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Author of the highly
acclaimed book The Art of
Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart,
pianist Madeline Bruser helps students of all levels
transcend their current level of performance by
releasing physical and mental tension and unleashing
their innate musical talent. Drawing on
physiological, meditative, and musical principles,
she presents practical techniques for cultivating
free and natural movement, heightened sensory
awareness, rhythmic vitality, and mental relaxation.
She thus guides both aspiring and professional
players toward discovering their true virtuosic
capabilities and fulfilling their deepest expressive
potential.
Biography
Ms. 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
University of Southern California, the Music Academy
of the West, 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's book, The Art of
Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart
has sold over 60,000 copies since its publication in
1997. It was also published in Korean in 2000 and in
Chinese in 2005. 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. Her research on the physiological
mechanics of piano playing has included interviews
with leading arts medicine professionals
specializing in physiatrics, physical therapy, and
hand therapy, as well as with teachers of the
Alexander Technique, Body-Mind Centering, and Laban
Movement Analysis.
Ms. Bruser won First Prize in the Denver Symphony
North American Young Artists Competition and was a
prizewinner in the First National Chopin
Competition. She also received the Alfred Hertz
Award for Music from the University of California in
two consecutive years. She has appeared in recital
at Carnegie Recital Hall and at the Phillips
Collection in Washington D.C., and has performed on
radio in the U.S. and Europe. She studied with
Alexander Libermann, Menahem Pressler, Irwin
Freundlich, John Crown, Jeanne Stark-Iochmans, and
Paul Hersh. Ms. Bruser graduated from the Juilliard
School in 1970 and received a Master of Music degree
from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in
1978.
An authorized meditation instructor, Ms. Bruser
leads the annual Meditation for Musicians retreat in
Vermont—a weeklong summer program integrating
meditation practice with music workshops applying
principles of body mechanics, meditative listening,
and relaxation.
Ms. Bruser has served on the Adjunct Piano Faculty
at Teachers College, Columbia University.
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