
Blog
How Can Vulnerability Make You a Powerful Performer?
“How did the rose ever open its heart and show the world all of its beauty? It felt the encouragement of light against its being. Otherwise, we all remain too frightened.” – Hafiz The thing is, without the scariness and vulnerability, nothing powerful can happen....

What Happened to the Magic?
Remember when you fell in love with music and were so excited to play it yourself? It was magic, and you wanted to live with that magic every day. At first it was exhilarating – you loved touching your instrument and producing beautiful sounds. And then . . . at some...
Do You Trust Yourself as a Performer?
Many musicians don’t trust themselves to perform the way they want to – with physical and emotional freedom, and with deep confidence. But it turns out that there are specific ways to build belief and trust in yourself at the piano – and in front of an audience. It's...
How to Believe in Yourself
Every pianist who comes to me for help with their playing is struggling in one way or another with not believing in themselves enough. Isn’t that what we’re all up against, as we navigate the ups and downs of our lives? Maybe you’ve had a teacher who discouraged you,...
Your Heart Is in Your Hands
I once zoomed in on Peter Serkin’s hands with binoculars from the balcony of Carnegie Hall. He was playing an extremely virtuosic contemporary piece that had his hands running all over the keyboard. As usual in watching any great instrumentalist, I sat there stunned -...
What Progress Looks Like
My student Marina cheered me up so much at her lesson last week. She’s been living with a practice related injury for at least 20 years, and now, after working with me for a few months, she’s having an amazing breakthrough. To recover from the injury, Marina has had...
A Path to Freedom
I recently posted a video on Facebook that brought many comments – people couldn’t understand how this pianist was playing with so much freedom and fluidity with so little body movement. The pianist in the video is me, 35 years ago. And although I understand how I...
From Fear to Joy: A Musician’s Story with Injury, by Francesca Leo
by Francesca Leo Attending the Art of Practicing Institute’s summer program last year was a completely transformative experience. Prior to this program, I had recently graduated with my master’s degree in classical flute performance during a global pandemic, I was...
Light at the End of the Tunnel
Thursday night I attended a livestream performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra, featuring the Piano Concerto in One Movement by Florence Price, a brilliant Black composer whose works were “historically erased” for decades. Written in 1934, the score of this...
Discovering What Playing Music Can Be
My student Seth plays lead guitar in the Avett Brothers—a band that has often performed for audiences of 20,000 or 30,000 people. He came to me because he wanted to learn how to play Mozart. Seth already had experience playing the piano, and in his few months of...
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