Common Time: A Workshop Day for Adults!

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What does the day look like?

• 12:00 – 1:00 pm: Body Mapping: How your Body Affects your Playing
  with Vanessa Mulvey
  
• 1:15 – 2:45pm – Imagining the Audience in Their Underwear, and Other Mistakes: Managing Stage Fright and Performance Anxiety with Dr. David Goldfinger
• 3:00 – 4:00 pm: A Shared Sound: Mindful Music Making to Draw Attention Inward and Build Connections Outward with Cheyenna Eagle
• Join us for coffee and light refreshments in between workshops!

Body Mapping: how your body affects your playing

Sunday, May 18th, 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Instructor: Vanessa Mulvey

Movement is the foundation to the art of music-making. This idea is the foundation for Vanessa Mulvey’s teaching and playing.  Her multifaceted approach began with Body Mapping and quickly grew to include influences from traditional somatic practices as as unconventional sources such as flying trapeze, and parkour.  Today, her collective experience guides musicians to embody playing movement in order to unleash expression, build confidence, and cultivate a healthy, sustainable playing career. Her popular Body Mapping courses provide crucial information on the body’s design for movement in a judgement free zone working collaborative, which contributes to the development of musicianship, stage presence, and powerful connections with audiences.

This workshop will help you learn to play from a grounded foundation that fosters learning, confidence, and playing health, enabling you to bring musical ideas to life, build dependable technique and experience the joy of music-making even when performing under pressure.

Imagining the Audience in Their Underwear, and Other Mistakes: Managing Stage Fright and Performance Anxiety

Sunday, May 18th, 1:15 – 2:45 PM
Instructor: Dr. David Goldfinger

In this talk, David will be reviewing empirically validated approaches to improving performance, such as cultivating mindfulness, building distress tolerance, disentangling habitual negative thoughts from reality, and focusing on one’s performance-related values. Many of these ideas come from the Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) model, which has proven to be effective within the realm of performance psychology and coaching.

A Shared Sound: Mindful Music Making to Draw Attention Inward and Build Connections Outward

Sunday, May 18th, 3:00 – 4:00 PM
Instructor: Cheyenna Eagle

This workshop will be focused on creating shared musical experiences that promote self-awareness and understanding, and connections with others. During this workshop, participants will engage in singing experiences that will help draw attention inward, explore vocal freedom, and connect with others in and out of music. Mindful singing experiences will be the primary music source, but it is intended for people with all musical backgrounds and singing abilities. Participants will also learn about and engage in deep discussion about mindful music making, the role of existentialism in music making, how music can impact the nervous system, and how meaningful and shared music experiences help build community.

Cheyenna Eagle

Cheyenna (Chey) Eagle, MT-BC graduated with a degree in Music Therapy, with a concentration on oboe, from the State University of New York at Fredonia in 2020. After completing her 8-month internship in Rochester, New York, seeing students both in person and virtually, she went on to continue working in the WNY area as a Board Certified Music Therapist for 2 years. Through her clinical work, she has gained experience working in a wide range of settings, including nursing homes, hospices, and schools. Chey has professional experience working with children and adults with multiple disabilities and has taught adapted/modified and standard lessons on a variety of instruments. In 2021, she completed the Neurologic Music Therapy training through the Academy of Neurologic Music Therapy. Chey has also served on music therapy committees on both the regional and national levels through the American Music Therapy Association, including completing a term as part of the Executive Board of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the American Music Therapy Association.

Chey considers herself most drawn to community-based music therapy and practices with a Humanistic and Existential theoretical orientation. She actively seeks to practice with an anti-racist lens and puts great personal and professional focus on topics of social justice and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Chey firmly believes that inclusion and accessibility to music education and therapy for all is a key component in community building and belonging.

Currently, Chey provides music therapy services in the Greater Boston Area, including Nashua, NH where she is contracted at various assisted living facilities and community organizations. When not doing music therapy, she continues to enjoy learning a variety of instruments and performing on her oboe in pit orchestras and other groups in the area, including Firebird Pops Orchestra.

Vanessa Mulvey

Movement is the foundation to the art of music-making. This idea is the foundation for Vanessa Mulvey’s teaching and playing.  Her multifaceted approach began with Body Mapping and quickly grew to include influences from traditional somatic practices as as unconventional sources such as flying trapeze, and parkour.  Today, her collective experience guides musicians to embody playing movement in order to unleash expression, build confidence, and cultivate a healthy, sustainable playing career.

It became clear that experiences outside of the practice room had much to offer to Vanessa’s teaching and playing.  During her third flying trapeze class an almost debilitating fear of heights transformed into joy and exhilaration as she flew across the rig to be caught by a catcher.  In the blink of an eye, a fear had transformed.  Parkour has put her face to face examining self concept and the link between movement and mindset.  The culture of judgment-free training and community support are two qualities from Parkour that have become foundations to her teaching.

The common thread connecting these activities is movement. Vanessa balances work as a flutist, Body Mapping educator, personal trainer and parkour coach. Through these experiences, she has learned to view the art of music-making with a multifaceted lens that considers movement the source of expression.  This idea holds the key to overcoming technical and expressive limitations, playing plateaus, and performing without pain.  Her passion is educating musicians about movement to assist them in learning to move in healthy ways that fully support their musical intentions.

Vanessa shares her joy of music and movement as a faculty member at the Longy School of Music of Bard College and the New England Conservatory of Music. Her popular Body Mapping courses provide crucial information on the body’s design for movement in a judgement free zone working collaborative, which contributes to the development of musicianship, stage presence, and powerful connections with audiences.

A sought after clinician, Vanessa leads workshops at music schools, conferences and festivals that include: Boston University Tanglewood Institute, PAMA International Symposium, Shepherd School of Music, Peabody School of Music, Via Academy, University of Michigan and Varna International Music Academy, among others.

A graduate of the Crane School of Music and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of music in flute performance, her credentials also include NASM Certified Personal Training Certification, Certified Functional Strength Coach, Parkour A.D.A.P.T. Level 1 coach, and Core Movement Integration Level 1.  She has also taken courses through the Postural Restoration Institute™.  In 2022, Vanessa edited the flute edition of Mountain Peak Music’s Big Book of Sight Reading Duets which includes a forward by Marianne Gedigian.  She has been awarded numerous faculty development grants to further her study and reach new audiences.  Her writing has been included in CelloBello, and Flute Talk and she is a contributor to Playing Well Anatomy and Movement Series created by Serap Bastepe-Gray of the Peabody Conservatory.  Her blog, ‘Practicing Turned Upside-Down’ is a resource for musicians to expand the way they approach and make music. For more information visit breathemoveperform.com.

DR. David goldfinger

David Goldfinger is a clinical psychologist, educator, and musician living and working in Cambridge, MA. He has been an annual invited speaker at the Blue Ridge Guitar Camp, organized by Grammy-winning bluegrass guitarist, Bryan Sutton. There, David has spoken on a variety of topics, including mindfulness, flow state, deliberate practice, performance, stage fright, improvisation, and style. He has also presented at the Winchester Community Music School and the New England Flatpicking Camp. When wearing a different hat, David is the director of education for the Psychodynamic Couples and Family Institute of New England.