Teaching Organ Techniques in a Holistic Manner
How can we best prepare our students to play a vast body of organ repertoire with healthy and effective technique? This workshop seeks to answer this question by offering resources and strategies for teaching organ technique in a holistic manner. Learn methods and pedagogical tools from the current technique curriculum used at the Eastman School of Music. Topics include body wellness, use of dynamic instruments to reinforce organ practice, and ways to teach an historically appropriate technique. While this session uses a collegiate curriculum as a model, the basic concepts can be adapted for teaching students at all levels.
Anne Laver
Prizewinning organist Annie Laver has performed throughout Europe and the United States. She has been recognized with a number of awards, including second prize in the 2010 American Guild of Organists National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance. She holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (M.M. and DMA, Organ Performance) and Brown University (B.A.). She has studied with Hans Davidsson, David Higgs, and William Porter (Eastman); Jacques van Oortmerssen (Conservatory of Amsterdam); and Mark Steinbach (Brown University). She is an instructor at the Eastman School of Music, where she teaches organ literature for graduate organ majors and healthy keyboard technique for all incoming organ students. Her current research interests focus on historical programming trends in nineteenth-century America. She is music director at two historic city churches in Rochester, The Church of St. Luke and St. Simon Cyrene (Episcopal), and St. Michael’s Church (Roman Catholic).