PLAY EFFORTLESSLY
Students of the Taubman Approach report accomplishing tone, effortlessness, and ease beyond their wildest dreams
About The Taubman Approach
Decades ago, Dorothy Taubman’s genius led her to analyze what underlies virtuoso piano playing. The result of that investigation has produced a body of knowledge that can lead to an effortless and brilliant technique. It can also prevent and cure fatigue, pain and other playing-related injuries.
The Taubman Approach is a groundbreaking analysis of the mostly invisible motions that function underneath a virtuoso technique. The resulting knowledge makes it possible to help pianists overcome technical limitations as well as cure playing-related injuries. It is also the way that tone production and other components of expressive playing can be understood and taught.
Edna Golandsky is the person with whom Dorothy Taubman worked most closely. In 1976 Ms. Golandsky conceived the idea of establishing an Institute where people could come together during the summer and pursue an intensive investigation of the Taubman Approach. She encouraged Mrs. Taubman to establish the Taubman Institute, which they ran together as co-founders. Mrs. Taubman was Executive Director and Ms. Golandsky served as Artistic Director. Almost from the beginning, Mrs. Taubman entrusted Ms. Golandsky with the planning and programming of the annual summer session. She gave daily lectures on the Taubman Approach and later conducted master classes as well. As the face of the Taubman Approach, Ms. Golandsky discusses each of its elements in a ten-volume video series.
Mrs. Taubman has written, “I consider her the leading authority on the Taubman approach to instrumental playing.”
For more information about the Taubman Approach, please visit the Golandsky Institute.
About Edna Golandsky
Edna Golandsky is the leading exponent of the Taubman Approach. She has earned wide acclaim throughout the United States and abroad for her extraordinary ability to solve technical problems and for her penetrating musical insight. She received both her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School, following which she continued her studies with Dorothy Taubman.
Performers and students from around the world come to study, coach and consult with Ms. Golandsky. A pedagogue of international renown, she has a long-established reputation for the expert diagnosis and treatment of problems such as fatigue, pain and serious injuries, including carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, focal dystonia, thoracic outlet syndrome, tennis and golfer’s elbow and ganglia. She has been a featured speaker at many music medicine conferences. She is also an adjunct professor of piano at the City University of New York (CUNY).
Ms. Golandsky has lectured and conducted master classes at some of the most prestigious music institutions in the United States, including the Eastman School of Music, Yale University, the Curtis Institute of Music and Oberlin Conservatory. She has also guest lectured at Cambridge University and Harvard, where her teachings are used as part of a graduate level course. Internationally, she has given seminars in Korea, in Israel, and in Canada at both McGill University and the Chapelle Historique du Bon-Pasteur in Montreal. In 2001 she was a guest lecturer at the European Piano Teachers’ Association in Oxford, England, and in July 2003 she conducted a symposium in Lecce, Italy.
In the fall of 2003 Ms. Golandsky participated in the World Piano Pedagogy Conference in Nashville and in March 2004 she lectured at the National Conference of the Music Teachers’ National Association in Kansas City.
In June 2003 Ms. Golandsky and senior faculty members previously with the Taubman Institute formed the Golandsky Institute, which is dedicated to the advancement of the Taubman Approach. She led the Golandsky Institute’s first annual Summer Symposium at Princeton University in July 2004. The Institute is currently in residence at Princeton University every summer to conduct its symposium and festival.
Edna Golandsky’s lectures have broadened the Taubman Approach and imparted it to many people who have come to benefit from it. As her knowledge deepened over the years, she continued to develop new material. One of the results is the recently released 3-disc DVD set of her lectures and master class entitled The Art of Rhythmic Expression, which has been heaped with praise from around the world. Michelle Conda says in American Music Teacher, “The pieces presented came alive to me in a whole new way through Golandsky explanations…Most importantly, Golandsky based her ideas on the music, not on the ‘this is the way I do it, you should do it the same way’ approach.”
In the May/June 2006 issue of Clavier, the reviewers “highly recommend” the DVD set as “an informative and inspiring tool, presented in a convincing manner by an excellent teacher.”
David Martin, a writer for the European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA) Piano Professional, states “Golandsky proves once again that through shaping, tone production and the correct emphasis of beats, rhythmic vitality, flow and swing can be achieved” and “this collection of DVDs will strengthen your own expertise to a much deeper level and I warmly recommend these from a powerful standpoint in piano pedagogy.”
Don Glanden, Chairman of the Piano Department, University of the Arts, writes, “The Golandsky Institute has contributed an important and innovative work with the release of this three disc set. Ms. Golandsky gives a fresh perspective on the development of rhythmic piano performance and continues to explore a new paradigm in piano pedagogy. Not to be overlooked is the enjoyment of hearing Edna Golandsky perform extended excerpts from the musical examples provided with the DVDs. Her pianism is extraordinary . . . and she swings!”
