"The Conscious Performer Intensive"

"The Conscious Performer Intensive"

A Hybrid Intensive for High-Intermediate to Advanced Adult Pianists, Educators, and Auditors

DATES: 3 Zoom Class on Saturdays [Feb 27, Mar 6, Mar 20, 2027] + 1 In-Person Masterclass

FOCUS:
Performing is a dance between mindful listening and focusing on what you need to do next. The treasure of a great live performance, vs. a perfect one, is that it folds in layers of past preparation, spontaneous trial and error, and the agility to adapt in real time. We dream, we try, and we adjust...even onstage! 

GOALS:
In this intensive, you will elevate your operating system to process the following issues:

1) What do you care about most? Clarity each moment, making the most important harmonies (tension moments), voices in a texture, and tone colors stand out.

2) What degree of expression is most appropriate to the present? Adapt to the context of the room acoustics, the instrument, and the many changing variables to create live performance, by practicing at different tempos and dynamics, and studying the style of the composer. 

3) What kind of physical and mental engagement is necessary to connect the intervals? Create cohesion so that from the first note to the last note, in linear lines. with a clear flow.  

4) How will you release your tension patterns from the past to hear the present as it truly is? You will increase emotional resilience with musical breathwork, eye contact, and performance anxiety exercises to focus your attention on the listener.

TOOLS:

• a) Score study for dramatic presentation incorporating rubato, harmonic colors, and styling for the genre.

• b) Physical technical exercises and application for adapting to different levels of resonance and proportional voicing. Mobilize the entire body with posture readiness. Research your state of mind. 

• c) Emotional technical exercises to maximize the storytelling component. Simulate game day intensions. Take creative risks. Create different nuanced versions of your main theme character.
  
  

Steinway Artist Hsing-ay Hsu will guide you towards a masterful musical performance, when you feel inspired to be fully present. A bland musical performance occurs when you play to avoid mistakes. Performing advanced classical music repertoire is about achieving human connection, and it requires intentional, patient, systematic preparation. 

Building on all the Nutmeg Studio intensives to maximize expression, we will deep dive into a professional level of conscious performing that is supported by discussions, worksheets, and masterclasses for both artistic refinement and human connection.

YOU CHOOSE THE CLASS REPERTOIRE:

This workshop is for pieces you have already performed that is fully prepared. 5-8 minutes duration (can be an excerpt). We will study excerpts from everyone's submitted works.

  *Deepen your progress with our class trip to Rome in May. You will find more nuances and new sources of inspiration.