Elizabeth “Beth” Mueller Grace spent thousands of dollars seeking the help of specialists in resolving her piano injury. Grace, a highly-trained pianist and teacher, is determined to pass on what she finally learned about healthy technique to others with similar problems.

Grace first experienced extreme hand pain after playing the Brahms Quintet at a summer music festival. She tried dismissing it until she found it difficult to practice, let alone perform.

More than a dozen tests led to anti-inflammatories, braces, and cortisone shots that temporarily relieved the pain. But the pain never fully subsided. Grace was determined to avoid surgery, knowing that scar tissue could create new problems. Rather than give up on her passion, she made it her life’s mission to figure out what it was about her playing that caused her injury.

Fast forward and Beth Grace is now a Certified Instructor of the Taubman Approach through the Golandsky Institute. She credits this work with saving her piano career, allowing her to continue her highly successful studio in Kansas City and New York City, as well as serve on the artist faculty at the University of Denver Lamont School of Music Summer Academy at the University of Denver. Since solving her own problem, she’s been an active clinician, collaborative artist, and directed and taught on the faculty of Rocky Ridge Music Center in Estes Park, Colorado.

Playing with Pain and Tension

“If I’d stopped playing when I was first injured and gotten help in the right way, I wouldn’t have had such a lengthy recovery period,” Grace says. She attributes her various diagnoses (tendinitis of the thumb, frozen shoulder, repetitive strain injury) to the way she learned to use her hands as a pianist. She now looks back on all she went through as a positive experience: “If I can help one person from being injured or help one person not have to go through all I went through, then it will have been worth the journey.”

Causes of injury

Through the Taubman Approach, Grace was able to address underlying alignment and movement issues. She also discovered fingering issues that lead to tension and then pain. For instance, she would strive to use the fingering as written on the music but this would often cause her to stretch her hands in unnatural and damaging ways that led to pain. She has since recognized that fingerings suggested by editors may not necessarily work well for those who perform the music.

The Taubman Approach makes it unnecessary to stretch the fingers or twist the hand to reach notes. According to Grace, “Twisting involves changing the alignment of the forearm and the hand to turn [the fingers] to the side. And when you turn [your fingers] to the side and play down with force, it’s not a good combination. It doesn’t feel good but people think this is the only way to master the passage and remain true to the score. The Taubman Approach allows the pianist all of the creative and musical freedom without the discomfort.”

Listening to Your Body

“If people are playing with pain and tension, it must be stopped immediately,” Grace says. “You cannot keep playing through the pain. The ‘no pain, no gain’ philosophy doesn’t work. Your body is screaming at you when you have pain, that it does not like what you’re doing.” If you keep doing the same activity despite the pain, i.e., the stretching, twisting, grabbing motions as well a a combination of those, the pain will continue and most likely worsen.

Pain also leads to compensation. The injured part of the body may be protected when another part takes over, but this can often lead to a secondary injury. Grace now knows that had she stopped playing and gotten the kind of help she finally found through the Taubman Approach, she could have avoided a long recovery.

Case Study: An Injured Student

“In my experience, pianists are talked to less about how their bodies work and how their instruments work than other instrumentalists,” claims Beth Grace. “That’s because it is thought that almost anyone can play (or make a sound at) the piano., i.e., anything striking a key will make a sound. As a result, most piano students are not taught correct positions and motions.” They end up using techniques that Grace refers to as “hand busters,” i.e., the motions that are likely to lead to injury.

In her work with clients, Grace looks closely at the onset of pain in conjunction with the repertoire. She also observes their previous technical habits. Muscle memory is so strong that a comprehensive re-education process is sometimes required in order to remedy the root problem.

In the video below, Grace works with an injured high school student who is seeking help in anticipation of college auditions.

Danny Elfman performs with Christopher O’Riley and teen musicians on “From the Top.”

Several Denver students were among a dozen or so teen musicians performing on NPR radio show “From the Top” before a live audience taping recently held at the King Center on the University of Colorado Denver campus. Performing with film and tv composer Danny Elfman (“Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” “The Simpsons,” “Spider Man 3,” etc.) and acclaimed pianist and “From the Top” show host, Christopher O’Riley, was an opportunity of a lifetime.

We’ve chosen to highlight two of the soloists from this episode of “From the Top” because their backgrounds are particularly unique. Each has faced challenges while pursuing their musical passion. Both have made sacrifices for the sake of becoming more proficient musicians, from long hours of practicing to financial sacrifices. At the same time, their determination and perseverance have helped them blossom into extraordinarily fine young musicians.

Abigail Enssle

Abigail Enssle, 17, is the fourth of eight children, all of whom play an instrument and have been homeschooled in Boulder, Colorado. She’s been taking harp lessons since age five, and has played in the Greater Boulder Youth Orchestras and the Denver Young Artists Orchestra. In 2014, she won first place in the Broomfield (Colorado) Symphony Orchestra and the Boulder Philharmonic concerto competitions.

Think homeschooling means you can sit around playing music all day? It’s just a myth, says Abigail. In fact, it’s quite the opposite for her. In addition to homeschooling, she takes classes at a local community college, helps her mother with the homeschooling of her four younger siblings, and is very involved with her church, family, and extracurricular activities. Through careful planning, she still manages to carve out two hours a day for practicing harp.

Abigail knows what it’s like to work hard for what she wants. She spent long hours working at a farm stand to help pay for her towering, 86-pound Lyons & Healy harp. Through dedicated practicing, she earned a spot in the Denver Young Artists Orchestra and tour of Europe during the summer of 2014.

She also learned through trial and error about some of the occupational hazards of being a harpist.

Performing at the top of her game

Versatility of the harp

Abigail is committed to using music to touch those in difficult circumstances. Some of her favorite experiences have come from performing at a hospital for children, a senior residence, and a nursing care facility. She is also committed to educating others about her instrument. While many think of the harp as mainly an instrument for wedding music, Abigail points out that it is a far more versatile instrument on which she performs music written for guitar, piano, and violin.

Tips for younger students

What does Abigail have to offer other young musicians who would like to perform on the radio as well as gain other recognition for their music?

Plans after college

As for her future plans, Abigail is uncertain. She knows music will be a part of whatever she does. She’s also well aware that building a career just in music can be daunting. Her passion for working with people may also lead her in the direction of nursing.

Scott Chiu

Scott Chiu moved from Taiwan to Denver, Colorado in middle school. With just six months of English language classes under his belt, he was suddenly immersed in an all-English-speaking arts school so that he could focus on the clarinet in addition to his schoolwork.

At age 19 and about to head off to college in the Fall of 2015, Scott has found his niche at the Denver School for the Arts. He’s also been recognized as a talented clarinetist who has performed with the Denver Young Artists Orchestra as well as in his school’s woodwind quintet on Colorado Public Radio and at the Colorado Music Educators Association Conference. Scott won a Downbeat award with the quintet, and is a 2015-16 Young Musicians Foundation of Colorado artist.

Scott’s career goal is to become a soloist as well as play in a symphony. He seems undaunted by the hard work it takes to get even a shot at attaining those goals. When asked whether he gets nervous before a performance, he offered these and other tips to students who might like to follow in his footsteps and get a chance to perform on the radio.

Performance anxiety

How did two high school students from Colorado set themselves up to have their music heard by 700,000 listeners in a single day?

Ask Emily Switzer, violin, and Bryan Dunnewald, organ. These two 17-year-old juniors were both chosen to perform with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra (CSO) on National Public Radio’s “From the Top” weekly classical music program.

Emily grew up in a family of musicians. Both parents are members of the CSO, which in itself has provided both advantages and challenges. Emily worked hard to gain the role of concertmaster for the Denver Young Artists Orchestra, but she also proved herself to be a gifted violinist, as well as a strong academic student with many interests, at Kent Denver School.

Bryan started out on piano at age four but found the inner workings of the organ so fascinating that he started organ lessons at nine. He spent the summer between freshman and sophomore years of high school studying organ at Interlochen Summer Arts Camp, and became a student at the Interlochen Arts Academy for the remainder of high school. Bryan, now a student at Curtis Institute of Music, aspires to perform as well as to build organs, and has played almost 100 organs around the US in his role as a database contributor and photographer for the Organ Historical Society. He also managed to gain his Eagle Scout status in his “spare” time.

Listen to Bryan and Emily, both wise beyond their years, as they share their thoughts on the challenges musicians encounter at any age, including: auditions, performance anxiety, and balancing a heavy practice schedule with other commitments.

From college a cappella to working on NBC’s “The Sing Off,” to freelance arranging and composing, Ithaca College School of Music grad Rob Dietz has an interesting story to tell. Dietz now sings professionally in “Level,” a Los Angeles-based a cappella group. He is a co-founder and a director at A Cappella Academy, a high school a cappella summer program in Los Angeles.

Dietz combined business with music as an undergrad, and talks about how well this has set him up professionally to “understand the mindset of the business world.”

Among his tips for up and coming music majors: Find a school where you’ll fit in well; go above and beyond what’s expected in your applications (never opt out of optional essays!); and look carefully at what graduates of the schools you’re interested in have done with their careers.

Decisions Lead to a Career in Music

 

Advantages of Studying Business + Music

 

Tips for Prospective and Current Music Majors

Have you ever experienced bullying as a student musician?

“Stronger,” the anti-bullying music video from the Time for Three trio, incorporates their arrangement of Kanye West’s “Stronger,” and Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” and “Night Vision.” The story line is based on experiences each member of the trio had while growing up. According to Nick Kendall, by working hard at your music and by believing in yourself, along with having musical role models, you can hopefully find the courage to face the difficult circumstances and overcome the “negative, ugly energy that can come at you.”

Clifton Williams

Classical music performance majors have inherited an enormous challenge: how to revitalize classical music to protect its legacy and insure its longevity. Staring them in the face: audience decline, symphony bankruptcies, and questions about the relevance of the music and the way in which it is presented.  Solutions to these and other dilemmas demand new approaches to presenting classical music that every current and future classical musician must address.

Author and music journalist Nick Romeo decided to follow some of the country’s top young classical musicians along their musical journeys. In an effort to see how they have been faring in this age of classical music upheaval, he selected six of the 2,000 gifted young classical musicians who have appeared on NPR’s weekly radio show, “From the Top”. His book, 
Driven: Six Incredible Musical Journeys, explores their paths both before and after their appearances on the show. He focuses on their unique approaches to re-imagining classical music to keep it vibrant and appealing to a mix of generations.

Each of the individuals highlighted in Driven has a vastly different story:

• Soprano Nadine Sierra was 15 when she appeared on “From the Top.” At age 20, she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, considered the most prestigious of all voice competitions in North America. She was the youngest soprano to ever achieve this accomplishment.
• Dasha Bukharseva, who grew up in Ukraine where she was living with her mother in extreme poverty, was discovered by U.S. travelers who made her dream of studying piano come true. She studied at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, was featured on “From the Top”, secured a spot in Juilliard’s pre-college program, and eventually got accepted to The Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
• Charles Yang is described as a crossover artist. He grew up in a traditional Chinese household where he was groomed to become a classical violinist especially by his mother, also a trained violinist, symphony performer, and teacher. As a teenager, however, Charles found passion in rock guitar. He went to Juilliard as a strings major but managed to perform in both genres. His performances on the guitar and violin are equally electrifying and eclectic.
• Greg Anderson and Liz Roe started performing together in 2000 as freshmen at Juilliard. Their website indicates that their mission is “To make classical music a relevant and powerful force in society” as well as “To free the world from the constraints of sleep-inducing concerts.” Indeed, their exuberance and musical risk-taking provide audiences with one-of-a-kind experiences that keep them coming back for more.
• • Clifton Williams, jazz pianist and Berklee College of Music Presidential scholar, grew up playing gospel and jazz piano in inner-city Washington, D.C. When he performed for “From the Top”, he had only been playing classical piano for three years. Music allowed Williams to transcend the harshness of the environment outside of his home and gave him something to reach for in his life.
• Matthew Muckey was 17 when he was invited to “From the Top.” At the time, he had never performed on any kind of national scale. He went on to Northwestern University Bienen School of Music and at age 22 became associate principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic.

Romeo, a pianist himself, writes with the relaxed candor characteristic of his generation (he’s 27). He weaves creative takes on audience etiquette and performer/audience engagement with human interest stories of auditioning highs and lows, prodigy child/parent struggles, and the mixed experience of sudden acclaim. He also describes collaborative ventures and genre bending in which some of the six musicians are involved.

Romeo’s perspective offers valuable insights for high school and college musicians who envision a career in classical music. His persevering inquisitiveness reveals useful input for the rewriting of the classical music roadmap.

Internationally-renowned jazz composer and conductor Maria Schneider provides reassurance and inspiration as she talks about the ebb and flow of creativity in her own work.

Photo by Jimmy and Dena Katz

Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor, Maria Schneider, guides students who want to become composers through some of the challenges of the profession.

Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor, Maria Schneider, shares insights and advice to inspire musicians as she urges music students to remember, when the going gets rough, what drew them to want to be a musician in the first place.