https://www.exploretolearn.org/home daily 1.0 2021-07-21 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/60f8461e9f074421d4689014/1626883675678/junior-ferreira-7esRPTt38nI-unsplash.jpg Home - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.exploretolearn.org/playful-practice daily 0.75 2021-07-22 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/60f8f75ca663f73b0a5b31c9/1632371375742/TeresaTamStudio_160816_7394-Edit.jpg Playful Practice - SoundBodies with Elisabeth Reed In this workshop, we will refine our ability to clarify the connection between the physical gestures we make with our body and the musical gestures we envision. We will look at how we sit in a chair to allow for comfortable and efficient movement and will experiment with the support of our shoulder girdle and arms in order to better generate a deep, powerful sound with less effort. Elisabeth Reed teaches viola da gamba and Baroque cello at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and at the University of California at Berkeley. A soloist and chamber musician with Voices of Music, Archetti, and Wildcat Viols, she has also appeared with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Seattle, Portland, Pacific, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestras, American Bach Soloists, and Pacific Musicworks. She can be heard on the Virgin Classics, Naxos, Focus, and Magnatunes recording labels and has many HD videos on the Voices of Music Youtube channel. Her playing has been described as “intense, graceful, suffused with heat and vigor” and “delicately nuanced and powerful” (Seattle Times). Originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, she attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, Oberlin Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, and Indiana University. In 2000, she graduated from the Semiophysics Feldenkrais training in San Raphael, California, where she studied with Dennis Leri, one of Moshe Feldenkrais’s original students. As a Feldenkrais practitioner, she has worked with musicians from the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Opera, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Jubilate Baroque Orchestra, and the American Bach Soloists, among others. She has also given classes in the Feldenkrais Method at the Juilliard School and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, as well as at the Early Music America Well-Tempered Musician series, the San Francisco Early Music Society workshops, and the National Viola da Gamba Society Conclave. Elisabeth is one of those rare people who can uncannily read your mind and what you need with a mere glance, and she knows exactly how to get you there (and it's not always what you'd expect!). Her warmth and compassion as a person combined with her holistic approach to movement and music make her the perfect teacher for healthily reaching one’s potential, and her valuable lessons can be continuously applied to every aspect of our lives. — Eliana Razzino Yang, The Juilliard School www.elisabethreed.com www.soundbodies.net https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/60f8497dbbc00757bd254550/1626927226920/Playful+Practice+Calder.png Playful Practice https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/60f91a4ac660246955485099/1632371375746/Screen+Shot+2021-07-22+at+12.00.56+AM.png Playful Practice https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/60f8f63dbcd3bd79329e1199/1632371375739/Edits-144.jpeg Playful Practice - The Art of Curiosity with Stacey Pelinka What do you want to say with your music? How can you use your whole self flexibly and easily to achieve your intention? We will explore how the breath can be a profound agent of expressiveness, of ease in performance, and of agility of the arms and fingers. As an antidote to perfectionism and right/wrong thinking, we will find easy ranges of movement with and without instruments, and how to use questions and curiosity to clarify musical intention. Stacey Pelinka has studied the Feldenkrais Method since 1994, and graduated in 2005 from the Semiophysics II Feldenkrais training directed by Dennis Leri. Stacey has presented Awareness through Movement workshops at the San Francisco Conservatory, the California College of the Arts, the Northern California Flute Camp, and the National Flute Association annual convention. She taught Feldenkrais classes for the musicians of the San Francisco Symphony from 2012 to 2019. Her article Curiosity and Intention: Teaching Music from a New Paradigm was published in the Feldenkrais Journal in 2009. As a flutist, Stacey enjoys performing a broad spectrum of classical music, especially contemporary chamber music. She is a founding member of the Eco Ensemble and a longtime member of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. Stacey plays principal flute with San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program productions and the Midsummer Mozart Festival, second flute with the Berkeley Symphony and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and piccolo with the Santa Rosa Symphony. She serves as flute instructor at UC Berkeley and UC Davis. A native of the Bay Area, Stacey attended Cornell University and the San Francisco Conservatory, where she studied with Timothy Day. "Stacey Pelinka is an incredible flutist and she brings her artistry, curiosity, and kindness to Feldenkrais in ways that help instrumentalists and singers achieve ease and centeredness in their own learning and performance. The concepts are universal but personal, and Stacey helps everyone she works with discover the ‘sweet spot’ - whether it be posture, tone production, or general facility and ease of technique on whatever instrument they play." — Jerome Simas, bass clarinetist, SF Symphony https://www.staceypelinka.com/ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/60f8f9363e109230496cfdbc/1632371375734/Karen-Clark-scaled.jpeg Playful Practice - Imagination & Intention in Performance and Practice with Karen Clark Learning a musical instrument— string, wind, voice— stems from our desire to learn, create, and express. There are warm-ups, technical exercises for agility and sustain, and there is putting it all together to play a piece of music. In his book, Awareness Through Movement, Moshe Feldenkrais writes___To learn we need time, attention, and discrimination; to discriminate we must sense.___ Imagine how you would like to feel as you practice or perform. What comes to mind? What are the sensations, thoughts and feelings you would like to experience? In this class we will engage the imagination and intention in exercises that explore tone colors, dynamics, and the narrative running throughout the musical phrase. Imagination sustains our impulse to play and sing. Karen Clark, contralto holds degrees from the Indiana University School of Music where she studied opera and early music. She has taught in the music departments at Princeton University, Swarthmore College, Sonoma State, UC Berkeley, and in the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California. Karen studied the Feldenkrais Method under Russell Delman and Alan Questel (1999) and since has presented workshops for choral arts organizations throughout the Bay Area. Karen’s articles, The Impulse to Sing, and, Sounds Unfamiliar are published in the Feldenkrais Journal. Considered a leading interpreter of medieval and modern music, Karen has performed and recorded worldwide with eminent ensembles, such as, Boston Camerata, Sequentia, the Joshua Rifkin Bach Ensemble. Most recent recordings— on the Music & Arts label— include 12th century music of Hildegard von Bingen with her ensemble Vajra Voices, and the song cycle, Dream Drapery— Songs on Thoreau, written for her and the Galax Quartet by Pulitzer/Grammy award winning composer, Joseph Schwantner. Karen lives in Sonoma County, CA. "One of Karen's great gifts as an instructor is her ability to help students with diverse musical interests and backgrounds, as her approach is truly bespoke to each individual. Karen's ability to integrate vocal technique with breath and bodywork was transformative for my singing. During our time together, Karen emphasized singing from sensation and encourages all of her students to trust their internal wisdom as independent artists. It is a real treat working with a teacher who understands the complexity and wonder of a singer's whole instrument." — Sara LeMesh, soprano https://www.karenclark.studio https://www.exploretolearn.org/the-nature-of-singing-2020 daily 0.75 2021-07-22 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/60f84d7725682b01f1aa57d9/1626933788473/The+Nature+of+Singing.jpg The Nature of Singing 2020 https://www.exploretolearn.org/contact daily 0.75 2021-07-21 https://www.exploretolearn.org/the-nature-of-singing daily 0.75 2021-10-28 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/6119deda1e226b077ccd01f6/1629087247224/Karen+Clark+portrait.jpg The Nature of Singing - 4. Language, Symbol and Gesture in Singing with Karen Clark The eye reads a symbol, a word, musical note, the internal ear imagines a sound, the lips and tongue form a syllable or word, and a tone or utterance is emitted. In this workshop Karen offers awareness exercises to clarify our sensations of the speech articulators and suggests a creative process— led by imagination and intention— toward expanding our palette of vocal colors and musical gestures. Karen Clark, contralto holds degrees from the Indiana University School of Music where she studied opera and early music. She has taught in the music departments at Princeton University, Swarthmore College, Sonoma State, UC Berkeley, and in the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California. Karen studied the Feldenkrais Method under Russell Delman and Alan Questel (1999) and since has presented workshops across the U.S. Karen’s articles on singing, The Impulse to Sing, and, Sounds Unfamiliar are published in the Feldenkrais Journal. Considered a leading interpreter of medieval and modern music, Karen has performed and recorded worldwide with eminent ensembles, such as, Boston Camerata, Sequentia, the Joshua Rifkin Bach Ensemble. Most recent recordings— on the Music & Arts label— include 12th century music of Hildegard von Bingen with her ensemble Vajra Voices, and the song cycle, Dream Drapery— Songs on Thoreau, written for her and the Galax Quartet by Pulitzer/Grammy award winning composer, Joseph Schwantner. Karen is staying home in Petaluma, CA with her partner, Roy Whelden, and cat Molly and looks forward to blackberry pie season. https://www.karenclark.studio/ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/6119df07552e81455387fb06/1629087247227/Sussuma+Headshot.jpg The Nature of Singing - 5. Breath and the Inner Smile with Drew Minter Working with movements of basic flexion and extension taught by Feldenkrais, we explore the breath using the tapping and vocalization techniques of Carl Stough and the Emotional Freedom Technique. Taken together, these bring greater elasticity to the rib cage and a liveliness to the face, earmarked by Stephen Porges in his elaborations of polyvagal theory as critical to freeing ourselves from trauma, creating the classic “inner smile” which has been taught by singing teachers for centuries. From there you can emit any variety of free sounds, depending on how you desire to shape and move them. As an internationally known countertenor for four decades, Drew Minter sang leading roles in the opera houses of Brussels, Toulouse, Boston, Washington, Santa Fe, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Wolf Trap, Glimmerglass, Nice, Marseilles and others, performing with many of the world's foremost baroque orchestras, and making over 70 recordings. Drew is Senior Music Lecturer at Vassar College, where he teaches voice, choir, opera and the Feldenkrais Method to musicians; he is an opera director and teaches frequent workshops in the singing and acting of opera, incorporating several somatic methods: Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, and the Viewpoints acting work. His additional training is in Polarity, Jin shin jyutsu, Kahuna work and Body Electric. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/6119df07552e81455387fb09/1629087377412/ The Nature of Singing - 6. Breathing as a Guide with Stephen Paparo In this workshop, Stephen will offer two contrasting lessons designed to cultivate awareness of the breath for singing. The first lesson will foreground the breath while exploring large muscle movements in order to develop low belly breathing and skeletal support. The second will explore small muscle movements while exhaling and inhaling as a means to calm your nervous system. Both explorations will profoundly impact your readiness to sing by reducing tension, stress, and anxiety and bringing greater clarity to your sense of self. Dr. Stephen A. Paparo is Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and conductor of the University Chorale. He holds degrees from Michigan State University (Ph.D.), Syracuse University (M.M.), and Ithaca College (B.M.). A Guild Certified Practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method® since 2006, he has taught Feldenkrais in the US and internationally. He is active as a guest conductor and regularly presents at international, national, and state conferences. He currently serves as Past-President for the Massachusetts chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. His research interests include the application of the Feldenkrais Method to singing instruction, non-traditional choral ensembles, and LGBTQ studies in music education. He is published in Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education, International Journal of Music Education, and Music Education Research, and Musicianship: Composing in Choir (GIA Publications). His compositions for beginning choirs are published by Alfred Music. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/611b4d3b20ff7062e90939e7/1632371406932/Screen+Shot+2021-08-16+at+10.43.59+PM.png The Nature of Singing - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/611b5e44864d8e40d632fa38/1632371406936/Screen+Shot+2021-08-16+at+11.11.47+PM.png The Nature of Singing - Life is a Song Sing it https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/6119ddef42c471045714a852/1629087247213/image-asset.jpg The Nature of Singing - 1. Shaping the Self for Comfort with Deborah Bowes This workshop will help develop your flexibility and self-awareness to quickly notice and adjust your posture in sitting and standing. You can be more comfortable and modify how you ‘shape’ yourself by using a simple reference system that Moshe Feldenkrais called the Primary Image. The Primary Image includes the length of the spine, the relationships of the hips and shoulders, and the directions of the arms and legs. The primary image is a personal geometry that is useful for learning to change postural habits, improve balance of all the joints and for learning any movement. Deborah Bowes has been a Feldenkrais Teacher in San Francisco for more than 30 years. Her doctoral research investigated the use of the Feldenkrais Method to improve awareness and functioning of the pelvic floor. She does sing and play with her ukulele ensemble for many non-profit organizations, but is not a professional singer. She works with singers to improve the quality of movement, breathing and posture. https://www.feldenkraissf.com/about-me-deborah https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/6119deda1e226b077ccd01f3/1629087338128/image-asset.jpg The Nature of Singing - 3. A Postural Approach to Breath Control with Richard Corbeil Richard will present a lesson designed to improve breath control by fine tuning our dynamic posture with the coordination of our respiratory movements; a learning process involving intention, attention, and relaxing motion. As a singer and a Feldenkrais Trainer, Richard Corbeil has been contributing his unique understanding of the Feldenkrais Method® to the fields of personal development, health, and the performing arts for over 30 years. Recordings of his teaching is available on https://vocalintegration.bandcamp.com. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/6119ddef42c471045714a855/1629087301191/image-asset.jpg The Nature of Singing - 2. Sensing the Spectrum of Sound with Robert Sussuma Working with both hearing (sound perception) and listening (thoughtful attention to what we sense and hear), Robert will guide you through a series of experiences and experiments that will reveal a hidden world of sensory abilities related to how we hear, what we hear and how we can improve that entire process through self-touch, movement and sensory awareness. From there, we will explore moving the spectrum of sound in various novel ways to improve vocal ability and expression. Robert Sussuma, originally from New York City, is an explorer, a life-long learner and a connoisseur of connections: movement, speaking and singing, voice science, emotions, music, motor learning, neurology-in-action, and deep personal development. His formal education is in Vocal Performance (Bachelors of Music in Voice Performance and Masters of Music in Early Music Voice Performance) and he has performed professionally as a countertenor. In addition, he is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner. Robert has been a faculty member at Naropa University (Boulder, Colorado), Haverford College (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and PACE University (New York, New York) and a guest lecturer at Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and Barcelona University. After maintaining an active private voice studio for 20 years, in-person and online, working with well-known and successful actors and singers in NYC, on Broadway, and around the world, he has recently launched two innovative online programs that are the culmination of all of his work and discoveries designed to update the vocal system from the inside out: THE SINGING SELF PROGRAM. There's even a special track for voice teachers. For more information visit www.thesingingself.com https://www.exploretolearn.org/new-page-1 daily 0.75 2021-08-16 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/6119e60f06598f24a34a9967/1629087210660/ New Page (Copy) - Build it. Dr. Stephen A. Paparo is Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and conductor of the University Chorale. He holds degrees from Michigan State University (Ph.D.), Syracuse University (M.M.), and Ithaca College (B.M.). A Guild Certified Practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method® since 2006, he has taught Feldenkrais in the US and internationally. He is active as a guest conductor and regularly presents at international, national, and state conferences. He currently serves as Past-President for the Massachusetts chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. His research interests include the application of the Feldenkrais Method to singing instruction, non-traditional choral ensembles, and LGBTQ studies in music education. He is published in Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education, International Journal of Music Education, and Music Education Research, and Musicianship: Composing in Choir (GIA Publications). His compositions for beginning choirs are published by Alfred Music. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/6119e60f06598f24a34a9961/1629087161635/Karen+Clark+portrait.jpg New Page (Copy) - Build it. Karen Clark, contralto holds degrees from the Indiana University School of Music where she studied opera and early music. She has taught in the music departments at Princeton University, Swarthmore College, Sonoma State, UC Berkeley, and in the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California. Karen studied the Feldenkrais Method under Russell Delman and Alan Questel (1999) and since has presented workshops across the U.S. Karen’s articles on singing, The Impulse to Sing, and, Sounds Unfamiliar are published in the Feldenkrais Journal. Considered a leading interpreter of medieval and modern music, Karen has performed and recorded worldwide with eminent ensembles, such as, Boston Camerata, Sequentia, the Joshua Rifkin Bach Ensemble. Most recent recordings— on the Music & Arts label— include 12th century music of Hildegard von Bingen with her ensemble Vajra Voices, and the song cycle, Dream Drapery— Songs on Thoreau, written for her and the Galax Quartet by Pulitzer/Grammy award winning composer, Joseph Schwantner. Karen is staying home in Petaluma, CA with her partner, Roy Whelden, and cat Molly and looks forward to blackberry pie season. https://www.karenclark.studio/ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/6119e60f06598f24a34a9958/1629087055021/image-asset.jpg New Page (Copy) - Dream it. Deborah Bowes has been a Feldenkrais Teacher in San Francisco for more than 30 years. Her doctoral research investigated the use of the Feldenkrais Method to improve awareness and functioning of the pelvic floor. She does sing and play with her ukulele ensemble for many non-profit organizations, but is not a professional singer. She works with singers to improve the quality of movement, breathing and posture. https://www.feldenkraissf.com/about-me-deborah https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/6119e60f06598f24a34a9964/1629087196461/Sussuma+Headshot.jpg New Page (Copy) - Dream it. As an internationally known countertenor for four decades, Drew Minter sang leading roles in the opera houses of Brussels, Toulouse, Boston, Washington, Santa Fe, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Wolf Trap, Glimmerglass, Nice, Marseilles and others, performing with many of the world's foremost baroque orchestras, and making over 70 recordings. Drew is Senior Music Lecturer at Vassar College, where he teaches voice, choir, opera and the Feldenkrais Method to musicians; he is an opera director and teaches frequent workshops in the singing and acting of opera, incorporating several somatic methods: Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, and the Viewpoints acting work. His additional training is in Polarity, Jin shin jyutsu, Kahuna work and Body Electric. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/6119e60f06598f24a34a995e/1629087116011/image-asset.jpg New Page (Copy) - Dream it. As a singer and a Feldenkrais Trainer, Richard Corbeil has been contributing his unique understanding of the Feldenkrais Method® to the fields of personal development, health, and the performing arts for over 30 years. Recordings of his teaching is available on https://vocalintegration.bandcamp.com. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/6119e60f06598f24a34a995b/1629087101978/image-asset.jpg New Page (Copy) - Build it. Robert Sussuma, originally from New York City, is an explorer, a life-long learner and a connoisseur of connections: movement, speaking and singing, voice science, emotions, music, motor learning, neurology-in-action, and deep personal development. His formal education is in Vocal Performance (Bachelors of Music in Voice Performance and Masters of Music in Early Music Voice Performance) and he has performed professionally as a countertenor. In addition, he is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner. Robert has been a faculty member at Naropa University (Boulder, Colorado), Haverford College (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and PACE University (New York, New York) and a guest lecturer at Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and Barcelona University. After maintaining an active private voice studio for 20 years, in-person and online, working with well-known and successful actors and singers in NYC, on Broadway, and around the world, he has recently launched two innovative online programs that are the culmination of all of his work and discoveries designed to update the vocal system from the inside out: THE SINGING SELF PROGRAM. There's even a special track for voice teachers. For more information visit www.thesingingself.com https://www.exploretolearn.org/exploration-of-early-developmental-stages daily 0.75 2021-10-08 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/615fd25018112a270c15476c/1636429821409/Screen+Shot+2021-10-07+at+10.07.32+PM.png Exploration of Early Developmental Stages https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60f36a5b30bb6d6f8bbcdfb6/t/615fdbb48862f97154dc8b72/1636429821413/17b53379-31c2-4a0f-add2-d16ae458932e.JPG Exploration of Early Developmental Stages