The Benedetti Foundation announces February 2022 Virtual Sessions

The Benedetti Foundation presents a new Virtual Sessions
Building Foundations: Exploring the Psychology and Physicality of Playing 

Following the enormous success of the three Virtual Sessions in 2020, the Benedetti Foundation presents a new Virtual Sessions - Building Foundations: Exploring the Psychology and Physicality of Playing. Running from February 12 – 18 the Sessions will help participants to address their physical and psychological foundations and the majority are open to players of any instrument. The sessions are intended to complement participants’ individual lessons or group tuition.

What general state does the body have to be in, in order to play with ease, and experience healthy development? Why play in the first place? And what mindset is needed in order to experience deeper joy? Intention, thought, confidence, openness, and individuality are all intrinsic to developing playing. How to stand, how to breathe, focus and comfort, are all important questions. There is no one way to play, one way to make music, one interpretation, or one methodology or pedagogy. With the help of the Foundation’s team of phenomenal tutors, these sessions strive to ignite curiosity and understanding of participants playing through exploring physical and psychological challenges. 

Nicola Benedetti commented, ‘These sessions are intended to complement your individual lessons or group tuition and allow you to take time to focus together on ‘why we do the things we do’ in our playing. Through a series of daily challenges, all carefully designed to be quickly and easily grasped, we will work with participants of all ages and stages to support improvement and understanding of technique by breaking concepts down into a number of smaller categories. If you have not or do not address your entire physical and mental state, it is very very difficult to improve despite your dedication and efforts. We really hope that together in these sessions we can inspire collective development in our physical and mental approach to playing.’

EXCLUSIVE NEWS: The Virtual Sessions are Back from 12-18 February

Ahead of our public annoucement on Monday, we wanted you all to be the first to know that our Virtual Sessions will return next month with a Short Virtual Sessions: 
Building Foundations: Exploring the Psychology and Physicality of Playing. 

Featuring Guest Artists including Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Elena Urioste, Richard O'Neill, Laura van der Heijden, and our Founder and Artistic Director, Nicola Benedetti, we invite you all to join us on this journey of collective development and discovery. 

We believe strongly in the addressing of our foundations, within which we advocate for individuality and creativity to be applied. There is no one way to play, one way to make music, one interpretation, or one methodology or pedagogy. We hope these sessions will deepen this dialogue, and we will all learn something from the experience.

HOW THE SESSIONS WORK 

The Sessions take place between 12-18 February. 
The Sessions include...
Live String Sessions - Saturday 12 February 
Live Wellbeing for Musicians Sessions - Sunday 13 February 
Live Panel Discussion hosted by Nicola Benedetti - Sunday 13 February  
Daily Challenges Open to All - from Monday 14 February 

LIVE STRING SESSIONS

On Saturday 12 February, we will host a series of live tutorials for all ages and stages of string players with our tutors and guest artists. These will focus on string technique and exploring the fundamental principles of playing our instruments. Our guest artists will be divided between the sessions. You can attend or watch back the recording of more than one level of Session (adults/young people separately). Times for each session are listed on our website and these Sessions take place on Zoom.

LIVE WELLBEING FOR MUSICIANS SESSIONS (ALL INSTRUMENTS) 
AND PANEL DISCUSSION 
On Sunday 13 February, violinist, yogi, and co-founder of Intermission, Melissa White will be delivering three sessions dedicated to wellbeing for musicians (all instruments, all ages - live session times on our website, recordings available for catch up).  

The live weekend will conclude with a panel discussion hosted by Nicola Benedetti from 7-8pm GMT, with guests including violinist Alina Ibragimova and cellist Leonard Elschenbroich. All those registered for the Session will have access to Zoom (young people) or YouTube live stream (adults) where you will be able to interact with the guests via the chat. 

DAILY CHALLENGES
From Monday 14 February, we will be releasing a series of daily challenges from guest artists and tutors for all levels and all instruments. You can take part by trying out the challenges and sharing them with us via a link we will send to registered participants, or on social media. The challenges have no time limits and you can access these as often as you would like.  

REGISTER TO JOIN US
The Sessions are open to everyone, any level, any age and from anywhere in the world (everything will be available to watch on catch up for those in different time zones and anyone unable to join live). The Sessions will be delivered in English.

There is no set fee to take part. Instead, we ask you to donate what you can (if you can)
A recommended donation of £10-15 would cover the cost of a place for 1 person on the Sessions.