From July 9 to July 20, The Miami International Piano Festival will present an International Piano Festival and a Symposium on the Taubman Approach in collaboration with Edna Golandsky. Ms. Golandsky is the leading exponent of the Taubman Approach to Virtuosity. The nine-day International Piano Festival and Symposium on the Taubman Approach will take place in the beautiful baroque city of Lecce, Italy, and will present the very best of the keyboard world in an atmosphere as magical as the music itself.

"This is an ideal situation," says Edna Golandsky. "Within an exciting atmosphere of listening and learning, we will be able to use the Taubman Approach to share the possibility of being a pianist without limitation, fatigue, or pain. The Taubman Approach illuminates the complex and mostly invisible movements that result in a virtuoso technique."

The nine-day International Piano Festival will feature performances by a roster of brilliant pianists from around the world: Piotr Anderszewski (Poland), Denis Burstein (Russia), Misha Dacic (Yugoslavia), Pietro De Maria (Italy), Sean Duggan (USA), Kemal Gekic (Croatia), Ilya Itin (Russia), Francesco Libetta (Italy), and Adam Neiman (USA). In addition, there will be films and lectures on a variety of subjects by distinguished speakers, including Emanuele Arciuli, Francesco Caramiello, Frank Cooper, Ivan Davis, Mark Mitchell De Pachmann, Lucio Garau, Matthew Gurewitsch, Geoffrey Norris, Vittoria Ottolenghi, Andrea Padova, and Bruce Payne.

The Symposium on the Taubman Approach will include lectures, master classes, lessons, technique clinics, and practice time. Ms. Golandsky combines an extraordinary ability to solve technical problems with a penetrating musical insight. Pianists from all over the world study, coach and consult with Ms. Golandsky in her Manhattan studio. In Lecce, students – both new and experienced with the Taubman Approach – will have the opportunity to learn first-hand from the person considered the master of the Taubman Approach.

Faculty members who will be assisting Ms. Golandsky are John Bloomfield, Robert Durso, Dr. Teresa Dybvig, and Mary Moran, each of whom were for many years on the faculty of the former Taubman Institute of Piano.

The Taubman Approach is a groundbreaking analysis of the mostly invisible motions that function underneath a virtuoso technique. The resulting knowledge makes it possible to help pianists overcome technical limitations, as well as cure playing-related injuries. It is also the way that tone production and other components of expressive playing can be understood and taught.

To date, individuals from U.S., Australia, Italy, France, and Switzerland have registered for the Symposium on the Taubman Approach. Symposium participants are invited to all Piano Festival lectures and performances. For more information, please contact as indicated below.

Established in 1998, the Miami International Piano Festival is co-sponsored by Patrons of Exceptional Artists and Community Concert Association, both non-profit organizations dedicated to discover, promote, preserve, and support extraordinary artists so they can nurture their performance art to its highest level.

Contacts:
Media: For photos, bios, and to arrange interviews
Shephard & Associates, Inc.
David Shephard
SHEPHARDandAssoc@aol.com
781-444-8600

Edna Golandsky
www.ednagolandsky.com
ednagolandsky@aol.com
Park West Finance Station
P O Box 20726
New York, NY 10025
1-877-343-3434 (toll-free in the US)

The Miami International Piano Festival
20191 East Country Club Drive Suite 709
Aventura, FL 33180
E-mail: info@miamipianofest.com
Phone: (305) 935-5115

WHY THE PERFORMING ARTIST NEEDS
THE TAUBMAN APPROACH

Throughout history there have been documented cases of performing artists playing marvelously into old age. Their playing seemed only to mature and get better over time, apparently free of strain or injury, while others such as Robert and Clara Schumann, Chopin, Paderewski, Scriabin, Schnabel, Rachmaninoff, Gould and many more suffered from debilitating injuries.

We are often in awe when we see and hear pianists perform, only to learn that they are plagued with serious physical problems that necessitate postponing or canceling concerts. The fact is that some breathtaking techniques may come at a high cost. Well-documented research shows that a majority of professional musicians live with some sort of playing-related fatigue or pain. While this is something that was not discussed years ago, today it is not uncommon to read about an artist curtailing or ending a concert career due to tendinitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, dystonia or some other similar problem.

Most pianists think that these problems are inevitable. However, the Taubman Approach has shown that this is not true. Through working with performing musicians more than fifty years, the Taubman Approach has determined that these unfortunate situations are a result of misusing the body. Through research and investigation this approach has been able to illuminate the complex and mostly invisible movements that result in a virtuoso technique. With this kind of information problems at the instrument could be avoided altogether, or if, at the first sign of trouble, a problem could be corrected, a pianist would never get off track, as is often the case.

In the course of history, many things in the world have been deemed inexplicable. Yet, through analysis and discovery some of these things can now be explained. Such is the case here. The playing apparatus is governed by very definite laws of motion. When one begins to understand how the body works, how the instrument works and how they interact, a whole new world opens up.

In spite of the wonderful music top-level artists bring to us, performers have always had concerns about the most difficult passages in the repertoire. Another issue is how to achieve the level of their best playing consistently. There is also the question of how to produce beautiful sounds and shape the phrases. One can only guess what heights these giants might attain if they were free of physical limitations to realize more completely their inner musical visions. By applying the knowledge the Taubman Approach has to offer, artists can clear away the hurdles and blossom to their full potential.