Aliza Stewart, Author at CelloBello

About Aliza Stewart

Aliza Stewart began piano lessons at the age of four. She went on to receive an Artist Performance Diploma from the Rubin Academy of Music of the Tel Aviv University, and studied with Maria Curcio Diamond in London. She performed internationally in Israel, England and US for over 40 years.

30 years ago, as a developing young musician, Aliza attended a workshop held by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. Although she had approached the workshop as a way to improve her piano performance, she left it with the beginning of a lifelong passion for the Feldenkrais Method. She began to seriously study the method to improve her playing and increase her overall quality of life. After being a practitioner for many years, she has become an accredited Feldenkrais trainer and teaches trainees in the US, Europe, Israel and South America.
Aliza has a private practice in Baltimore MD, and New York City. She teaches a graduate credit course at Mannes College of Music and for the last 10 years has been in residence at the Marlboro Chamber Music festival and the Yellow Barn Chamber Music school and Festival.

“At the Yellow Barn Music School and Festival Aliza Stewart is something of a phenomenon. Her deep knowledge of the Feldenkrais Method and her remarkable instincts for reading a musician’s physical tendencies make her constantly in demand. A musician in her own right, she is not only a practitioner capable of preventing and healing pain, but a partner in a search for greater freedom in how one makes music.”
– Seth Knopp, the Peabody Trio; Director, Yellow Barn Music Festival.

www.alizastewart.com
 www.feldenkraisformusicians.com

The Tools of Embodied Music® – the Feldenkrais Method® for Musicians (Part 2)

The tools of Embodied Music® – the Feldenkrais Method® for Musicians: 1. Movement 2. Awareness 3. Reeducation of perception 4. Learning to change habits 5. Learning to use the whole self in playing Movement Dr. Feldenkrais used to say: “Movement is life. Without it, life is inconceivable. Improve your movement and you improve your life”. One can use the word “music” instead of “life” and the meaning will be as true. Playing an instrument is a succession of movements. The properties of movement are the properties of sound as well: time, space, weight, rhythmical impulse, gesture, momentum towards an action, the process of speeding gradually and slowing down gradually. Improving these properties in our movements will make it easier to achieve the sounds we want. We derive meaning from [...]

By Aliza Stewart|2019-03-04T03:02:03-05:00May 31st, 2012|Categories: Beyond the Traditional, Performance, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: gestures, cello, Injuries, cellobello, Aliza, music, Dr. Feldenkrais, Awareness, movement lessons, Stewart, improvement, perception, movement|

The Tools of Embodied Music® – the Feldenkrais Method for Musicians (Part 1)

Before discussing what the Feldenkrais Method is and how it can help you make better music without injuring yourself, let me start by asking a few questions. Have you ever observed how very young children respond to music – with rhythmic movement, with sounds, with all sorts of other movements? Do you remember how you felt as a child, when you wanted to make music? Do you ever feel something akin to ecstasy when you hear a piece of a performance you really love? Is the sense of ecstasy only a thought or is it a feeling also in your body? Where in yourself do you feel it? Do you feel the rhythm? Can you feel that sometimes music makes you feel light and sometimes heavy, sometimes it is [...]

By Aliza Stewart|2019-03-04T03:03:24-05:00May 18th, 2012|Categories: Performance, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: frustration, spontaneity, Listening, Stewart, expression, organization, Rhythm, movement, cello, cellobello, workshops, music, master classes, injury, musical imagination, Aliza, phrasing, Dr. Feldenkrais, movement lessons|