic history (University of Groningen). Over the past 30 years Marcel Baudet’s students often won prizes at national and international competitions. As a composer, he won in 1995 the national Buma/Stemra Award for film music. He is regularly invited to give international masterclasses or to adjudicate in national and international piano competitions. In 1999 he established the Young Pianist Foundation (YPF). In his function as its artistic director he is organizing the YPF Piano Competition Grand Prix Youri Egorov, the Young Pianists Festival and the YPF Jazz Piano Competition. Marcel Baudet was for ten years on the board of the EPTA Nederland and the Stichting Jong Muziektalent Nederland (SJMN). He is a member of the editorial board of the Piano Bulletin for which he wrote many articles.

www.ypf.nl

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Gail Berenson (USA) – The Role of the Teacher in Keeping Our Students Healthy and Actively Performing: Forming Key Connections with the Medical Community

Like athletes, musicians use their bodies as they practice and perform, spending hours preparing for their moment in the spotlight. Teachers are the first line of defense for our students, helping to educate them in injury-preventive strategies and providing them the skills and tools to reach their potential and remain active musicians, amateur and professional alike, throughout their lifetime.  This lecture will discuss strategies to help both teachers and students remain healthy and explore the role of the teacher in helping a student deal with psychological and/or physical issues that can affect their performance. Attention will be focused on encouraging students to cultivate a resourceful and imaginative practicing attitude, learning essential time management skills for more efficient practicing, tactics for handling performance anxiety and developing a thoughtful working agenda that will enhance their problem solving abilities and free their musicality. We will also discuss the specific roles teachers play in assisting their students recover and return to performance level, should an injury occur.

Key connections with medical professionals enable teachers to better educate themselves on the topic of musicians’ health and wellness, and assist in forming a team approach, should a student become injured. It is important to recognize that injuries can be playing related, occurring as a result of misuse or overuse, or can be the result of simply living life – a fall, a sports-related injury, or from pursuing an activity that has nothing to do with music making. It is then that our connections with our medical colleagues become most essential as we form a team to help our students fully recover and preserve their musical identities. This session will help bring the EPTA membership up to date on essential wellness information, as well as providing a listing of the most significant resources available.

Gail Berenson is Professor Emerita of Piano at Ohio University and was awarded the School of Music’s Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award in 2000.  As a result of her respected work as a piano pedagogue and her reputation as a noted expert on musician wellness issues, she has been invited to perform and lecture in over thirty-one states and ten countries (England, Madeira, Canada, china, Greece, Brazil). Professor Berenson is a Past President of Music Teachers National Association, an association of over twenty-two thousand members, and in 2015 was awarded MTNA’s prestigious Distinguished Service Award. She serves as Chair of the Musicians’ Health and Wellness Special Interest Group for the International Society of Music Education and is also a member of the ISME Forum on Vocal and Instrumental Teaching. She also chairs College Music Society’s newly established Committee on Musicians’ Health. Ms. Berenson is one of the co-authors of A Symposium for Pianists and Teachers: Strategies to Develop Mind and Body for Optimal Performance and a contributor of three chapters to the fourth edition of Lyke, Haydon and Rollins’s Creative Piano Teaching. In recognition of her significant contributions to the music world and the music teaching profession, she was awarded an MTNA Foundation Fellow Award in 2007. A dedicated teacher, her students are performing and teaching in independent studios and on college faculties throughout the world.

www.gailberenson.com

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Dianne Bolte (The Netherlands) – Workshop Dispokinesis

The purpose in this workshop is: to find your optimal playing form with your instrument! Freedom in making music (= the ability to convert what you hear internally into actual sound) can only be achieved, when there is no obstacle on the part of the musician’s body. If there is, however, it’s possible that you develop complaints like tiredness, tensions, pain and other playing disorders. Very often such complaints are the consequence of an inadequate posture and may affect your technical ability.
The word Dispokinesis is derived from the Latin disponere which means to have free disposal of and the Greek kinesis which means movement. Dispokinesis: the ability to freely dispose of posture and movement. (I’m feeling one with my instrument!) With a minimum of tension, reaching great expression!

At the heart of Dispokinesis lies a series of exercises that may enable you to find your own personal disposition, your optimal posture and playing technique. These simple exercises are based on the natural development of posture and movement and were developed by the pianist and physiotherapist G.O. van de Klashorst, after years of research and analysis. What he discovered, is fascinating. A dispokinesisworkshop enables you to get a first impression of what Dispokinesis has to offer.

Dianne Bolte is Dispokinesisteacher at ArtEZ conservatory and piano teacher. She finished her conservatory piano study in 1990 in Enschede and followed the study to become a dispokinesisteacher. From 1990 till now, she works with professional musicians with playing problems. Fifteen Years (1990-2005) she worked in the “Institut van de Klashorst” in Germany. Since 2005, she has a piano- and dispokinesispractice in Arnhem (Holland) and organized dispokinesisworkhops in Holland, Germany and Italy. Since 2011 she works as a dispokinesisteacher at the three conservatories of ArtEZ (Arnhem, Enschede, Zwolle), to take care of the prevention of developing playing problems by music students.

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Angelin Chang (USA) – Workshop Taubman technique

At this session professor Angelin Chang will demonstrate techniques used in piano teaching to address and alleviate performance-related injuries and technical limitations. The workshop will outline basic movements at the piano, common misconceptions and problems in piano technique, and application of principles of the Dorothy Taubman Piano Approach to coordinate effective technical functioning. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to bring in their most challenging excerpts to effectively resolve during the session.

Angelin Chang is the first American female pianist awarded the GRAMMY® for Best Instrumental Soloist with Orchestra. She earned the Doctor of Musical Arts from Peabody Institute and is Professor of Piano and Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at Cleveland State University, where she is also Professor of Law at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Through her work with the Taubman Approach and Keyboard Wellness Seminars at the University of North Texas and Temple University in Philadelphia, Dr. Chang helps pianists develop virtuosity while liberating them from fatigue, pain and injury.

www.AngelinChang.com

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Marcella Crudeli (Italy) – Recital Da Cimorosa a Chopin

Marcella Crudeli’s contribution to the recital is titled: Da Cimorosa a Chopin, with two sonatas from Cimorosa, revised by herself. Of Chopin she will perform the Variazioni Brillanti Op.12 and the Scherzo si bemolle major Op.31 n.2.

Mrs. Crudeli is considered one of the most distinguished Italian concert performers. For many years she has successfully pursued an intense career as soloist and as a member of world-renown chamber music ensembles. She has performed over two thousand concerts in more than eighty different countries in five continents and has been professor of piano at the Conservatorium S. Cecilia in Rome and director of the Pescara Conservatorium (1988-2004). She is founder and president of the EPTA-Italy, as well as the Roma International Piano Competition which has been held since 1990.

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Hande Dalkiliç (Turkey) – Recital Dutch and Turkish composers connect on the keys

Pianist Hande Dalkiliç will perform combined pieces by Turkish composer Adnan Saygun with those of Dutch composers Leon Orthel and Ton De Leeuw. Especially, difficult etudes built on irregular (Aksak) rhythms by both de Leeuw and Saygun with their “key connection” concept are going to be among the most attractive pieces of the performance.

Hande Dalkiliç is known for her interpretation of modern pieces as well as classical ones and thanks to albums and CD’s that include such work she’s recognized around the world as an artist that focuses on protecting the Turkish piano heritage. www.handedalkilic.com

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Jean Jacques Dünki (Switserland) – Antonin Reicha and his 36 fugues for keyboard

Antonin Reicha (1770–1836), the case of an early 19th century post-modernist. As a young cosmopolitan musician Antonin Reicha he dedicated his «Trente six FUGUES pour le Piano-Forté / composées d’après un nouveau système […]» in 1803 to his teacher Josef Haydn. This outstanding body of contrapunctal writing and experiments in tonal systems encompasses 2-part to 6-part fugues on themes by J.S.Bach, Scarlatti, Frescobaldi, Mozart, Haydn and his own. The composer is both respectful in regard to tradition and boldly innovative in his highly original approach. In recent years, thorough scholarship on Reicha’s life and work has been done in Paris.

Pianist, composer and researcher Jean-Jacques Dünki was born in Switzerland. After his studies he was awarded First Prize at the 1981 Arnold Schoenberg Competition in Rotterdam. He is touring worldwide as a pianist and lecturer with a preference for early 20th century repertoire. First recordings of works by Reger, Zemlinsky, Schreker, Berg and Webern are found in his exquisite discography. He is a freshly retired professor of piano, fortepiano and chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel, Switzerland and chairs presently the board of EPTA Switzerland. As a composer, he has a list of nearly a hundred works at his command, mainly for keyboard and chamber music. Jean-Jacques Dünki is also an organizer of large congresses such as «Schumann interpretieren».

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Jan van den Eijnden (NL) – PechaKucha chairman

photo: Lilian van Rooij

Jan van den Eijnden studied music education with Cor de Man and French Horn with Herman Jeurissen in Tilburg (NL). He works as a teacher at Fontys Conservatory (Music University) in Tilburg and as senior arts education consultant at the National Centre of Expertise for Cultural Education and Amateur Arts (LKCA) in Utrecht.  He is a much demanded chairman of jury teams for national and international contest and music events.

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Steven Faber, Hannie van Veldhoven (NL) – Assessment methods in final exams piano: it is not all thát black and white.

A research report concerning the assessment methods of Conservatoire Final Exams Bachelor Piano (jazz&pop and classical) that are used by principles teachers. Interviews and documents were analysed on several topics. National and European competences and guidelines were compared with teachers’ visions. Outcomes: teachers’ judgements are mostly holistic and judging is done deductive. The judgements are not always in cohesion with provided protocols and forms. Confronting conservatoire teachers with (inter)national competences shows discrepancies on what principal teachers claim to be their field of practise and knowledge. Aim of the research was to give insight in what teachers say and think to assess at final exams.

Steven Faber, pianist and teacher of piano and methodology, works as accompanist in the vocal department of ArtEZ Institute of the Arts (Zwolle, Netherlands). As project manager and research supervisor he works for the Master of Music of ArtEZ. Steven graduated in 2014 as Master of Education in Arts (AHK, School of the Arts, Amsterdam, Netherlands).

Hannie van Veldhoven MA(Ed), pianist/composer. Course leader Jazz&Pop at HKU Utrechts Conservatorium (the Netherlands), teacher piano and methodology. She combined for many years artistic research as a musical director in a company where actors and musicians were performing together, next to working at the HKU Utrechts Conservatorium as a teacher an a course leader Jazz&Pop. In 2014 she finished the interdisciplinary Master’s degree in Amsterdam AHK (Amsterdam School of the Arts).

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Kari Fekjar (Norway) – PechaKucha Opus Blå, Grønn, Rød and Gul

Four books for starters, from level 1-4.
Opus Blå, Level 1. The idea is to make the music fun and pleasant to play in a calm and comfortable mood. The lyrics are much based on nature, activities and of two children in the viking period. Primary and broken cords. Scales, intervals and rhythm provide multivocality. Fingering.
Opus Grønn, Level 1 to 1+. Creating your own variations by adding, selecting and developing rapidity. It provides the sense of music understanding! Own ideas, creativity, rapidity and selecting by listening. Together with Opus Blå it gives an excellent variation in music materials, and also basic technical and musical foundation. Famous songs, some new melodies. Fingering is noted.
Opus Rød, Level 2-3. Finally you are able to play famous original and some arranged pieces from all epochs. Selections from Bach to Mancini, Clapton and Fekjar. Ballades, folk songs and famous Christmas carols. More advanced phrases, slurs, legato, contrary motions, rhythmical patterns etc. Rapid progression.
Opus Gul, Level 4 (also published in German). Move on to your favourite pieces and more advanced music for piano. Develop further piano technique to play various composers and styles. Major and minor in several keys, more polyphonic movements, ornaments and various rhythm patterns. Explanations and biographies. Sonata and Rondo forms, Menuets, Ballades, Rags and Jazz. Composers from Bach to Lennon/MacCartney. Fingering is well noted.

Kari Fekjar is a graduate piano teacher at Oslo Musikkonservatorium. Later she studied piano at University State College, Long Beach California. She has taught piano at several piano schools, and for many years she has been teaching students of all ages at her own piano school. Essential is emphasizing educational arrangements tailored to the individual students at any level. This is carried out in all my four booklets for piano education.

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Vera Fonte (Portugal) – Lecture Avoiding fugue state when playing Bach’s Fugues

There is no consensus between pianists and pedagogues about musical memorization processes. In recent decades, several investigations have provided new insights but few studies tried to understand the role of the piano teacher during this process. Is the memorization skill addressed in the classroom? Do teachers provide to their students a set of possible strategies to memorize more efficiently? This presentation is based on a case study having as main purpose the development and pedagogical implementation of a set of strategies for the memorization of a Fugue from J.S. Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier. The results of this case-study will be presented.

Vera Fonte is a doctoral candidate in the Centre for Performance Science and a Royal College of Music Scholar supported by a McFadzean Whyte Award. Her research examines music memorisation, predominantly in the contemporary piano repertoire. Vera graduated in piano performance at the University of Minho under the tutelage of Luís Pipa, where she also completed a master’s degree in music teaching. In 2013 she became vice president of EPTA Portugal.

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Ida Gamulin (Croatia) – Recital Three anniversaries

Thirty years on stage as a concert pianist, chamber musician and recording artist, twentyfive years of teaching at the Music academy and ten years as a president of EPTA Croatia – three anniversaries in 2015 which I would like to mark and celebrate with my EPTA family at the Conference in Amsterdam.
During these past thirty years I’ve been trying to connect all aspects of my professional life with joy, love and devotion.
My celebration program is: I. Josipovich, Jubilus (dedicated to Ida Gamulin); V.Bellini, Sonata breva in G and G.Rossini’s Sins of old age (Barcarole, Un profond Sommeil and Petit Caprice – Style Offenbach).

Croatian pianist Ida Gamulin graduated from the Zagreb Music Academy and continued her studies in London where she received advice and guidance of S.Kovacevich, A.Brendel and A.Fischer. She won a number of prizes, including Svetislav Stancic Prize, Dame Myra Hess Award and Milka Trnina Prize – Croatia’s top cultural award. Her concert tours have taken her all over Europe, in Asya and the USA. She has recorded for the BBC, CBS, France Musique and has released 14 labels for Croatia Records.
Ida Gamulin is Full Professor at the Zagreb Music Academy and President of EPTA Croatia since 2004. She gives regular masterclasses and is often invited as a jury member of international piano competitions.

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Gerben Gritter

Gerben Gritter (1979) is an organist, musicologist and music theorist, and a teacher at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. His research interests include the organ culture as well as composition and improvisation in historic styles. He studied organ, music theory and church music at the Amsterdam Conservatory as well as musicology at the University of Utrecht. He graduated cum laude from both institutions and won prizes at various international organ competitions.

Gerben Gritter is Assistant Organist of the Waalse Kerk in Amsterdam, where he plays the famous Christian Müller organ of 1734. He completed his doctoral studies in 2014 at the University of Utrecht with a thesis entitled Christian Müller – Orgelmaker in Amsterdam. A book on Müller is currently in preparation.

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Karin Groß (Germany) – Pecha Kucha Pianimals in motion, Tierisch Klavierisch

Pianimals in Motion is an entertaining collection of short character pieces. With animals as their theme the atmosphere they create will not only stimulate children’s imaginations. Glow-worms, black panthers and tipsy masters have their musical say but also Inspector Bloodhound and even dandelions and zebra crossings romp around in pianimalistic company …
Children feel a strong affinity to animals. To use this to transmit playing techniques in a musically attractive way is the intention of the author. Easy to grasp pieces of widely varying moods are collected in two volumes. Whether cheerfully playful, soft or spooky, there are so many different styles and characters ranging from a romantic atmospheric picture right up to jazzy elements.

Karin Groß studied piano and instrumental education at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold. Advanced courses in piano and piano teaching followed, as did chamber music recitals. She has developed her teaching concepts in the course of giving lessons to children, young people and adults over many years. In addition to being a freelance teacher, she also works at the School of Music in Soest and as a piano teacher at Dortmund University. Besides Pianimals in Motion she has composed and arranged other teaching materials for beginners which are published by Holzschuh-Verlag, Manching (Germany).

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Kestutis Grybauskas Trio (Lithuania) – Recital For piano 6 hands

The trio will perform new pedagogical and concert performance repertoire for piano 6 hands by author Kestutis Grybauskas:
Two Swiss Fantasies and Don Carlos visions (Verdi) will be performed.

Kestutis Grybauskas is a professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. He is a president of the EPTA Lithuania, initiator and founder of the piano ensemble genre in Lithuania. He is also known as a composer with his music compositions for piano solo and piano ensembles pieces.
Laima Mameniskyte and Aurelija Seliaviene are former students of Grybauskas. Mameniskyte was for a long time head of Siauliu city Saulius Sondeckis gymnasium of arts. Seliaviene won several national and international piano competitions and is secretary of EPTA Lithuania.

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Remon Holsbergen

Remon Holsbergen (Leiderdorp, 1986) performs both as a soloist and a chamber musician. He has given concerts in the Netherlands, France, Germany and Spain. Remon has a passion for the classical-romantic repertoire, but also has great interest in modern and contemporary music. Remon has studied piano at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Marcel Baudet and Frank van de Laar, and at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg (Germany) with Elza Kolodin, where he obtained his Master’s Degree. In 2011 he received a scholarship from the Dutch Prins Bernhard Culture Foundation, to support his Master studies in Freiburg.

Remon strongly values the contact with his audience, and for that reason he loves to speak and write about composers, works and performance. Since 2009, he is pianist and host in the Classic Express: a ‘movable concert hall’ that visits schools throughout The Netherlands, built and designed especially for children, by the Prinses Christina Concours foundation.

Guus Janssen (NL) – Key connecting surprise!!

Guus Janssen (1951) is a pianist, harpsichordist, composer and improvisor. His music is difficult to categorize. It can be a composed improvisation (Brake for piano solo) or an improvised composition (parts from his Violin Concerto or his opera Noach). Music is like life itself: sometimes it asks for fast decisions and sometimes it needs to be thought over a lot.

As a pianist and harpsichordist he performed in various groupings with musicians from John Zorn to Gidon Kremer. Since the early 1980’s he has led his own ensembles, ranging from pianotrios to (opera) orchestra. As a soloist, playing mainly his own compositions and improvisations, he has appeared at a lot of international festivals. Janssen’s achievements in the field of jazz and improvised music have been widely acclaimed. It was for them that he received the Boy Edgar Award, 1981.

His compositions range from solo pieces to symphonic work; they have been widely played by, amongst others, the Kronos Quartet, the Schönberg Ensemble, the Ebony Band and the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest. He has composed four operas, of which two have been staged by Dutch National Opera.

In recognition of his standing and quality as a composer, Janssen won the Matthijs Vermeulen Award, 1984. In 2012 Janssen was honoured with the prestigious Johan Wagenaar Award for his whole oeuvre, in 2014 followed by the Kunstprijs of the A. Roland Holstfonds. The jury praised his flexibility as an improvisor, his passion as a composer and performing artist and his curiosity to new musical forms and combination of genres.

www.guusjanssen.com

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Mieke de Jong, Erna Fransen (NL) – PechaKucha Smarties (Bijdehandjes)

The two volumes of Handy Hands (Bijdehandjes) were an immediate succes after publication in the Netherlands. This auditive piano method for 5- to 8-year old children presents a combination of singing the songs, moving and playing the piano, with a lot of attention being paid to the development of the left hand, for transposing, for playing together and for rhythmic development.

Erna Fransen studied the piano with Jacques Hendriks in Arnhem and with Herman Uhlhorn in Utrecht. Mieke de Jong studied the piano with Barbara Grajevska in Rotterdam and Sumiko Nagaoka and Herman Uhlhorn in Utrecht. Both piano teachers work at the Music School in Zeist, where they developed the method together, working with groups of young children.

www.bijdehandjes-piano.nl

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Heribert Koch (Germany) – Workshop Feuchtwanger technique: Getting in touch with the keyboard – getting connected to the music.

An introduction to Peter Feuchtwanger’s piano exercises and alternative fingerings. His exercises go beyond the presentation of yet another set of “finger exercises” but offer a very fundamental approach to getting in touch with the keyboard instead. Sometimes seeming contrary to common principles of piano technique, they do in fact enrich the range of possible ways to “touch” the keyboard. Two main aspects make these exercises particularly interesting and relevant for the general topic of the conference:
1) The general approach is rather to sensitise the pianist and thus enable him to feel which way of touching the keyboard is economic, healthy and musical instead of imposing technical patterns which have then to be applied in particular situations.
2) The connection between the way of touching the keyboard and of getting in touch with the performed music is a vital element to these exercises.

Application examples will show that the basic principles as being practised in the exercises do not only offer possible solutions for technical issues. It will be demonstrated how the resulting alternative, sometimes surprisingly “different” fingerings can influence the musical expression and – even more fundamentally – the musical feeling and understanding.

Heribert Koch studied at the academies of Cologne and Karlsruhe and later with Peter Feuchtwanger in London who had a major influence on his artistic development and whom he frequently served as an assistant in his masterclasses. Beyond concert programmes with major works from the standard repertoire, he frequently performs unfamiliar compositions, often presenting them in the form of lecture recitals. Renowned critics equally praise the “lucidness” and the “evocative intensity” of his performances.
The particular quality of his pedagogical work has been widely recognized and his students are frequently finalists and prize winners on national and international competitions and receive invitations to perform at renowned festivals.
He holds a teaching position at the Musikhochschule Münster (Germany).

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Olga de Kort (NL) – PechaKucha Historical background

In her lecture about history, backgrounds and basical points and ideas of beginners methods, Olga de Kort introduces the variety of existing methods through the centuries, countries and piano schools.

Pianist and musicologist Olga de Kort (The Netherlands) studied in Russia (piano, culture sciences), France (journalism) and the Netherlands (musicology and music history, music education and communication, piano, organ) where she lives from 1998. Olga is member of editorial board at Piano Bulletin, secretary of EPTA Education and Documentation Center, board member of EPTA Nederland and head of EPTA’s workgroup for beginners methods. She is owner of music bureau {aKKOlade and is active as freelance musician, piano teacher, music journalist and lecturer in music history and culture. She writes for Piano Bulletin, Pianist, Luister, Preludium, De Klank, Het Orgel, Muziek&Liturgie, Kunstzone, bachtrack.com etc. Among her publications are articles about piano music and Russian music, piano education, albums for children and beginners methods. Besides her personal journalist blog Olga has a website about the Russian music in the Netherlands. At this moment she works on a book about Russian music and musicians in the Netherlands and writes a biography of the Russian singer Anna El Tour.

www.olgadekort.com
russischemuziekinnederland.wordpress.com

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Justin Krawitz (South Africa/USA) – Texting the Untexted: linguistics in piano teaching

For pianists, the connection between music and language may be a little more abstract than for singers, and the benefits of a more explicit word-tone connection are often lost on those who do not need to consider verbal text in the course of music-making. This presentation will explore texting of piano music as a pedagogical tool. Creating texts to fit instrumental melodies can help students clarify musical issues on many different levels. On a micro-level, thinking about the phonetics of language can foster an increased sensitivity to questions of articulation. On a macro-level, texting of melodies can help clarify melodic inflection and phrasing. On an intermediary level, the words assigned to a given group of notes can assist in conveying musical gesture and even help correct rhythmical problems. Examples of all these uses will be discussed with reference to examples from the piano repertoire, and strategies for creating texts to fit instrumental melodies will be suggested.

South African pianist Justin Krawitz is Assistant Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at the University of Northern Colorado. His diverse performance experience has included recitals at venues such as the Chateau Kroměříž as part of the Forfest International Festival, a world premiere inside Cape Town Central Train Station, participation in outreach concerts at the Madison Correctional Facility in Wisconsin, and work as a recording artist for Czech Radio. Dr. Krawitz is an active clinician, with regular invitations to give masterclasses and pedagogical workshops at music schools from Raleigh to Reykjavik. He has been published in the EPTA Piano Journal and the ISSTIP Journal Tension in Performance, which he joins as editor in 2015. Krawitz is also a contributing editor of the Martinů Revue and a board member of the International Martinů Circle.

www.unco.edu/arts/music/music_faculty/krawitz.html

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Nadia Lasserson (UK) and Alberto Urroz (Spain) – Recital Georges Enescu

This ad hoc duo will perform Georges Enescu’s First Romanian Rhapsody for two piano’s, arrangement bij Richard Simm. This arrangement would be a European Premiere as the American edition of this arrangement has long been out of print. The work will be played as a tribute to Nadia’s mother, the Romanian Carola Grindea, founder of EPTA and a good friend of Enescu.

Nadia Lasserson was a student at the Royal Academy of Music and studied piano with Robin Wood and Max Pirani and also clarinet and harpsichord. She is an experienced performer with a wide repertoire of Concertos and Chamber Music. Nadia has produced a CD which includes all new works composed especially for “PIANO 40” (an ensemble for 8 hands on 2 pianos) of which Nadia is the Founder. Nadia has a wide experience of teaching and working with young musicians. She believes it is important that all her pupils are exposed to ensemble playing (both piano ensembles and chamber music) from the very early stages and these topics have led her to present workshops on the subject in the UK and abroad. Her publication Piano Needn’t be Lonely – a guide to over 600 pieces of Chamber Music and Multipiano Repertoire – is now in its third edition. As well as running a private teaching practice in South London she is currently on the teaching staff of Trinity College of Music and the Royal College of Music Junior Departments.
Since 1991, she has been the Organising Secretary of EPTA, which her mother, Carola Grindea, founded in 1978.

For Alberto Urroz, see here.

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Sang-Hie Lee (USA) – Hand biomechanics

Skilled pianists’ dexterity combines finger technique, hand and arm weight and relaxation, and physiological mechanics. The ultimate sound production relies on the pianists’ finger-touch control. History reveals that famous pianists had varied hand size and shape. We wonder whether large hand has advantage over small hand and if small hand poses injury risk. We tested four groups of skilled pianists (N=31) and classified them into four categories: artists, graduate pianists, undergraduate pianists and injured professional pianists. Performance outcomes in playing seven tasks were measured by temporal and dynamic evenness touch control on the piano keys, quantified in MIDI data generated from a hybrid acoustic-electronic piano. DataGlove 5DT was used to capture motion at 14 finger joints to compare an injured and a healthy pianists’ joints motions in playing a rapid scale.
The results of this study will be presented. Our study demonstrates relationships between hand biomechanics and touch control as well as the proper hand-finger coordination that is essential to injury-preventive pedagogy and rehabilitation.

Sang-Hie Lee is a distinguished innovative performer-researcher. As founder of Ars Nostra, she performs new music by colleagues and contemporaries across international venues. Lee’s cutting-edge researches in pianists’ biomechanics and instrumental musicians’ health are published in significant refereed research journals. Dr. Lee received a BA in piano performance from Ewha Woman’s University; MM in piano performance from the American Conservatory of Music; an EdD with specialization in piano performance and pedagogy from The University of Georgia, and a PhD in higher education in academic affairs from The University of Michigan. She is Professor of Music at University of South Florida.

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Mary Lennon (Ireland) – Interconnections: Performance, pedagogy, research

This paper addresses the conference theme of ‘Key Connections’ by focusing on the interconnections to be found between performance, pedagogy and research in the context of piano teaching and learning. The paper will explore some of the key literature relating to these areas and examine the intersections and interconnections arising. Sub-themes and further ‘key connections’ arising in the course of the discussion include the ‘science-art’ and  ‘theory-practice’ connections along with the intersections between creativity and critical thinking in teaching and learning.  The paper will also address concepts of ‘artist – teacher’ and ‘teacher-researcher’, suggesting that piano teaching and learning can be informed and enriched when teachers engage across all three dimensions.

Dr Mary Lennon is a founder member and former Chairperson of EPTA Ireland  and is currently a member of the EPTA Ireland committee.  As a Senior Lecturer and former Head of Keyboard Studies at DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama in Dublin, Mary enjoys teaching Piano and Music Education and supervises postgraduate research in music education.  Mary also has wide experience in the areas of masterclasses, workshops and adjudicating and regularly acts as extern examiner from grade examination to PhD level.  Mary’s research interests include piano pedagogy and instrumental/vocal teacher education and she has presented at conferences, lectured and published on these subjects both nationally and internationally.   She has also been involved in the AEC (European Association of Conservatoires) Erasmus funded Polifonia projects (Instrumental/Vocal Teacher Education: European Perspectives 2007-2010 and Assessment and Standards 2011-2014) and was a founder member of the ISME (International Society for Music Education) Forum for Instrumental and Vocal Teaching.

www.conservatory.dit.ie    mary.lennon@dit.ie

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Geoffrey Madge (Australia/NL) – Ferruccio Busoni and the art of piano playing

The following points of interest will be discussed: the influence of Franz Liszt; Busoni’s piano playing and technique, based on his and students comments; his best recordings (what do we hear?); his teachings; quotes and comments; the compositions (early, middle and late periods, the visionary Busoni), what has Busoni to offer the future generations of pianists (Sorabji and further); demonstrations of various aspects of his piano playing.
Madge will perform Busoni’s Ten variations on a theme of Chopin 1921. The audience will be invited to ask questions at the end of the session.

Geoffrey Madge was born in Adelaide (Australia). He studied at the The Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide. After winning first prize in the Australian Broadcasting Competition with the Brahms Second Piano Concerto, he moved to Europe and finally to Holland where he was appointed in 1971 as senior professor of piano at the Royal Conservatorium in The Hague, a position he held until his retirement in 2006. Geoffrey Madge has always enjoyed presenting daring recitals with strongly contrasting programs, mixing the baroque, classics and 19th century works through to the most recent avant-garde. He has been especially known for his concerts and recordings of many unjustifiably neglected compositions, including among many others the four hour long Opus Clavicembalisticum by Kaikhosru Sorabji and his prize winning 6 CD anthology of the piano works of Busoni for Philips.

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Primož Mavrič (Slovenia) – Pecha Kucha Fun piano games

Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose: these are connecting key elements of motivation with piano practice. How can we help the transformation of our students into great Students and Artists, from the ordinary and the usual into the Extraordinary and the Beautiful? Our system of fun piano games will be presented, whose purpose is to improve students’ concentration and desire for practicing, but also their cognition, memory and musicality. Magic pencil, zigzag game, annoying bugs, eating chains, brave cuckoos and background brooks – these are all techniques which help students become autonomous, precise and motivated practicers. These tools can help us to spend less time »reading« the notes during piano lessons, so we can dedicate more time to the most important segments of our work – to the enchanting piano sound, artistic communication and her majesty – the Music.

Primož Mavrič (Slovenia) finished his studies at the Music academy in Zagreb and earned a Master of Science degree in piano methodics and didactics at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, where he was also habilitated as the assistant professor in the field of piano didactics. He works as a piano professor and accompanist in Music school Celje. He is the author of the first handbook for piano practicing in Slovenia and Croatia: From the first tone to the stage – methods for effective practicing of a piano composition. He is currently writing his second book about piano practice protocols and their programming. He gives lectures and holds workshops in effective piano practicing for teachers and students (Slovenia, Croatia, Germany). He is the president of EPTA Slovenia.

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Murray McLachlan (UK) – On sound

This presentation concerns sound in abstract, sound in terms of horizontal development (phrasing) and sound in terms of vertical hierarchy (voicing, part playing).  It will argue that true development at all levels depends on the pianist, and the teacher, escaping from the narrow confines of piano playing.  For true development of tone and sound in all its manifestations, pianists need to learn from other instrumentalists, from singers, conductors, dancers, orators, actors and from the other arts- painting in particular, but also from architecture.  The conclusion emphasizes the need for the pianist to be so much more than just a pianist in order to truly be a pianist in the proper sense.

Murray McLachlan, Chair of EPTA UK is Head of Keyboard at Chetham’s School of Music and a Senior Tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. McLachlan has made many recordings which have received outstanding reviews. He has performed on all five continents and  also serves regularly on juries of international piano competitions. Since 2014 he is also EPTA Executive Committee Chair.
McLachlan is founder and artistic Director of the Chetham’s International Summer school and festival for Pianists. In 2007 McLachlan launched the first Manchester International Concerto Competition for Young Pianists. McLachlan has contributed many articles on piano technique and music to magazines including ‘International Piano’ and ‘BBC Music Magazine’.  He is editor of ‘Piano Professional’ Magazine and of EPTA’s Piano Journal. 

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Bart van Oort (NL) – Understanding Classical and Early Romantic Dynamics 1750-1830

Towards 1800 composers started to write more refined dynamics, though the way composers notated them was still based on earlier practice. The performer must base decisions about the realisation of dynamics on an understanding of the musical language. The notated ‘dynamic’ marking is not primarily an indication of volume; notated dynamics can have several additional meanings. In this lecture Bart van Oort will deal with classical dynamics, focusing on the local function of forte and crescendo, on the secundary meaning of crescendos and diminuendos, the influence of harmony, the relative meaning of ff, the dynamics of high notes, the rubato implication of dynamic markings, and other factors.
Bart van Oort will bring his own fortepiano to demonstrate many examples.

After completing his modern piano degree at the Royal Conservatory at The Hague, Bart van Oort studied fortepiano with Stanley Hoogland. In 1986 he won the first prize and  the special Audience prize at the Mozart Fortepiano Competition in Brugges, Belgium, and he subsequently studied with Malcolm Bilson at Cornell University. He has given lectures and masterclasses and performed all over the world. Bart van Oort teaches fortepiano and is a lecturer in Historical Performance Practice at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

Since 1997 Van Oort has made more than fifty recordings of chamber music and solo repertory, including the prize-winning 4-CD box set The Art of the Nocturne in the Nineteenth Century, the Complete Haydn Piano Trios (10 CDs) with his ensemble the Van Swieten Society, with Malcolm Bilson and five other fortepianists the Complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas and, with four other fortepianists, the Complete Haydn Piano Sonatas. In 2006 Bart van Oort completed a ten-year, 14-CD recording project, the Complete Works for Piano solo and Piano four-hands of Mozart. In 2015 Bart van Oort started a 4 cd project with 19th c. Nocturnes from France, Russia, Germany and The Rest of Europe.

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Irina Osipova and Kirill Kashunin (Russia) – Recital Tchaikovsky Simphonic Fantasy ‘Franceska da Rimini’

Tchaikovsky’s Simphonic Fantasy ‘Franceska da Rimini’ is an arrangement for two piano’s by Karl Klintworth (1830 – 1916).

Irina Osipova (Moscow Region, 1955) graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire in 1981 (class of prof. Eugene Malinin) where she was later appointed as Professor of Piano (solo and accompaniment). She offers a wide repertoire and has played in many countries, both as a soloist and with orchestra. Her recording include all Rachmaninov’s transcriptions for the piano, songs by Mussorgsky and works of N. Medtner. In 1996 she became a President of EPTA-Russia. She also is the Editor in Chief of the Piano Journal of Russia.

Kirill Kashunin (Moscow, 1981) began taking piano lessons there at the age of eight with N. Afanaseva. He studied in Moscow P.I.Tchaikovsky Conservatory under Professor Irina Osipova and graduated in 2009.  Kirill participated in master classes given by John Lill, Paul Badura-Skoda and Artur Pizarro. Since 2009 he is working as assistance of piano faculty in Moscow Conservatory. Since 2003 he has developed his career on an international scale and won several prices.

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Luís Pipa (Portugal) – A Contemporary Portray of an Eighteenth-Century Key-Connection: The Iberian flavour emerging from Domenico Scarlatti’s and Carlos Seixas’s harpsichord sonatas played on the modern piano.

When Domenico Scarlatti went to Lisbon in 1720 to serve as a Capelmeister in the court of King John V, one of the richest European Courts of the day, he met a young Portuguese fellow, who would become his “second-in-command”, José António Carlos de Seixas, already a brilliant organist and harpsichordist at seventeen. Almost twenty years younger than the celebrated Italian, Seixas was also a brilliant composer, who, by the end of his life at thirty-eight, had allegedly written over seven-hundred sonatas, of which only around one-hundred survived, the others presumably lost in the catastrophic earthquake that struck the Portuguese capital in 1755. Far less known than Scarlatti’s, Seixas’s sonatas display an originality and national flavor. In view of the characteristics of Seixas’ music, it is suggested that the widely claimed ”Spanish” flavour of Scarlatti’s music, due to the later period of his life in Spain, may have had it’s origins in the earlier Portuguese years, thus being perhaps more accurate to speak about an “Iberian” influence. The performing part of this lecture recital will alternate sonatas by the two composers, so that the audience may be continually aware of the differences and similarities between these two remarkable figures.

Born in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, Luís Pipa carried out his musical studies in the Conservatoires of Braga and Porto, where he graduated in 1982 with distinction. He then attended the concert class of Noel Flores at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts of Vienna and later he was awarded the degrees of Master of Music in Performance Studies and PhD in Performance from the British Universities of Reading and Leeds, respectively. As a pianist he premiered numerous works, having also composed pieces for piano and chamber music, including some songs. He is regularly invited to give Master Classes and to serve as a juror of different musical competitions in several countries. He has written extensively on piano interpretation and technique, and has recorded various CDs for different labels, including repertoire from Bach to the twentieth century. Tracks form his latest CD ‘Portugal’ have been selected to feature in the official musical selection of the Portuguese Airline Company TAP, including sonatas by Carlos Seixas and ‘My Beautiful Blue Country’, his acclaimed introspective solo piano version of the Portuguese National Anthem. Luís Pipa is the current President of EPTA Portugal, and Professor of piano and Chamber Music at the University of Minho, Portugal.

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Niklas Pokki (Finland) – Striving for the talented

Finland is known for its high-level state-funded music school network. During the last few years, Finland has witnessed the rise of several privately funded training groups for talented children and teenagers. The Youth Piano Academy and the Violin Academy are the best known examples. What reasons have led to this urgent need for private academies? What novel features do these academies introduce into Finnish music education? What kind of learning environments do they try to create? The lecture discusses these questions using the case of the Youth Piano Academy, a project that aims at improving the learning environment of talented young pianists. From a student’s point of view, a crucial factor in a learning environment is an enriching social network that consists of other students, their parents, regular teachers, and master class teachers. From an organizational point of view, the important target groups also include the partner schools, sponsors, and the media. The lecture focuses on how the Youth Piano Academy makes all these connections work to support the students’ artistic growth and integration into the musical community.

Niklas Pokki is a Finnish pianist, piano pedagogue, and artistic director. He is an EPTA Finland board member. Pokki studied at the Sibelius Academy and at the HfM Karlsruhe. He studied primarily under Teppo Koivisto, Matti Raekallio, Carmen Piazzini and Emanuel Krasovsky. As a soloist, he has performed with various orchestras. He is the founder and artistic director of the Mänttä Music Festival, which has been in operation since 1999, and co-founder and director of the Youth Piano Academy. He also currently holds the position of Senior Lecturer in Piano Music and Piano Pedagogy at the University of Arts, Sibelius Academy, Helsinki.

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Mara van Pommeren, Annemieke Boot (NL) – PechaKucha Piano lions and stage animals

In 2014, Klavierleeuwen and Podiumbeesten were published, two books forming a new Dutch teaching method for piano education for children. It is a unique and innovative teaching method. The books are currently only available in Dutch, but will in future also be available in other languages.
In the first book, Klavierleeuwen, the pupil plays ten different animals with both hands. These animals are represented by two-tone chords played anywhere on the keyboard. This quickly results in all kinds of different timbres and harmonies. The method starts close to the motor skills of a young child. The pupil uses the entire keyboard by moving the arms and making gripping movements with the hands. In Podiumbeesten, more attention is paid to piano techniques that are further removed from human nature than the fingerings in Klavierleeuwen. The repertoire in Klavierleeuwen and Podiumbeesten stimulates pupils to express themselves while playing; they immediately get the chance to play real music. The diversity in genres and the vivid character of the music encourage the development of the imagination and musicality.

Pianists Annemieke Boot and Mara van Pommeren studied at the conservatories of Groningen and Utrecht at the same time. At the piano methodology lessons by Robert Harris, from 2000 to 2002, they were first inspired to create this teaching method. In the years that followed, Annemieke and Mara taught an ever-growing number of pupils, both children and adults. It turned out they shared many experiences in and views about teaching, so in April 2007 they decided to create a new teaching method for young children. The project kept developing, and soon became substantial as well as successful. At the time of writing, both Mara and Annemieke have a flourishing teaching practice – with many young pupils – and they gained a lot of experience using Klavierleeuwen and Podiumbeesten in their lessons. In January 2014, the books were published by VOF De Klavierleeuwen, the company they now run together. The teaching method is now used by teachers and pupils throughout the Netherlands.
www.deklavierleeuwen.nl

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Ralph van Raat (NL) – Living composers

Today’s classical musicians and musicologists are avidly searching for the ideal performance of classical repertoire: which exact tempo should the composition be played at, which articulation is correct? Besides studying available sources which might give us indications of historical performance, another light on performance could be shed by working with living composers. Is it useful for the performer to visit a composer, after he has already expressed down all his musical wishes through the score? Can anything be learnt from such a cooperation? How representative is a score actually of the composer’s intentions? Pianist and musicologist Ralph van Raat works regularly with composers such as John Adams, Arvo Pärt and Louis Andriessen, and is convinced that it is essential for performers to work with composers to answer questions such as these. In this presentation, Ralph will share some of his ideas and experiences.

Pianist and musicologist Ralph van Raat studied the piano with Ton Hartsuiker and Willem Brons at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. He also also studied with Claude Helffer (Paris), Liisa Pohjola (Helsinki), Ursula Oppens at Chicago’s Northwestern University and Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the Musikhochschule in Cologne. Van Raat studied Musicology at the University of Amsterdam; he concluded both studies with distinction. He has won multiple prizes. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and London Sinfonietta, and he worked with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, David Robertson and Peter Eötvös. Ralph van Raat has been a Steinway Artist since 2003. Being a strong advocate for especially contemporary composers, Van Raat has recorded a large number of CD’s for different record labels. Since 2006, he has an exclusive contract with Naxos.

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Dagmar Schinnerl (Austria) – Workshop Multifaceted Concert Performances in Music Schools

Teachers in Music Schools regularly organise student concerts. They can take place in the traditional way (one piece after another), be designed thematically, moderated, staged or combined with different arts etc. In the presentation two established concepts for designing music school concerts will be presented. One model shows how to add zest to concerts easily, with little effort. The other one is a concept that not only involves the students into the development of the concert but leaves most of the designing to them as well. This concept enables them to bring in different skills and also enhance those skills. Both concepts can inspire the students to identify more with their music and the performance, make the audience more attentive and furthermore they can have a huge impact on the atmosphere of the concerts.
Subsequently – questions for reflection will be the starting point of discussions in small groups for an exchange of views, ideas and personal experience with different concert formats.

Dagmar Schinnerl (M.A.) is a piano teacher, music educator, Orff-music therapist and vice-president of EPTA-Austria. She teaches in the Upper Austrian Music School Network piano, music theory and creative music-making with hearing-impaired children and initiated the competition ensembletreffen in Upper Austria. Since 2013 she teaches at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität Linz and is the organisational head of the master studies Musikvermittlung – Musik im Kontext.
She also gives lectures for pedagogues of music schools, kindergarten, primary schools and after-school care. Studies: piano, music theory and communicating music (Anton Bruckner conservatory / private university Linz), MTSI (Orff-institute Salzburg) and ORFF-music therapy (Munich).

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Einar Steen-Nøkleberg (Norway) – Lasse Thoresen, Solspill

He will present a short, but very central contemporary piece by Lasse Thoresen Solspill  (translated: Sun Reflections). Lasse Thoresen is the best known living Norwegian Composer with a large production of orchestral works, but also trios, songs and piano pieces.

Prof. Einar Steen-Nøkleberg, Norwegian pianist, is honorary president of EPTA-Norway. He founded EPTA-Norway in 1987 and was its president till 2014.
He was a professor at Hochschule für Musik, Hannover, and at the State Academy of Norway, Oslo.
Einar Steen-Nøkleberg has recorded all works by Grieg, Saeverud, Tellefsen and Kierulf as well as much of the standard repertoire. He is also an advocate of contemporary Music.

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Lieven Strobbe, Hans van Regenmortel (Belgium) – PechaKucha Tonal Tools for keyboard players

Musica, Impulse Centre for Music (Hans van Regenmortel), in collaboration with Lieven Strobbe, developed Tonal Tools, a kit for keyboard players and teachers that makes an artistic view of musical development with tonal music pivotal (again). Tonal Tools translates proven but mainly forgotten expertise into a contemporary approach on tonal music, spanning the baroque, classical, romantic, jazz and pop repertoire by means of common improvisational and compositional principles.

In Tonal Tools, nine ‘components’ serve as keys for a more aural, creative and tangible approach to tonal music from the very start and to a high professional level. Tonal Tools is applicable to any tonal idiom. Don’t expect a straightforward method; interweave Tonal Tools with your usual didactics according to your own pace and needs. Expect a better integration of musical understanding and skill from your pupils, a more reliable memory and better sight-reading ability, not to mention a broadened musical imagination, enhanced expressiveness and a joy for playing tonal music.

As a valuable extension to keyboard teachers’ existing professional expertise, Tonal Tools opens new artistic and (auto-) didactic perspectives, including idiomatic improvisation and composition, re-composition of existing works, as well as new ways to deal with the music and practices of the past.

Lieven Strobbe (1956) teaches organ, music analysis and creative keyboard didactics at LUCA School of Arts, Leuven and the Part Time Flemish Music Academies, Antwerp, Belgium. He is co-author of ‘Klanksporen, Breinvriendelijk Musiceren’ (2010) and published several articles on music pedagogy. His last publication, ‘Tonal Tools for Keyboard Players’ (2014), merges his experience with creative practice in keyboard learning with recent musicological research on 18th century partimento practice. In his work, he focuses on the didactic integration of musical understanding, keyboard technique, creative practice, memory training and performance.

Hans Van Regenmortel teaches violin and ensemble, and is pedagogical coordinator at the ‘Stedelijke Academie voor Muziek, Woord en Dans’ in Turnhout.

www.tonaltools.com

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Lois Svard (USA) – What neuroscience can tell musicians about learning and memory

For many musicians, fear of having a memory lapse onstage is a contributing factor to performance anxiety, and recurring performance anxiety can damage self-confidence, cause less than optimal performances, and ultimately have a damaging impact on one’s career. Neuroscientists have made great progress in the past two decades in understanding the mechanisms in the brain underlying memory. Musicians can benefit from knowing about, and applying, this research to their own practice.

Some neuroscientists call learning and memory two sides of the same coin: learning is the process by which new information is encoded in the nervous system and memory is the encoding of the information. So how a musician learns the musical information is key to how it is encoded and to successful recall at the time of performance.

This session will discuss the brain mechanisms underlying memory and how our learning process (practice) can ensure better memory recall. We will also talk about the role of imagery, sleep, and emotion on memory retention.

Pianist Lois Svard, NCTM, Professor Emerita at Bucknell University, PA, has received critical acclaim for her performances and recordings of contemporary American piano music. She is also well known for her applications of current neuroscience research to the study and performance of music. She has taught a university course on the subject, and has presented at national and international music conferences including ISME, MTNA, the World Piano Pedagogy Conference, and the London International Piano Symposium. She writes The Musician’s Brain, a blog that has introduced readers in more than 80 countries to some of the latest research in neuroscience and music.

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Michal Tal (Israel) – Recital Schat and Olivero; lecture recital Erwin Schulhoff

Recital
Michal Tal will perform two contemporary pieces, a Dutch and an Israelian: Peter Schat’s Inscripties and Betty Olivero’s Sofim.
Betty Olivero (1954, Tel Aviv) is one of Israel’s distinguished and celebrated composers. She graduated with a Bachelor in Music from the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University in 1978, where she studied with Ilona Vincze-Kraus for piano and Yizhak Sadai and Leon Schidlowsky for composition. She continued her studies at Yale University and in Florence with Luciano Berio from 1983 to 1986 and began her career as a composer in Europe. In 2004 she became composer-in-residence at the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Currently, she is a professor of composition in Bar Ilan University.
Sofim (Endings) was composed in 1991 and was dedicated to Michal Tal who premiered the composition in Tel Aviv.

Lecture recital
On Erwin Schullhoff and his Inventions opus 36 and Suite Dansante en Jazz (1931). Erwin Schulhoff  (1894-1942) belonged to a number of Jewish composers who can be defined as “the lost generation”. He was one of the brightest figures in the generation of Jewish European musicians whose successful careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the Nazi Regime in Germany and whose works have been rarely noted or performed.
11 Inventions opus 36 (1921) were composed after a pause of ten months in Schulhoff’s creative output. In this compostion Schulhoff is much more experimental and explores atonality, the loosening of metrical rigidity and concentrated expression, as well as omitting bar lines like the French Erik Satie whom he never met. The influence of Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Skryabin is well heard in these condensed miniatures.
Suite Dansante en Jazz (1931) reflects the influence of jazz and music hall style on Schulhoff’s writing.  Almost like in the Baroque dance suites, Schulhoff makes an emphasis on the main dances of the twenties: Ragtime, Tango, foxtrot and the waltz.

Michal Tal was born in Tel Aviv and at the age of sixteen she performed as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then she had performed with all the leading orchestras in Israel, Europe and the U.S., the Dutch Radio Orchestra among many others. She studied with Prof. Arie Vardi, Richard Goode, and Gilbert Kalish and played under the baton of Leonard Slatkin, Eduardo Mata and Luciano Berio. Tal’s repertoire expands from Haydn to Ligeti and Berio, along with numerous premieres  by Israeli composers. Among Tal’s discography is Erwin Schulhoff music for piano solo (CENTAUR).
Dr. Michal Tal is on the faculty of the Buchmann-Mehta School of music, and the Givatayim Conservatory, in which she served as a pedagogic director. She is the artisitic director of  The Young Piano Course at the Jerusalem Music Center. Michal Tal chairs IPTA (EPTA Israel associates) since 2014.

www.michaltal.com

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Robijn Tilanus (NL) – Workshop The art of improvising as a means of connecting with your sound

I use the art of improvising as a means to make my students connect with their sound. To make them really listen, to make them understand the difference between a sound that you may have heard, but not too seriously, and a sound that you really have felt during your listening, a sound with which you are connected. In the workshop, I will demonstrate how to make a ‘sound-improvisation’ with just the first chord (or the first two chords) of a composition. And how to use this ‘sound-improvisation’ as a means to greater and deeper listening and feeling. I’ll tell all about the ‘magic border’, the ‘trick with the pencil’, the lessons we can learn from tennis players and the importance of breath. I’ll give you some clues how to help your students analyse the character of chords, by listening to the inner tension (or relaxation) of the chord(s), which will help them, when listening, to understand and feel the sounds better harmonically.

Robijn Tilanus is a multifaceted piano teacher, improvisation coach, author, composer and performer. She took piano lessons from several renowned piano teachers such as Jan Wijn, Willem Brons and Ramón Valle and obtained her degree in piano as well as her masters in Biology. She wrote a book on harmony: The FIFTH Factor – a Practical Approach to Harmony through Improvising at the piano, Listening, Playing, Singing, Composing, which is considered by the press as a ‘unique masterpiece’. It is translated in German (titled QUINTessenz); an English translation is nearly finished. She also wrote a book on improvisation: FREE PLAY – The seven factors of improvising, A guide for everybody who wants to learn how to play music in an ultimate free way. An English translation is on its way. Robijn Tilanus has taught hundreds of music students individually and in workshops on the subject of harmony and improvisation. She regularly performs as an improvisation pianist.

www.robijntilanus.nl

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Teresa Trevisan and Flavio Zaccaria (Italy) – Recital The influence of the past in the Italian composers of the 20th century

This duo will perform:
J. S. Bach Passacaglia e Fuga in do minore BWV 582 (trascrizione per 2 pianoforti di Gino Tagliapietra, 1887-1954)
Ferruccio Busoni, Duettino Concertante (sul Finale del Concerto per Pianoforte KV 459 in Fa maggiore di Mozart).

Teresa Trevisan and Flavio Zaccaria debuted in 2002 at the International Festival in Bitola (Macedonia) where they successfully performed a rare transcription for piano four hands of the Brandenburg Concertos of Bach-Reger by Filippo Trevisan,which was widely acclaimed by audiences and critics thereafter. The duo was born shortly before this first appearance. The two pianists combined the personal musical experiences which had come from different schools and teachers, namely the Trieste Music Conservatory and The Ecole Normale in Paris for Teresa, as a student of Luciano Gante and Aquiles Delle Vigne; the Venice Music Conservatory Benedetto Marcello for Flavio, whose teachers had been Eugenio Bagnoli, Ugo Amendola and Bruno Mezzena. Since 2002 they devoted themselves to deepening lesser known works. In 2006 their CD from Velut Luna dedicated to works by Max Reger as the Suite op.16 and the Sechs Klavierstücke op. 94 was awarded the Honorary Mention at the Web Concert Hall Competition (USA).
They have since toured with notable recitals in many European countries. Also they were invited to hold master classes in piano and piano duo in most several important institutions in Europe.
Since 2009 the duo has collaborated with the GARR to the development of the project LOLA
(Low Latency Audio Visual streaming system) which is studying the possibility of audio-video remote connections in real time.
In November 2010, the duo made a remote world première live-performance between the IRCAM in Paris and the Tartini Conservatory in Trieste.

www.trevisanzaccaria.it

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Hara Trouli (Greece/UK) – Pianists’ Muscles – A Key Connection

The muscular co-ordination of a piano player is a highly organised function that ultimately leads to the acoustic musical result. Although this function works well most of the times, there are particular circumstances when this may be disturbed following injury, illness, psychological adversity or technical misuse. With the development of a specialism in Performing Arts Medicine, we have been able to study and interpret these conditions and thankfully able to help and advise pianists accordingly.
As a representative of ISSTIP Hara Trouli will outline the ways the medical science can identify problems, how they are approached and how – in collaboration with the piano teacher or the piano performer – a positive solution can be found not only for cure but also for prevention. Through interaction Trouli hopes to receive the experienced views of the EPTA members and to develop a constructive discussion on this crucial issue.

Hara Trouli was born in Athens, Greece where she graduated from Medical School and from the National Music Conservatory with a Piano Performance Diploma with Distinction. She lives in London and in 2012 she graduated with Distinction from the Masters Degree in Performing Arts Medicine at University College London. Since then she works as a Performing Arts Medical Specialist.
In 2010 she became chair of the International Society for Study of Tension in Performance (ISSTIP). She has embarked in a number of research projects on health problems of musicians with her main interest in the voluntary and involuntary motion of pianists’ hands. She has presented in several national and international conferences. Hara practices privately in London, UK and in Athens, Greece and at the British Institute of Modern Music (BIMM) and the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM).

www.haratrouli.com

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Michael Tsalka, Megumi Tanno – Recital Geelvinck Fortepiano festival

Japanese fortepianist Megumi Tanno completed BA degrees in Musicology at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and enrolled at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague in 2001. She is an active and engaging performer now, and her activities are internationally acclaimed for both as a soloist, recitalist and as a chamber musician. After Ms. Tanno completed master degree with Bart van Oort and Stanley Hoogland at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (NL, 2007), she was awarded several prizes. Ms. Tanno also appears at major international festivals, including Oude Muziek Utrecht (NL, 2011) and Hokutopia Music Festival (JP, 2007, 2008, 2012 and 2014). Since 2011 she is under guidance of Sally Sargent in France for performance practice on historical pianos and music esthetics. Megumi has performed at Geelvinck Fortepiano festival 2014 as premier for Japanese composer Haruyo Horie’s  The Wanderer.

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Alberto Urroz (Spain) – Recital Sound and Silence

This show is a moment of mutual enrichment between graphic artists, musicians and the audience. It is also a enrichment of the musical works themselves, showing them as generating seed of another contemporary work of art. In this sense, we establish a dialogue between composer, artist, performer and audience, interrelating all in a true dialogue, where everyone has something to say, something to experience, discovering not only new works of art but also new aspects and facets of the interpretation, the musical work and the art. Natasha Lebedeva, Pedro Cembranos, Rafael Forteza and Blanca Razquin are outstanding artists who were asked by Alberto Urroz to create video art from several piano works.

Alberto Urroz was born into a family of musicians and graduated with honors from the Royal Conservatory in Madrid where he studied with Joaquín Soriano. Later he studied in Tel Aviv and New York with Pnina Salzman and Oxana Yablonskaya. He debuted at Carnegie Hall in New York in June 2008 and has performed since at the most important halls and festivals in Spain and throughout many countries in the world. Also he has been invited by prestigious international cultural institutions such as Madrid National Auditorium, Conde Duque Auditorium and many others.
Currently, Mr. Urroz lives in Madrid and teaches piano performance at Arturo Soria Conservatory where he also serves as Head of Piano Department. Since 2004, he is Founder and Artistic Director of the Mendigorria International Music Festival. The festival has been privileged by the presence of internationally acclaimed musicians . The festival also boasts interesting musical productions like Liszt´s Via Crucis with contemporary dance.

www.albertourroz.com

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Kris Verhelst (Belgium) – Lecture-performance Bach and dance

Johann Sebastian Bach devoted a significant portion of his life to the composition of dance music. Kris Verhelst will tackle questions such as: What is the difference between ‘Partite’ and ‘English and French suites’? Were all dance forms choreographically still alive and flourishing in Germany during Bach’s lifetime? What about the ‘right tempo’, or should it rather be a matter of the ‘right character’? Is it important to be able to dance yourself?

Kris Verhelst studied organ with Chris Dubois at the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven and harpsichord with Jos Van Immerseel at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp. She has been performing throughout Europe, The United States of America and Japan on both historical keyboard instruments and modern copies (harpsichord, clavichord and organ).
During the past decade she has built up an international reputation both as a soloist and as a continuo player, performing and recording regularly with well-known ensembles such as the orchestras Les Muffatti, Anima Eterna and Collegium Vocale.
Kris Verhelst teaches harpsichord and basso continuo at the LUCA School of Arts (Lemmensinstituut) in Leuven and the Royal Conservatories of Amsterdam and The Hague.

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Remo Vinciguerra (Italy) – PechaKucha Jazz rhythms

In my presentation I would like to talk about my piano teaching method which I’m developing through the last thirty years in Italy. An additional video with young piano students gives several music examples from almost fifty albums and music publications. In my music you can find the Duke Ellinghton’s blues hidden in a form of Beyer’s or Duvernoy’s etude, a jazz sonata in Clementi’s style as well as an exciting improvisation full of groove which let you think about Bill Evans. I’d like to prove that piano students will never stop to play with such a repertoire.
After my short presentation everybody is welcome to look through the albums. I’ll be glad to give all information about my musical and pedagogical ideas.

Remo Vinciguerra (1956) is an important composer in Italy for teaching piano in jazz and modern style. He was born in Abruzzo and began studying the piano at 11 years. Awarded diplomas, he began teaching Music Education and he started to organize  “music workshops”. His teaching experience, which he built up through the years, lead to the publication of extensive materials devoted to the study of the piano. Currently there are over 50 texts published by Curci of Milan and still more forthcoming. Since 2002 Peters Editions London publishes and distributes worldwide a collection of nine volumes Crossing Borders dedicated to his teaching repertoire for the international market.
The teaching method is the prominent aspect of his professional career. He regularly holds seminars and workshops throughout Italy. Assuming that the traditional piano pedagogy is developed in a language no longer suited to the sensitivity of the kids today, Vinciguerra has sought to integrate the inescapable technical course for the study of the piano with the new languages of jazz and popular music. The goal was to understand and remove the cause of the limited interest that children and young people today often have towards the study of music.

In 2013 the International Piano Competition “Remo Vinciguerra” started in Verona. It rewards every year the best young pianist aged 4 to 12 years from Italy and abroad.

Publications: http://www.edizionicurci.it/printed-music/minisito_autore.asp?id=702
Teaching: http://www.removinciguerra.it/Didattica.html
Competition: http://www.concorsovinciguerra.it/concorso2015/regolamento-2015

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Diana Zandberga (Latvia) – Recital Piano and Dance, Baltic Composers

Pianist Diāna Zandberga will perform pieces by contemporary Latvian and Estonian composers: Pēteris Vasks (1946) Latvian Dance, Dace Aperāne (1953) Dance of Sparrow and Song of Goddess, Lepo Sumera (1950-2000) Pardon, Fryderyk, Jānis Zandbergs (1973) Csárdás col legno – for Piano.

Diāna Zandberga (Baibusa) obtained her Master’s degree at Latvian Academy of Music with prof. Juris Kalnciems, she completed PhD in Musicology, defending thesis Historical and Stylistic Development of Piano Texture and its Manifestation in Latvian Music in 2014. She studied for four years with the legendary pianist Lazar Berman at the European Academy of Music in Italy and spent next four years improving her performance with the world famous Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha at the Granados Marshall Academy in Barcelona. Since 1996 Diana has won acclaim by succession of recitals in Latvia, European countries, Russia and USA. Since 2007 she is piano teacher in Music School of Kekava (Latvia) and in 2015 she has started to work in Latvian Academy of Music.
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Damjana Zupan (Slovenia) – Workshop Disconnecting fear and anger

Do you act like a victim, judge, or a successful achiever? Fear and anger can have specific effects on teaching, playing an instrument, and performing. Disconnecting and transforming both in music making is an ongoing process with no instant recipe that could work for everyone. But why not give it a try and use various techniques and methods, including the Grindea Technique? Let’s learn some little tricks! They can teach us to distinguish between useful and excessive tensions as evoked by various thought patterns and emotions. Furthermore, they can challenge us to master our ability to focus on what is necessary and pleasant at the same time.

Damjana Zupan (LCMM MMus, ARCM, LCM PG Certificate in Piano Accompaniment, Ljubljana Academy of Music, ISSTIP Music Medicine Therapist) is a piano teacher at the Ljubljana Conservatory of Music and Ballet and a specialist in musicians’ occupational challenges. Her favourite topics are releasing true potential, tension relaxation, the body-instrument relationship, creative visualization, and peak experience in music making. Damjana has written articles, organized various events, and lectured in several European countries. She is an active member of both EPTA and ISSTIP. She was one of the founders of EPTA Slovenia (1998) and the programme committee chair at the International EPTA Conference, Ljubljana 2010. www.damjanazupan.com

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