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Marjorie
Stanke Gingles has had a life long love affair with
music, especially the piano. Also fascinating to her
have been other ways to create music as well as the
people who make the music. Her long search for
effective ways to play the piano well with her small
hands gives her a specialty with which to help
people with similar problems and the resulting
tensions. Being very aware of the value of a good
start for all piano students, she insists on a
healthy and musical technique for the earliest
beginners, no matter what their hand size is and
their body proportions in relation to the piano. She
has devised a set of humorous and playful exercises
related to many motions actually used in playing to
ensure that students develop a musical/healthy ( the
two concepts being intimately related ) technique.
Teaching Education
Having started teaching when 15 years old, she went
on to earn a BS in Music Education, major in piano
performance from West Chester University, West
Chester, Pa. and a Masters in Music Education, major
in piano performance also from West Chester
University. As part of the graduation requirements,
she wrote a research paper entitled "A Study of the
Problems of Problem of Tension in Pianists" and gave
a piano performance to demonstrate the value of
using coordinated motions.
She added further study with leading teachers -
Helena Diedrichs Swann, Sylvia Glickmam, Agi Jambor,
continuing her search for answers to the problems of
excess tension in her own playing and in the playing
of other people. Sometime later, she finally found a
focus in the problems of technique and physical
health interwoven with musicality in the work of
Dorothy Taubman in 1985.
Student of the Taubman Approach
As a student of the Taubman Approach, she has
studied with these Taubman Institute Faculty
Members: the late Natan Brand and the late Eleanor
Hancock; many sessions with Edna Golandski, the
former Director of the Taubman Institute, all in New
York City; briefly with Bob Durso, in Philadelphia,
and, then, predominantly, for about 18 years, with
her friend Professor Maria del Pico Taylor of Temple
University, also in Philadelphia. Ms. Gingles is
presently studying with another Taubman Faculty
Member, Sheila Paige, well known as the founder and
director of the Wellness Clinic.
Continuing Relationship with the Taubman
Approach
Ms. Gingles considers Dorothy Taubman one of the
geniuses of the 20th Century, now going into the
21st.
Recently, Ms. Gingles became an Associate of the
Taubman Seminar in New York City at Cami Hall and
Lincoln Center.
Her conviction of the significance of the the
Taubman Approach has included working with Taubman
Instititute Faculty Members Taylor, Tamman and Paige
in supporting the development, promotion and spread
of the knowledge of the work of Dorothy Taubman for
the long range musicality and physical health of her
students and all pianists.
Piano Teaching
As a teacher, Ms. Gingles focuses on playing with
ease, using the whole body and mind to create music
most naturally through the wide range of the
qualities of the piano, as well as how the music is
constructed. All of this is accompanied with
pleasure, humor and concentration.
She teaches students of all ages: beginners,
returnees, folks changing from other instruments.
Drawing from mostly classical literature, some
outstanding popular literature, and some just plain
fun things (like "The Pink Panther"), she develops a
course that suits each student, while insisting upon
accurate and high quality work as a goal. Ensembles
of mixed instruments in her studio and student
recitals is a delightful and worthwhile touch. Music
making does not have to be alone, or just with
piano.
She, herself, has continued to perform several times
a year in various venues.
Other Musical Background and Activities
Ms. Gingles has had an unusual amount of other
musical experiences as part of the background upon
which she draws - learning the basics of many
instruments: primarily playing clarinet and
saxophone in her high school and a professional
band, viola in the college orchestra; choral
activities most of her life (singing, accompanying
[since age 12] and choral directing); church music
director positions ( including playing the organ);
early years as music educator in the public schools,
( elementary ); and, as a unique experience, sang
with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera in the chorus in a
production of Richard Wagner's "Die Meistersinger".
She also performs as part of a piano duo, with her
husband, William (Bill). They are known as the
Gingles Duo.
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