Title: Optimal Moves® for Musicians:  "How to Understand and Work Effectively with Musicians"
Teacher: Mary Spire

Date: September 29 & 30,  2012

Time: 10:00 - 4:30PM each day

DESCRIPTION:

During a Master Class at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lennox, Mass,  Maestro Leonard Berstein said to the conducting student   "place your hands behind your back, close your eyes, imagine the sound and, conduct!"  The student did as he was told - and the result was astonishing- a miracle in one minute!    How did Lenny know what this student didn't yet know- about the music, himself and his own potential?   Lenny's perspicacity was such that he could immediately see what was missing, or not yet available to the student, and provide him with insight and the tools to make profound changes- on the spot.
After class one day I mustered the courage to ask him directly how he was able to pinpoint exactly what each student needed in order to perform to his potential.

He surprised me by answering" but this is what you do, as a Feldenkrais teacher" (I didn't know that he knew the Feldenkrais Method® nor my work as a Feldenkrais teacher at the TMC).  And, Lenny was correct-this is what we Feldenkrais teachers do. And, how do we know what to observe-see- with each musician? What tools can we give them to develop their potential as musicians and people? How can we be more effective as teachers?

In this two day advanced training you will learn skills specific to understanding and  helping musicians improve their performance.  You will fine-tune your ability to sense and feel, and imagine what it is to be a musician -a day in the life of a musician. You will learn to" pinpoint" what the student isn't aware of, or what he isn't doing yet- and provide him with relevant information to improve his performance skills and enjoy a full, pain-free and long career in music.
We will use dynamic, dramatic and effective  ATM and FI lessons, designed especially  for musicians; FI and ATM demonstrations with musicians playing their instruments; and video case histories. If you are a musician, bring your instrument!

This advanced training offers you practical tools to help your students:

• Understand the causes of music-related injuries
• Recover from and prevent injury
• Use their capacity for self-awareness and self correction to bring about greater comfort and efficiency while performing
• Dramatically improve the quality and pleasure of their movement as they acquire new coordination and movement skills
• Move beyond prevention and injury to improving performance, and
• Access the power of the brain and nervous system to change old patterns and restore lost function- to change the pattern in the brain itself.

MARY SPIRE is an experienced and certified Feldenkrais® practitioner and a Trainer in international Feldenkrais trainings. She holds a Master's Degree in Piano Performance from U.S.C. and performed for many years before becoming a Feldenkrais practitioner. She has taught Feldenkrais at the San Francisco Symphony's Prevention and Wellness Program, U.C. Berkeley, U.C. San Francisco, Boston University, SUNY Stonybrook, McGill University, the Tanglewood Music Center and at other schools and hospitals. In addition to her frequent workshops, lectures and symposia, Mary maintains private practices in Berkeley and Corte Madera, California, where she specializes in working with infants and children, older adults, people with neurological conditions and performing artists. In 2004, the San Francisco Symphony recommended Mary as the best RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) specialist in the Bay area.

"Feldenkrais lessons with Mary Spire have helped me overcome serious arthritic conditions. As a musician the work not only is sustaining my career - it has improved my tone and created more freedom and ease in my playing."
-Brian Marcus, Bassist, San Francisco Symphony

"Working with Mary Spire has given me profound insights along my road to recovery from a repetitive strain injury.   With her patient guidance I have learned to play my instrument more efficiently and also to do many other things with greater ease and pleasure."
-Gina Feinauer, violist, San Francisco Symphony

"I am not so sure I would be playing now after my arm injuries without regularly attending the Feldenkrais class lessons with Mary Spire.  It helps that she is a musician  (pianist and cellist): she can tell exactly how our bodies feel just from knowing what programs we have been rehearsing!"
-Yukiko Kurakata, Violinist, San Francisco Symphony

"Mary is more than an experienced Feldenkrais® instructor. She is sensitive, caring and perceptive about each person she works with.  She is innovative and challenged to find solutions, even with the most difficult and challenging problems.  I enjoy having the opportunity to work collaboratively with her in the care of our common patients."
-Nancy Byl, PH.D., PT, UCSF School of Medicine