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You are an amateur pianist, aiming to improve your solo practice with an internationally respected expert:
Graham Fitch is recognised worldwide for his brilliant career as a pianist and his outstanding teaching.
will be more than happy to unveil the secrets of piano accompaniment.
Music Centre, Paul Hindemith Foundation,
Blonay, Switzerland
The course takes place at the Music Center of the Hindemith Foundation, in the village of Blonay, ideally situated above the cities of Vevey and Montreux.
The German violinist and composer Paul Hindemith lived in Blonay from 1953 to his death in 1963. His wife created the Foundation in 1968, including the Chalet de Lacroix and the Pavilion. The location of the Music Center offers a great view on the Lake Léman and the Swiss Alps.
The main classes will take place in the Salon Hindemith with its 2 Bösendorffer grand pianos. Six other pianos are available for individual practice.
Twin comfortable bedrooms are available in the Pavilion (and the Chalet). Tasty meals will be served in the large dining room or on the terrace, weather permitting. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be served during the morning and afternoon breaks.
Graham Fitch, piano
Based in London, Graham Fitch maintains an international career not only as a pianist, but also as a teacher, adjudicator and writer. His workshops and classes, which he gives all over the world, have received high praise for their creative and illuminating approach to the subject. First Prizewinner in the Mieczyslaw Munz Piano Competition, he graduated with honours from the Royal College of Music in London as a Hopkinson Gold Medallist. His teachers at the RCM included Stephen Savage, Peter Wallfisch and Roger Vignoles. A Fullbright Scholarship then took him to the United States, where he completed his studies with Ann Schein and Nina Svetlanova, as well as participating in weekly classes with Leon Fleisher.
During much of the 1990s, Graham Fitch's career straddled the Atlantic with solo and chamber performances in England (where he taught piano at the Purcell School, St. Paul's Girls' School, and the Centre for Young Musicians), in Europe and North America. The New York Times spoke of his playing as "unalloyed pleasure". In the UK, he was a recitalist at the Bournemouth Festival, and appeared in repeated engagements with the London Chamber Soloists on London's South Bank. US activities included concerts with his trio, the Trio dell'Arte, various solo appearances, (including a performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations in Merkin Hall during the 250th anniversary of the composer's death) and a performance of Bartok's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion with Jonathan Haas.
From 1997 to 2008, Graham Fitch was Head of Keyboard at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town, from where he travelled to Australia, New Zealand and the USA to perform and teach. Graham gave recitals, masterclasses and keynote addresses at four successive Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conferences across Australia from 1999 to 2005. He was in residence at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2006, giving a masterclass, directing a performance class and teaching the Head of Piano's studio.
Graham is a principal tutor for the Piano Teachers' Course UK, Britain's flagship training programme for piano teachers. He is also a tutor at the Summer School for Pianists in Stowe, and gives regular workshops for pianists and teachers in London and Finchcocks. Graham is a regular contributor to Pianist Magazine, with articles on technique, style, practising and performance as well as producing an ongoing series of video demonstrations on YouTube. Graham was commissioned by Trinity College London to write the teaching notes for a series of graded piano pieces, Raise the Bar, as well as for advanced grades for the new syllabus. He is also doing some consulting work for the ABRSM on new syllabus for advanced grades.
Graham teaches privately in South West London, and counts among his students professional pianists, piano teachers, adult amateurs as well as youngsters. Schedule permitting, Graham's philosophy is to be available to anyone who wishes to study with him who is serious about developing their piano playing.
Silvia Fraser, piano accompanying
Born in Vancouver, Silvia Fraser complete her B Mus in Piano Performance under Prof Lee Kum-Sing at the Vancouver Academy of Music and her Masters of Music in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music at the Eastman School of music, studying with Dr Jean Barr. She subsequently completed two years as Junior Fellow at the Royal College of Music, for which she was awarded a prestigious Wingate Scholarship- She studied there with John Blakely and at the Fondation Royaumont with Ruben Lifschitz.
Silvia Fraser has appeard in concert with Renaud Capuçon, Françoise Pollet, Sergiu Schwartz, Christian Immler, Paul Marleynand, Guy Johnston, in places such as London'sWigmore Hall, Royal Festival Halland Purcell Room, Paris's Salon des Invalides, Switzerland's Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, the Risor and Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Aubonne Classeek, Victoria Halland New York's Frick Collection. She was recently nominated Professor od instrumental accompanying at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne (HEMU). She worked closely with Pierre Amoyal for two years as class pianist and coach at the HEMU, continuing this position now with Svetlana Makarova and Renaud Capuçon.
Currently living in Switzerland, she performs with artists such as Sergiu Schwartz, Diana Pasko, Alexandra Conunova and Stéphanie Gurga. Silvia is alos vocal coach with Nouvel Opéra Fribourg, specialising in contemporary opera, including Gerald Barry's The Importance of Being Earnest and Thomas Adès's Powder Her Face. Her first experience with them, jumping in the last minute as a two-piano team with Stephanie Gurga for five concerts in Paris, was awarded top five best New Operas of 2018 by Le Monde.
Together with Christian Immler, her baritone-turned-husband, she has performed in Vienna and New York, the last hailed by the New York Times as "A Harmonious Conversation between a Baritone and a Pianist". They have recently released a CD on BR Klassik with Danny Driver and Anna Stephany featuring Leonard Bernstein.
Her performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio-3, including In Tune and Voices, CBC Radio Vancouver, BBC Television and the Swiss Espace 2. She was featured twice in their series Nomade, which focused on the approach which she has developed in coaching string instruments as well as a separate programme with mezzo-soprano Marie-Claude Chappuis, with whom she frequently collaborates. She has often been a part of their Masters on broadcast.
Winning first prize for best pianist in a competition she did not even know she had entered was a pleasant surprise: The Concours d'Interprétation Musicale de Lausanne awarded her this honour in 2022. Laureate of the 1st International Swedisch Duo Competition with cellist Katharine Wood, Silvia has long been interested in the duo repertoire and was founder and co-artistic director of Rencontres Musicales Lémaniques with violonist Yuuki Wong. Always interested in chamber music, she has coached at Lausanne Conservatoire and for the University Association of Chamber Music at the Paul Hindemith Centre in Blonay.
Her experience of playing for masterclasses is extensive. She has had the great honour and pleasure over the years of being the official pianist for three -day masterclasses with Ivry Gitlis, Gilles Apap, Pavel Vernikov, Shmuel Ashkenazi, Jean-Jacques Kantarow, Patrice Fontanorosa, Régis Pasquier, György Pauk, Véronique Gens, Donald Weilerstein, as well as participating with Christa Ludwig, Thomas Hampson, Yo-Yo Ma, Zara Nelsova, Tsuyoshi Tsustumi, Natalya Gutman, Anner Bylsma, Samuel Sanders, Gaelyne Gabora, Sarah Walker, Warren Jones, Malcom Bilson, Barry Tuckwell, Michael Collins, Cho-Liang Lin and Steven Doane.
Jennifer Maslin, singer and violinist
Jennifer is an extremely versatile singer and violinist. After graduating with a first-class honour degree from Southampton University in 2005 (with an Erasmus year spent at Hamburg University) and a PGCE in 2006, she has forged a successful freelance career as both performer and teacher.
Jennifer's violin playing has taken her all over the world – on a tour of China with Kent Sinfonia, across the Northern United States with the Paul Dunton Orchestra and to Germany, Spain and Italy. Vocal highlights have been singing on HMS President overlooking the Shard, at the Roman Baths in Bath, the Pheasantry, Chelsea, for Radisson Blu and Champneys, as well providing choral evensong with various choirs at cathedrals across the UK.
Her active performing schedule currently includes choral singing at Eton College, with the King Charles Singers, as well as multiple jazz residencies across the South East of England (www.jennifermaslin.co.uk). She also works as a session violinist and singer, with clients including Andy Bell (Erasure), Wojtek Godzisz(Symposium), Billy Jupp and the Standard Lamps.
Jennifer has a Certificate in Vocal Pedagogy with Kerrie Obert (VoiceStudy Centre), Estill Certificate of Figures Proficiency (CFP) in Voice Training and is currently studying for a Master's in Voice Pedagogy. She teaches singing at Sevenoaks School, Beechwood School, withwww.singjazzinternational.com– as well as having a popular private practice in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Alongside this, Jennifer is Programme Director at Finchcocks in Goudhurst, Kent which offers inspirational, luxury residential piano courses for adults https://www.finchcocks.com/Jennifer will provide voice or violin for pianists to practise their accompanying skills with Silvia, or a singing lesson upon request.
Fanny Gsteiger, Alexander technique
Fanny Gsteiger discovered the Technique during her singing studies at the Conservatoire of Music in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and graduated as a techer of the technique in Geneva in 1990.
The Alexander Technique, named after its creator Frederick Matthias Alexander (1869 - 1955), is an educational process that was created to re-train habitual patterns of movement and posture. Alexander believed that poor habits ins posture and movement damaged spatial self-awareness as well as health, and that movement efficiency could support overall physical well-being. Many actors, dancers and musicians use the Alexander technique to improve their body posture and artistic development.
Fanny maintains a full-tim private practice and works under the auspices of the Conservatory of Music in Lausanne. She participates to numerous international congresses and professional courses mainly in London. Fanny will give private sessions on the technique in Blonay (pre-reservations required).
Véronique Moret, ancien médecin anesthésiste au CHUV à Lausanne, a suivi plusieurs Masterclasses avec Graham Fitch et tente d’améliorer sa posture au piano avec l’aide de Fanny Gsteiger. Elle est l’organisatrice et l’administratrice du stage.
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