The Grossman Method© Newsletter
Happy Summer!
The Grossman Method© has had a very busy summer of workshop travels. We’ve been to Central America, offered a full day Teacher’s Workshop, and presented the No Pain, ALL GAIN workshop at music festivals in Honduras, Texas, Massachusetts, and Washington.
My trip to Honduras was fabulous! The Encuentro Anual de Cuerdas Festival brought together a faculty from Mexico, Canada and the United States to work with string players in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. The Honduran students and string teachers who took part in my five (5) workshop offerings were full of wonderful energy. They embraced the information with keen interest and their eagerness to learn was exhilarating. I also worked with many of these players in private lesson sessions and I was impressed with their high achievement of playing.Working hard and striving for high musical ideals was the norm so learning some good stretches and care for their bodies, as it relates to string playing, was quite welcomed by these players. Hats off and a big thank you to my festival colleagues and teachers for a very fun collaboration of the Schumann Piano Quintet and the Shostakovich 8th String Quartet.
I’m still shaking with excitement from the full day String Teacher Training Workshop presented in Austin, TX. I could not have wished for a better group of teacher participants! The day started with an in-depth study of the muscles used in string performance; we next moved to learning how to incorporate breath into playing; then we examined several etude books - their suggested order of study and purpose. The Practicum followed that. Here, selected students from the Texas Strings Camp played for the workshop participants who, under my attentive eye, “taught†the TSC students with the information learned earlier in the day. The day ended with a look at the WAVE chinrests (handcrafted and ergonomically sensitive chinrests for violinists and violists) and follow up discussion. Several of us celebrated the day at a wonderful Indian restaurant that evening!
I hope you are all excited about your upcoming year, filled with new repertoire, recitals and concerts. Keep an eye out for upcoming The Grossman Method activities - I might be in a city close to you! And, as always, let me know if you’d like to schedule a workshop session in your area.
Enjoy!
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