080 Lori Schiff: The Alexander Technique - At Home with Yourself

For this episode, I bring you a powerful conversation with world-renowned Alexander Technique teacher Lori Schiff.

As Lori shares on her website, the Alexander Technique “is a method for living better through your own mindfulness in action.”  It can help you gain confidence and reduce pain, tension and fatigue. It allows you to connect with yourself to nourish presence and mobility and, from there, leads to performing better in all areas of your life.

Lori expands on:

• How Alexander Technique affected her life and her journey
• Who the Alexander Technique is for
• What the Alexander Technique is: a method for living that teaches us to pay attention and choose our reactions to stimuli
• How the Alexander Technique encourages the connection with our self – our wholeness – and the development of conscious control (mind body connector)
• How the Alexander Technique is a means to more freedom, for the whole person and their whole life
• How it can help in class and in lessons, in the practice room, and on stage

This is an information and inspiration packed episode and I know you will appreciate Lori’s knowledge and wisdom and lover her energy as much as I did!

 

MORE ABOUT LORI SCHIFF:

• Website: http://lorischiff.com/

Ms. Schiff is a full-time professor of The Alexander Technique at The Juilliard School and a guest teaching artist for various schools and organizations nationally and internationally. She has been a faculty member of The Juilliard School since 1991 and was in residence at The Aspen Music Festival and School from 1993 - 2015.

Ms. Schiff joined The Riverside Initiative for The Alexander Technique as Associate Director and Senior Teacher for Teacher Training in 2018.

Ms. Schiff was Certified as a Teacher of the Alexander Technique at ACAT-New York in 1987. She continued with years of postgraduate training with Walter and Dilys Carrington at the Constructive Teaching Centre in London.

She is a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Music in Trumpet Performance and has her Masters in Music from Manhattan School of Music.

She served as the Alexander Technique Teacher for the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Development Program, and at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. She also served on the senior faculty of the American Center for the Alexander Technique's Teacher Certification Program.

Institutions where she has been a guest teaching artist include: The New World Symphony, The U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point, The U.S. Army Field Band and U.S. Army Soldier's Chorus, The San Diego Symphony, ToneBank International Music Festival, National Youth Orchestra of China, University of Maryland Opera Studio, and The Internationale Meistersinger Akademie in Neumarkt, Germany.

She has presented Master Classes at institutions including The Metropolitan Opera, Opera America, West Point Military Academy, Fort Meade, The Academy (ACJW) at Carnegie Hall, Manhattan School of Music, Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras, The National Orchestral Institute, The Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra and The New York Youth Symphony, Theater Aspen, MorseLife Senior Residences, and Holland and Knight, LLP.

In 2013, she assisted in organizing and taught the Alexander Technique for actress and playwright, Anna Deavere Smith's Acting and Empathy course in San Francisco. She returned to San Francisco in 2014 to work with Ms. Smith's course, Personal Narratives: Global Identities.

Ms. Schiff is a recognized senior teacher of the Alexander Technique by the American Society for the Alexander Technique and has presented master classes at the AmSAT Annual Meetings in San Francisco, Ann Arbor, Las Vegas, New York City, Boston, and Minneapolis. She was a guest lecturer on Teaching the Alexander Technique in schools of music for The International Congress for the Alexander Technique in Lugano, Switzerland.

Ms. Schiff served on the Board of Directors of the Aspen Music Festival and School as Chair of the Music Committee for nine years and was President and Chairman of the Board of The American Center for the Alexander Technique for five years. More recently, she completed two years on the Board of Directors of The American Society for the Alexander Technique.

Ms. Schiff has a private Alexander Technique practice in NYC. She is the founding director of Flight Feather Productions, LLC, an organization for creating and supporting uplifting educational experiences for corporate and artistic communities.

With composer Lance Horne, she is the Co-Director of Creativity Lab, a program for inspiring community and collaboration through collective creativity.

As a committed recreational runner, she has completed four marathons, several half marathons, and countless 10ks, 5 Milers, 4 Milers, and 5ks.

 

Visit www.mindoverfinger.com and sign up for my newsletter to get your free guide to a super productive practice using the metronome!  This guide is the perfect entry point to help you bring more mindfulness and efficiency into your practice and it’s filled with tips and tricks on how to use that wonderful tool to take your practicing and your playing to new heights!

Don’t forget to visit the Mind Over Finger Resources’ page to check out amazing books recommended by my podcast guests, as well as my favorite websites, cds, the podcasts I like to listen to, and the practice and podcasting tools I use everyday!  Find it here: www.mindoverfinger.com/resources!

 

And don’t forget to join the Mind Over Finger Tribe for additional resources on practice and performing!

If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review on iTunes!  I truly appreciate your support!

 

 

THANK YOU:

Most sincere thank you to composer Jim Stephenson who graciously provided the show’s musical theme!  Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra – Movement 2: Allegro con Brio, performed by Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and the Lake Forest Symphony, conducted by Jim Stephenson.

Thank you to Susan Blackwell for the introduction!  You can find out more about Susan, her fantastic podcast The Spark File, and her work helping creatives of all backgrounds expand their impact by visiting https://www.susanblackwell.com/home.

Also a HUGE thank you to my fantastic producer, Bella Kelly!

 

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