Yamaha Instruments Used to Help Rehabilitate Injured Pianists
PRINCETON, NJ (November 5, 2004) — Playing the piano is in some ways an athletic event, especially for professionals who undergo more physical stress than most on their way to stardom. The careers of two American virtuosos, Gary Graffman and Leon Fleisher, were famously affected by hand problems. They are not alone: Robert Schumann, Frederic Chopin, Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Clara Schumann were all said to have suffered injuries. According to Edna Golandsky, founder of the Golandsky Institute in Princeton, New Jersey, such problems arise out of simple misunderstandings about how the body should move.
 Edna Golandsky says, "Everyone was absolutely delighted with the quality of the pianos" provided by Yamaha. |
Building on the pioneering work of teacher Dorothy Taubman, The Golandsky Institute instructs musicians in ways to overcome technical limitations and how to recover from playing-related injuries. Increasingly, news accounts have described musicians who have had to curtail or end their careers because of tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome or focal dystonia, a condition characterized by a loss of motor control in one or more fingers. Golandsky, a Juilliard-trained pianist, is determined to reverse this trend, by focusing on how forearms, wrists and fingers can move around the keyboard organically and in a pain-free way.
"Dorothy Taubman understood the invisible aspect of playing the piano – the fact that there is a whole world of motion that you cannot see," she explains. "I've continued and built on her work. I've been teaching for years and years, and the pedagogy has gotten better and sharper. We've worked more and more along the lines of movements that make the playing right, bettering the tools of musical expression and freedom in the act of playing."
Yamaha has been an important partner in her work. "Yamaha has been great to us," she beams. "They helped us obtain 15 pianos for our recent summer institute at Princeton University, where we held classes and clinics in technique and pedagogy, and offered master classes. We also gave evening concerts – classical, contemporary and jazz. I'm extremely grateful. Our relationship has always been wonderful, and it continues to be so with Stan Zielinski, the new Director of Yamaha Artist Services."
"Princeton had their own piano in the concert hall," explains Golandsky. "But we needed an instrument in the auditorium at the museum – a lecture hall with a stage which seats about 150. It was wonderful to have a Yamaha grand piano there. It was used all day. And we needed 14 practice pianos for student use. A lot of these students are professional pianists, teachers and students. Everyone was absolutely delighted with the quality of the pianos."
To learn more, write Yamaha Corporation of America, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622-6600; telephone (714) 522-9011; or e-mail infostation@yamaha.com.
"Dorothy Taubman understood the invisible aspect of playing the piano – the fact that there is a whole world of motion that you cannot see," she explains. "I've continued and built on her work. I've been teaching for years and years, and the pedagogy has gotten better and sharper. We've worked more and more along the lines of movements that make the playing right, bettering the tools of musical expression and freedom in the act of playing."
Yamaha has been an important partner in her work. "Yamaha has been great to us," she beams. "They helped us obtain 15 pianos for our recent summer institute at Princeton University, where we held classes and clinics in technique and pedagogy, and offered master classes. We also gave evening concerts – classical, contemporary and jazz. I'm extremely grateful. Our relationship has always been wonderful, and it continues to be so with Stan Zielinski, the new Director of Yamaha Artist Services."
"Princeton had their own piano in the concert hall," explains Golandsky. "But we needed an instrument in the auditorium at the museum – a lecture hall with a stage which seats about 150. It was wonderful to have a Yamaha grand piano there. It was used all day. And we needed 14 practice pianos for student use. A lot of these students are professional pianists, teachers and students. Everyone was absolutely delighted with the quality of the pianos."
To learn more, write Yamaha Corporation of America, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622-6600; telephone (714) 522-9011; or e-mail infostation@yamaha.com.
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