Teaching Mind and Body
This is a podcast about teaching, but it’s also about neuroscience, psychology and body movement as it relates to how music is taught and played. One of the many goals is to provide food for thought; to challenge current thinking, to expand horizons for furthering our understanding of how we acquire and conceptualize music. We have sought to bring a wide range of diverse perspectives from extraordinary professionals and legendary musicians from around the world. Many of whom I have personally gained enormous amounts of insight from over the years. Our goal is to provide teachers, musicians and students access to information, musical knowledge and wisdom that they might not normally have. Please join us on our exploration of better music education.
Teaching Mind and Body
Episode 4: Interview with Shmuel Ashkenasi
In this episode, I talk with one of my former violin teachers, Shmuel Ashkenasi. Throughout his career he distinguished himself as an extraordinary soloist and during his time in the Vermeer Quartet as one of the greatest chamber musicians of our time. Given all his advancements in technique and musical ideas, I believe him to be one of the most important violinists of our time. He was a graduate of The Curtis Institute and now currently teaches there. In this interview, we discuss his former teachers Ilona Feher, Toshia Eto, and Efrem Zimbalist, and his views on technique, phrasing, vibrato, the release and articulation of notes as well as intonation, and practicing tips.
