Students participate in an intensive three-week program offering a fantastic performing experience and training with the festival’s distinguished music faculty, comprised of many of the world’s renowned performers and teachers. A unique opportunity awaits students who are ready for professional performances and would like to perform in historic halls. Student and faculty concerts are given to enthusiastic audiences twice a day, in the afternoon and in the evening. Students will be able to attend professional concerts, which are highly inspirational events for aspiring musicians.
The program offers standard repertory training for students of piano, violin, viola, violoncello, double bass, bassoon, oboe and voice; pre-formed chamber groups are encouraged to apply. Private lessons and chamber music coachings are led by the world-class international faculty. Pianists often collaborate with other instrumentalists and singers. In addition to individual instrument/voice instruction, we continue to offer Chamber Music, Collaborative Piano, Conducting and Yoga* courses. This year we start offering exciting new courses, Feldenkrais Method Course* and Body Mapping Course*. If interested, each student is scheduled to participate in a variety of chamber music and solo performances during the festival in concerts played throughout the Dolomite region of the Alps. Festival participants are advanced students from best conservatories and colleges of the United States, Europe, and Asia — some outstanding young musicians, devoted music amateurs and some aspiring active professionals. Students are encouraged to attend all concerts and take advantage of performance and master class opportunities.
Students must submit their Performance Repertoire Request after they are notified of acceptance. Notifications of soloists, chamber music groups (on the basis of recording audition), and repertoire are e-mailed to each participant six or more weeks before the festival. Concerts will begin on the second day of the festival. All student concert appearances are subject to faculty approval and at the discretion of the festival organizers. Chamber music groups will start performances after several days of rehearsals. Everyone has to arrive with their parts learned and ready for rehearsal immediately. Participants are expected to stay on the location for the duration of the festival, without absences.
Italian or German Language classes are offered at the festival academy free of charge. Day trips are not an immediate part of the festival and offered because of popular demand and will be available to select locations at extra charge (past trips have included Cremona, Verona, Venice, Mahler’s summer house in the Alps and stunning Lake Garda). There is plenty of superb recreation in the area including hiking in the Alps.
* BODY MAPPING COURSE for all musicians
Offered by Dr. Stephen Caplan
Body Mapping is an innovative and empowering new method for helping musicians achieve effortless performances, while avoiding pain or injury. Dr. Stephen Caplan is a noted musical performer, author and educator. He helps musicians overcome technical limitations; identify and release unnecessary tensions; sit, stand and move with greater comfort; recover from injury and avoid future injury; develop conscious control over limiting habits; reduce performance anxieties; and rediscover the joy of performance. Dr. Caplan will offer the workshop What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body in six 75-minute sessions at Schlern. These workshops give specific, clear information about the body to musicians, setting each participant on a path of self-evaluation and change. Dr. Caplan will also offer private instruction in Body Mapping.
More information about Body Mapping can be found at www.bodymap.org
What Every Musician Needs to Know about the Body combines clear explanations about the body with simple movement exercises and observations of participants in performance. There are six sessions designed to give each participant the tools to develop a personal musical technique based on current and accurate information about the mind and body.
Session 1: Introduction to Body Mapping
Putting music training on a secure somatic foundation by training movement, senses and attention.
Session 2: The Core of the Body and the Places of Balance
Being comfortable with sitting and standing while performing–”posture” vs. “balance.”
Session 3: Mapping the Arm Structure
A free use of arms, and support for free arm movements is found through a detailed understanding of the arm structure.
Session 4: The Structures and Movements of Breathing
Breathe with ease! Confront and eradicate the ‘great urban myths’ of breathing by accurately mapping the structures and movement of breathing.
Session 5: How Legs Move as You Perform
Map the three leg joints and discover the reflex that gives a spring to your step.
Session 6: How to Practice
How to incorporate Body Mapping in your daily practice to improve performance and avoid injury.
Dr. Caplan also offers private instruction in Body Mapping.
* FELDENKRAIS METHOD COURSE
Offered by Prof. Uri Vardi and Hagit Vardi
The Feldenkrais Method is a modality used to improve body awareness that has proven to be highly effective in alleviating pain, anxiety, and movement difficulties. The Method involves the use of movement, touch and imagery as tools for learning new ways of functioning. The heightened awareness that develops through the use of this method leads to improved body image, organization and function.
Unlike the medical model, which prescribes ways to achieve the correct state, the Feldenkrais Method leads the participant to discover his or her own solution. It is based on theoretical knowledge about the nervous system and its capacity to learn. The learning environment is gentle, safe, and creates a process of self-discovery.
More information about Feldenkrais Method Course can be found at:
http://www.yourbodyisyourstrad.com/
http://www.harmoniousmovement.com/
Group Classes: Awareness Through Movement®
In an Awareness Through Movement lesson, the practitioner verbally guides the students through a sequence of movements centered on a particular theme in human movement. Through these lessons, people can dramatically improve their quality of movement and acquire new coordination and skill.
Private Lessons: Functional Integration®
In a Functional Integration lesson, the teacher’s delicate and precise touch guides the student through gentle, safe movements. These movements provide new information to the neuro-muscular system, and enhance the body’s efficiency, coordination, and ease of movement.
Who Can Benefit From the Feldenkrais Method:
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People with movement limitations and pain
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People with neurological difficulties
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Singers, instrumentalists, and dancers
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People who seek stress reduction
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Athletes
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People with distorted body image
- Children with movement, learning and neurological difficulties
* YOGA CLASSES
Yoga classes with Gabriella Strümpel are offered and open to everyone regardless of age, gender, fitness, flexibility or strength. They offer a combination of physical, breathing, and mental exercises such as visualization and directed awareness. Participants can expect an increased flexibility, strength, concentration, and awareness, thereby improving general health. Gabriella studied yoga with Urvasi and Ananda Leone, attended their 3-year teacher’s training and has been teaching since 1997. She specializes in yoga for musicians, taking into account their disposition to specific physical ailments, as well as preparing them mentally and emotionally for performances.
