The Invigorated Pianist with Dr. Michael Low and Fran Wilson – grade 8+
Invigorate your piano playing and take ownership of your music with this new course, developed by Dr. Michael Low and Fran Wilson (AKA The Cross-Eyed Pianist)!
Through coaching within the performance masterclass/workshop format, popular piano myths such as “the solution to your technical problems can only be solved by practising more exercises” will be debunked, encouraging you to see beyond the narrow confines of traditional piano teaching orthodoxies. Not only will course participants build and develop fundamental aspects of piano technique, but they will consolidate their own personal vision of a musical work to perform with vibrancy and confidence.
We hope guests will leave this special Finchcocks course feeling inspired, confident – and above all invigorated.
This course aims to encourage and inspire participants to:
- have the confidence and the ability to study a piece of music without the constant need for external validation
- tackle repertoire which other teachers may have told you is “beyond you”
- find simple/practical lasting solutions to technical issues such as playing fast passages evenly and without physical tension
- take ownership of your music, from a technical, artistic and interpretative point of view
- leave the course feeling “Well that was so obvious and simple!’ or ‘Why haven’t I thought of that before?”
- see the bigger picture – after all, life has never been about just playing the piano whereas playing the piano have always been about life!
The Invigorated Pianist will have a slightly different format to the usual Finchcocks one.
Mornings will begin with the established interactive workshop but, in order to offer guests a longer allocation in the open, performance class sessions, slots will be doubled to at least 45 minutes per pianist – in lieu of one-to-one lessons. Should guests prefer a closed, one-to-one lesson instead, this can be arranged, given notice.
Workshops will include:
- Taking inspiration from the great pianists. What they can teach us and how we can put these ideas into practice in our own playing OR Taking Ownership of Your Music
- Misreading the score: some musical examples as to how all of us, including some of the greatest musicians of all times, have ‘misread’ the musical score (Introduce Roberto Poti’s book, The Secret Life of Musical Notation): Beethoven’s Fur Else, opening motif of the 5th Symphony, possibly the opening of the middle section of Chopin’s B minor Scherzo.
And on the Saturday evening, Michael and Fran will discuss and challenge the conventional idea of musical rubato with a recital-talk on Brahms Intermezzo in A Major Opus 118 No. 2; Saint-Saens/Bizet: First movement of Piano Concerto in G minor Opus 22; Brahms Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor Opus 5, Liszt Benediction of God in Solitude.
In between the workshop and performance class sessions there will be time for private practice on one of our beautiful grand pianos.
Guests will:
- Have the chance to play in and observe extended (45min+ per player) performance masterclasses.
- Enjoy access to play on our 9 grand pianos anytime between 7am and 8pm. (There are enough pianos to go round that everyone can play a piano at any given time.)
- Experience a private accompanied recital-talk for course participants in the main hall of the family home, performed by Michael.
- Join and socialise with a group 8 fellow piano enthusiasts during lunch and dinner.
- Dine in style with lunches and three course dinners prepared by our fabulous chef.
- Experience the Finchcocks bubble, hailed as a “paradise for pianists” by BBC Music Magazine and stay in a grade 1 listed country manor.
Praised for his innovative approach and passionate insight into piano playing, Dr. Michael Low’s teaching career in Asia and Africa has spanned almost a quarter of a century. As a student, Michael studied piano with Richard Frostick (the current director of the BBC World Voice Programme) before enrolling as a member of London’s prestigious Centre For Young Musician where he studied piano with the international pedagogue Graham Fitch. He obtained his Honours at Surrey University under the tutelage of Clive Williamson before completing his Masters of Music whilst studying with Nils Franke and Niel Immelman.
An International Scholarship brought Michael to Cape Town where he completed his Doctorate under the supervision of South African greatest living composer, Hendrik Hofmeyr. Michael has also worked with numerous eminent teachers and pianists including, Nina Svetlanova, Frank Heneghan, James Gibb, Phillip Fowke, Renna Kellaway, Carolina Oltsmann, Florian Uhlig, Gordon Fergus Thompson, Francois du Toit and Helena van Heerden.
Frances (Fran) Wilson is an advanced amateur pianist and writer under the pen-name The Cross-Eyed Pianist, one of the UK’s leading blogs on classical music, endorsed by international concert pianists Peter Donohoe, OBE, and Sir Stephen Hough.
Fran returned to the piano after an absence of some 25 years, achieving Associate and Licentiate Diplomas (both with Distinction) in Piano Performance in her late 40s. She has studied with a number of acclaimed teachers, including Penelope Roskell, Graham Fitch and James Lisney, and participated in masterclasses, workshops and courses with, amongst others, Stephen Savage, Murray McLachlan and Charlotte Tomlinson.
A passionate advocate for amateur pianists, Fran co-founded the London Piano Meetup Group in 2013, which, 12 years on, remains hugely popular with adult pianists of all abilities. Now based in west Dorset, she is currently Concerts Manager for Chamber Music Weymouth and works as a publicist/PR with a number of musicians and music organisations.
For booking enquiries, please fill in the form below!