When I was sixteen, I spent a glorious summer month in Leavenworth, WA at the Icicle Creek Chamber Music Institute. If you’ve never heard of Leavenworth before, it’s a small town nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains that stylizes itself as a Bavarian Village. Tens of thousands of tourists come every fall for Oktoberfest and the holiday lights, but I’ve always loved Leavenworth for the cross-country skiing and chamber music.
On any given day at the institute, you might get up early to hike three miles to an alpine lake before retreating to a practice hut in a meadow full of wildflowers and tall grass for the day’s rehearsals and coachings.
I was in heaven. Not only was I staying in one of my all-time favorite places, I was getting to play one of my favorite pieces–Mendelssohn’s c-minor piano trio–with amazing collegiate students.
But I’d run into a wall–my ensemble coach, Dr. Heasook Rhee kept asking me to change my phrasing in the second theme. I had this inadvertent habit of disrupting the long, smooth melodic lines with ugly punched notes.
And I couldn’t figure out why I was doing it or how to change it.
Fortunately, Dr. Rhee was patient with this earnest but inexperienced teenager. I think she recognized that as a pianist, she might not be able to diagnose the exact bowing problem underlying my phrasing woes, so she enlisted the help of her colleague, Wei He.
Professor He figured it out within minutes–I needed to conceptualize the phrase as one long bow with the tiniest retake in the middle. Years later, I recognized that he taught me a Z-bow pattern, but Professor He didn’t need to bother with any technical descriptions to help me internalize the feel of the phrase in my bow arm.
It worked perfectly.
Not to be hyperbolic, but it changed the course of my life.
In that moment, I experienced the transformative power of embodied teaching. I felt empowered in a way that I’d never felt before as a violinist.
It was honestly euphoric. I actually called my mom from the meadow afterwards and started to cry, telling her that I wanted to study music when I went to college. You see, I adored playing the violin and chamber music and always assumed it would be a significant part of my life, but I never seriously thought about it as a craft or career until that point.
It’s not the only reason I ended up pursuing a musical career and fell in love with teaching, but it’s the memory that has stayed with me all these years.
We don’t know which teaching moments will resonate with our students or what impact we will have on their lives. But I hope that we recognize the power we have to shape our students’ musical experiences and always aim to positively empower, transform, and inspire.
Wishing you all a wonderful school year!
If this is the first time we’re meeting virtually, hello! My name is Erika, and I’m a violinist, teacher, and certified Franklin Method Educator. My mission is to rethink traditional teaching approaches to help musicians play with confidence and ease. If this resonates with you, here’s how you can connect with me:
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