Performance Coaching

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I have worked as a teacher/mentor/coach with musicians and other artists for over 25 years, and for the past 10 years have assisted performing artists in their efforts to optimize their performance capabilities (research into peak performance psychology helps here), prevent and recover from injuries, identify and overcome blockages in their performance abilities (such as performance anxiety) and find their own personal and individualized artistic approach within the confines of the arts-industry culture (training in systemic therapy helps in this regard). I work with professional artists, pedagogues, students at conservatories, and dedicated young artists.

I coach in my center: The Green Room in Cologne, Germany. Clients are welcome to take online sessions if they are unable to travel to Cologne.

Please contact me with questions or to schedule a consultation. This first consultation is free of charge and offers both of us a chance to understand the client’s history and goals, and for me to clarify how I work and what I could offer.

Injury / Prevention:

My work with injury prevention/recovery stems from my own experience with injury and illness as a performing musician.

From these experiences with injury and illness, I’ve been drawn to working with injured pianists, as well as with pianists who are confronting difficulties and a sense of stagnation in their progress. In our sessions we examine these kinds of issues:

  • locating (potential) source(s) of injury or blockages

  • increasing awareness of movement through image/metaphor/analysis/movement exercises

  • identifying and relieving overburdened compensatory elements in playing systems

  • optimized practicing and mental practicing (visualization) techniques

  • recommendations for physiotherapeutic treatment or somatic education

  • discussing the role of tension and relaxation in playing

  • reviewing assumptions and habits about playing in order to find alternative solutions

  • improving imaginative abilities for tone color, movement patterns, and variety of touch, articulation, usage of pedal, etc.

  • understanding historical developments in keyboard technique spanning the 17th to 20th centuries

I take into consideration the personal history of each artist: their physiology, habits, and psychological tendencies; and develop - together with the client - artistically-motivated solutions to the challenges they confront.