Integration Piano Week 2025 blends schooling and efficiency in a three-day workshop and shutting live performance that focuses on bringing classical music coaching along with the most recent in neuroscience, useful anatomy, and the Alexander Method.
That is the primary time that the Integration Piano Technique will likely be formally offered in Canada.
The occasion will likely be led by pianist and educator Yoshimi Ito and neuroscience researcher Shigeru Yamauchi, each visiting from Japan.
Yoshimi Ito is the founding father of the Integration Piano Technique and Academy, based mostly in Tokyo. She works with musicians to assist them play extra freely, and launch pointless rigidity.
Neuroscience & Alexander Method Specialist Shigeru Yamauchi is a holistic practitioner, acupuncturist, and licensed Alexander Method instructor with over 30 years of expertise. He’s co-director of the Integration Academy, bringing a science-informed method to artistry and efficiency.
The Alexander Method
The Alexander Method, developed by Frederick M. Alexander, makes use of an understanding of anatomy and neuroscience to enhance mind-body coordination, essential to musical efficiency. Born in 1869 in Tasmania, Alexander suffered from ill-health as a baby.
He was drawn to the humanities, and have become an elocutionist, or skilled reciter. Nonetheless, Alexander would undergo bouts of hoarseness, and had issue respiration on stage at instances.
In his quest to search out the foundation of the issue, he made important discoveries concerning the relationship between unconscious habits and the way they will have an effect on how we carry out sure acts at particular instances, akin to on stage, or beneath stress.
In essence, The Alexander Method includes being totally acutely aware of every little thing you’re doing, each small movement. It’s a method whose validity has been confirmed by physiologists since that point.
The Occasion
The workshop will discover the interconnections between motion, ache, and musical expression, and the way they’re processed within the mind and physique. It’s a science-informed different to the traditions of Western piano pedagogy.
Superior college students, academics, {and professional} musicians who’re coping with accidents or efficiency stress might notably profit from the data.
Live performance: Threads of Time
The workshop ends with a live performance by performers — Mariko Minematsu, Yuka Kagami, Yoshiko Nagao, Naomi Harada, Ai Homma, and Mariko Avenesian — who’re educated on this methodology, demonstrating its technical and inventive affect.
We requested pianist and educator Yoshimi Ito just a few questions concerning the occasion.
Yoshimi Ito: Q&A
LV: Why has physicality been ignored in efficiency coaching?
YI: Within the classical music world, the main focus has historically been on interpretation, evaluation, and hours of follow on the instrument. Physicality — how the physique truly strikes, balances, and helps musical expression — has usually been taken without any consideration. It was assumed that when you practiced sufficient, the physique would “determine it out.” Sadly, that always results in pointless rigidity, harm, or limitations in inventive freedom. What has been lacking is a scientific option to join physique consciousness, neuroscience, and musical efficiency.
LV: Is the Alexander Method changing into extra frequent?
YI: Sure — there may be positively extra consciousness right this moment. Many conservatories {and professional} organizations have began to introduce Alexander Method, Feldenkrais, or different body-based approaches. Nonetheless, they’re usually provided as non-obligatory extras, not but totally built-in into the core of music schooling. Our method goes a step additional by combining Alexander rules with present neuroscience and efficiency psychology, making it immediately related to the challenges musicians face on stage.
LV: Have you ever encountered resistance?
YI: There could be resistance, particularly from establishments the place custom runs deep. Some individuals really feel that specializing in the physique distracts from the “actual work” of music. However as soon as musicians expertise the distinction — feeling freer, extra expressive, much less ache — the resistance normally dissolves. It’s much less about altering custom and extra about enriching it with instruments that permit musicians to flourish.
LV: What sort of affect does this science-informed method have?
YI: The affect is profound. On a useful stage, it helps performers play with much less effort, keep away from harm, and maintain lengthy careers. But it surely doesn’t cease there: when the nervous system is regulated and the physique is free, the music itself modifications. Tone turns into extra resonant, timing extra natural, and expression extra genuine. It completely helps musicians turn into higher artists — not solely technically succesful, however capable of transfer audiences with real presence.
- Discover particulars and details about the workshop October 21 to 23 at Heliconian Corridor [HERE].
- Discover details about the October 25 live performance on the Glenn Gould Studio [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 a long time, and a inventive writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
