Our Work
The Need
Seventy-five percent of classical musicians have developed injuries from practicing their instruments with excess tension. And the use of drugs known as beta blockers to combat performance anxiety is "nearly ubiquitous" among classical musicians, according to The New York Times. Injuries have forced many musicians to abandon or interrupt their careers. Physical and mental tension prevents others from performing expressively, which is often documented in concert reviews that adversely affect their careers.
Since 1980, increasing numbers of musicians have been flocking to clinics specializing in the new field of Performing Arts Medicine, and a growing number of publications on the subject of musicians' ailments have appeared. Musicians are looking for programs and products to help them better use their minds and bodies to fully realize their gifts and to train their students in a healthy approach to practice and performance.
Origins
Golden Key Music Institute, a New York State non-profit organization, originated from the work of Madeline Bruser, pianist, teacher, and author of the highly acclaimed book The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart. Its programs are based on a combination of traditional conservatory training, research on the physiological mechanics of making music, and the application of mindfulness meditation to musical practice and performance. Ms. Bruser developed and tested her programs over the last 25 years through workshops across the U.S. and Canada, which have generated significant interest on the part of teachers, musicians, and conservatories, including the Juilliard School in New York. The institute was formed in response to this demonstrated need for information and training that promotes healthy instrumental technique and expressive, confident performance.
Services
Golden Key Music Institute plans to:
- Provide scholarships for music students
- Create, promote, and sponsor workshops for pianists and other musicians
- Certify piano teachers
- Produce and distribute educational videos
- Establish a piano institute
- Create workshops for chamber ensembles
- Establish a music conservatory that becomes an accredited degree-granting institution
Unique Role
Golden Key Music Institute is unique in its support of work that combines physiological and musical principles with meditative discipline to comprehensively address the complex, multi-layered problems of musicians. Madeline Bruser's approach draws on her experience as a concert pianist and teacher, a meditation instructor, and a researcher in body mechanics. Her work synthesizes principles from these three traditions and addresses key physical components of healthy piano playing that are overlooked by other pedagogical approaches.
In the current environment of considerable, growing interest in musicians' wellness issues, some organizations focus primarily on the mechanics of instrumental technique, while others focus primarily on psychological approaches to performance anxiety. Golden Key Music Institute provides musicians with a proven, comprehensive method for reducing physical and mental tension in practice and performance, preventing and recovering from practice-related injuries, and raising the artistic level of their performances.
Projects
Golden Key's projects have included
- Videotaping workshops on piano technique for use in educational DVDs
- Researching the needs of young artists through focus groups at Manhattan School of Music
- Sponsoring a workshop on meditation at Manhattan School of Music
- Sponsoring violinist Martha Caplin to co-teach at summer program in Vermont
- Sponsoring workshops on transcending stage fright, in New York City
In partnership with Klavierhaus in New York, we have also sponsored the Golden Key Salon Series, presenting new and distinguished artists since 2009 (see below).
Golden Key Salon Series at Klavierhaus
This series of recitals at Klavierhaus, 211 West 58th Street, New York, takes place on the first Thursday of every month from October through May.
Piano Master Class Scholarships
One of these Thursdays each season is reserved for a Master Class with Madeline Bruser, with scholarships provided to two pianists.
For more information and to download applications to audition for the concert series and/or the master class, click on Golden Key Salon Series.
Our Founder
Pianist Madeline Bruser has performed as soloist with the San Francisco and Denver Symphony Orchestras. She has conducted seminars and workshops at the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, the MedArt World Congress on Arts and Medicine, and college music departments and music teachers' organizations throughout the United States and Canada. She also appeared on National Public Radio's Performance Today in an interview and piano lesson broadcast in 200 cities.
Ms. Bruser is the author of the highly acclaimed book The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart, which combines musical, meditative, and physiological principles. Her book has sold 70,000 copies and was published in Korean in 2000 and in Chinese in 2005. It will be published in Italian in 2012. She has retrained pianists with practice-related injuries since 1985, and from 2001 to 2003 she served on the Committee for Pianists' Wellness for the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy.
Ms. Bruser graduated from the Juilliard School in 1970 and has studied mindfulness meditation and its relationship to artistic and educational processes since 1977. An authorized meditation instructor, she led the annual Meditation for Musicians Retreat in Vermont from 2004 to 2010.
Ms. Bruser teaches piano privately in New York, where she has served on the Adjunct Piano Faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is currently writing her second book, about developing freedom and confidence in performance. Her Web site address is www.artofpracticing.com.