From July 17 to July 25, The Golandsky Institute will present its 2004 Summer Symposium and a weeklong festival of recitals by international artists. Ms. Golandsky is the leading exponent of the Taubman Approach to Virtuosity. The seven-day Symposium on the Taubman Approach and Golandsky International Piano Festival will take place in the Woolworth Music Building on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, 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. "In an exciting atmosphere of listening and learning, we will be able to use the Taubman Approach to learn how to overcome limitations, fatigue, or pain. The Taubman Approach illuminates the complex and mostly invisible movements that result in a virtuoso technique."

The seven-day Golandsky International Piano Festival will feature performances by a roster of brilliant pianists from around the world: Ilya Itin (Russia), jazz pianist Bill Charlap (USA), Eric Ferrand-N'Kaoua (France), Sean Duggan (USA), Nina Tichman (Germany), Misha Dacic (Yugoslavia), and others. In addition, there will be films and lectures on a variety of subjects by distinguished speakers, including Matthew Gurewitsch, contributing writer to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and others; Jan Krzywicki, Professor of Music Theory at Temple University; and Patricia Rooney, Professor of Law at Touro Law School.

The Golandsky Summer 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. At Princeton University, students – both new to 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 will be attending from around the country to assist Ms. Golandsky. They include: John Bloomfield, Faculty Chairman (New York City), Giselle Brodsky (Miami, Florida), Robert Durso (Philadelphia Pennsylvania), Dr. Teresa Dybvig (Long Island, New York), Kendall Feeney (Seattle, Washington), Mary Moran (Albany, New York), Audrey Schneider (Long Island, New York), Susan Nowicki (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), Nina Scolnik (Irvine, California), and Marc Steiner (San Francisco, California).

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.

For more information or to register for the Summer Symposium, please contact as indicated below. You may also visit our website: golandskyinstitute.org.

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)

Recently, he has been performing throughout the USA; touring with the Jerusalem Camerata, performing at the Kennedy Center Washington “A delicious and rare talent” (Washington Post) and the Lincoln Center, New York, as well as major festivals from Miami Festival of Discovery and Beethoven on the Beach, both in Florida, to Mainly Mozart Festival in California. Last year he made his conducting debut in Costa Rica with the Chamber Orchestra of Uppsala in a much-admired performance of 1st Piano Concerto by Shostakovich as well as his debut at Theatre des Champs Elysees Paris. “He plays marvelously with all his body and his soul: a very great pianist and musician” (Le Figaro)

Born in Ekaterinburg, Ilya Itin studied from the age of five with Natalia Litvinova at the Sverdlovsk Music School for gifted children. He graduated the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory where his teacher was Lev Naumov. He is working with Edna Golandsky and has been a grateful recipient of support from Patrons of Exceptional Artists.

BILL CHARLAP
Jazz pianist Bill Charlap was named Pianist of the Year in 2002 by the Jazz Journalists Association. His 2002 CD STARDUST features the works of Hoagy Carmichael and performances by Tony Bennett and Shirley Horn. Mr. Bennett says of Mr. Charlap, “My God, this guy is phenomenal.” Charlap’s latest CD, SOMEWHERE: THE SONGS OF LEONARD BERNSTEIN, was released in March 2004 on Blue Note Records.

Mr. Charlap is not a composer, but in repertory his thinking is direct toward American jazz and theater songs, and in execution, towards certainties: speed, fluency, constant variation, wit. Though the playing never rises above medium volume, it isn’t staid music; he’s armed with dozens of quickly deployable ideas about how to freshen performances.

ERIC FERRAND-N'KAOUA
French pianist Eric Ferrand-N'Kaoua, born in 1963, has performed to great acclaim throughout Europe, Japan and North America. He has given recitals at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, in Munich, Hamburg, Sarrebrück, Bremen, Salzburg, North Carolina and Philadelphia. His 1997 performance of the Bach Goldberg Variations at the Salle Gaveau in Paris received accolades for his interpretation of this work.

He began his musical studies under the supervision of Madeleine de Valmalète, inheriting from this great pianist the clarity and poetry of the most genuine French piano tradition. At the age of 12, he entered the Paris Conservatoire, obtaining first prize with distinction in piano at 14. In 1979 he was awarded a first prize in chamber music at the conservatory. He continued his studies with Jacqueline Robin, Pierre Sancan and attended master-classes with Enrique Barenboïm. Mr. N'Kaoua has been a finalist and prizewinner in a variety of competitions, among them the International Clara Haskil Competition and the Santander Competition.

Since 1988, a variety of collaborations with musicians from Eastern Europe, such as the USSR State Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Soloists conducted by Yuri Bashmet, or the tenor Gegam Grigorian, launched him on several concert tours in the former USSR, including Moscow, Saint-Petersbourg and Ekaterinbourg. In 1992, he was featured on Ukrainian television in a performance of Ravel's Concerto in G, accompanied by the Kiev Opera Orchestra under the baton of Vladimir Kojukhar. He has recorded the Liszt Sonata in B minor for BNL-Auvidis, two CDs for the Beethoven and Debussy specials of Pianiste magazine, and recently a Bach recital including the Goldberg Variations.

In 2003 his new concept «2+2=5» allowed him to perform in two different piano duos, playing improvised arrangements of jazz standards with the American composer Christopher Culpo, to be followed by the sonata for 2 pianos and percussions by Bartók.

FATHER SEÁN BRETT DUGGAN
In September 1983, Father Seán Brett Duggan, O.S.B., won first prize in the Johann Sebastian Bach International Competition for pianists in Washington, D.C. In the Bach Year, 1985, he gave complete performances of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier in New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Birmingham to critical acclaim. In 1991 he participated again in the Bach Competition in Washington, D.C., this time as one of the three first-place winners. He has appeared with various orchestras including the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Pennsylvania Sinfonia, and the American Chamber Orchestra. Guest performances at various summer festivals have included the piano and chamber music festival in La Gesse, France, the Villa Chopin near Malaga, Spain, and the Taubman Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. In the year 2000, the 250th anniversary of Bach's death, he performed the complete cycle of Bach's keyboard works in a series of fifteen recitals, a cycle done complete at each of eight European and American cities. Father Duggan is a monk of St. Joseph Abbey near Covington, Louisiana, attended Loyola University in New Orleans, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance. He obtained the Master of Fine Arts degree at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1979,

NINA TICHMAN
Winner of international competitions - including Busoni, Mendelssohn, Casagrande - Nina Tichman has appeared as soloist with orchestra and in recital in the major music centers of the world and has been the subject of numerous radio and television portraits in Europe, Asia, the Near East and North America. Her diverse activities as recitalist, chamber musician and pedagogue have led to invitations to perform and teach in prestigious festivals around the world, often featuring premieres of works dedicated to her.

Nina Tichman made a significant contribution to the musical life of numerous cities in Europe and America with her performances of the complete piano works of Claude Debussy in three evenings. Her recording of this repertoire was called "possibly - because of her exquisite touch - the most beautiful recording of the complete works" (Darmstädter Echo). Other recordings include the complete piano music of Aaron Copland and a selection of music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy as well as chamber music recordings. Her recent recording with cellist Maria Kliegel of Beethoven’s complete works for piano and cello was deemed “a magnificent interpretation” by Gramophone (London) and the soon to be released premiere recording of the works for violin and piano of Krzysztof Penderecki with violinist Ida Bieler was prepared under the supervision of the composer.

Nina Tichman is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where she was awarded the Eduard-Steuermann-Prize for outstanding musical achievement. Her artistic development was fostered by such outstanding teachers as Jane Carlson, Dorothy Taubman, Alfons Kontarsky, and Wilhelm Kempff. In 1993 she was appointed Professor of Piano at the Hochschule für Musik in Köln.

MISHA DACIC
“Misha Dacic made an impressive American debut … Now in his mid-20s, he is clearly an artist equipped with an awesome technique and a taste for keyboard barnburners”

WHY PIANO STUDENTS ON EVERY LEVEL - FROM AMATEUR TO PERFORMING ARTIST -- NEED 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.