Gail Berenson is available as a workshop clinician or a convention artist. The following topics can be combined or arranged to fit your program needs. Ms. Berenson is also available as a master class artist.

Strategies for Coping with Performance Anxiety

approx. 75 minutes in length, but can be reduced to 60 minutes/equipment needed: computer, screen and vga projector

Since even a lesson can be interpreted as a performance by some students, their potential may never be achieved because of the intrusion of excessive performance anxiety. This session will address the issue of performance anxiety, presenting a variety of options, enabling the teacher and/or the performer to determine which combination of approaches might be most helpful. The techniques to be discussed will include: 1. Breathing; 2. Muscle relaxation 3. Cognitive thinking; 4. Imagery; 5. Desensitization; 6. Medical advances; and 7. Practical advise. This session will assist teachers and students in viewing performance anxiety as a positive element, not the enemy.

An Injury-Preventative Prescription: Healthy Practicing Strategies

approx. 60 minutes in length

Practicing -- it's something we all do --young beginners and veteran professionals, alike. Yet, it is too often viewed as tedious drudgery. Efficient, healthy practicing strategies are the key to a lifetime of joyous, injury-free performing. With pianists spending anywhere from three to as many as twenty -eight, or more, hours per week at the piano, we need to ensure that each student has cultivated a resourceful and imaginative attitude, has access to a healthy practice environment and has developed a thoughtful working agenda. This session will examine the role of the teacher in helping students liberate their practice in an effort to free their musicality.

Discoveries that have transformed piano instruction in the 21st century

approx. 60 minutes in length

"We teach as we were taught" is an old adage that may have been true in the past. Discoveries in the last century in the areas of teaching approach, technique and technology are revolutionizing piano instruction, as we knew it. This lecture will highlight some of the more recent changes and its affect on both students and teachers. Today's teachers - and students - are not like our predecessors.

The Art of Communication: Nurturing Resourceful and Spirited Students

approx. 60-90 minutes in length/equipment useful, but not absolutely necessary: video cassette recorder, television

What is the magic spark that serves as the impetus that encourages a student to strive for a higher level of musicianship? Although much of our focus is on teaching students a specific skill, helping them become resourceful pianists and reaching their musical potential, piano mastery is only a small portion of what we teach. As a result of cumulative piano lesson experiences, students develop attitudes and beliefs about music, learning and themselves. Teachers who are perceptive and skillful communicators are those most likely to succeed in instilling a love of music, building their students' independence and self-confidence and helping them achieve their goals. I hope to engage those in attendance at this session in a lively discussion that will include topics such as motivating students, offering feedback, the significance of responding to learning styles and balancing teaching approaches, to name just a few.

Music Medicine and Today's Piano Teacher

approx. 60 minutes in length/equipment needed: computer, screen and vga projector

This lecture will focus on injury preventive techniques, productive practicing strategies, building a healthy teaching environment, and the role of the teacher in helping a student deal with an injury. Musicians make extreme physical demands on their bodies, yet have little background about how their bodies function or how to recognize and prevent dysfunction. This session will provide crucial wellness information to help those in attendance to become better informed about these pertinent issues.

Bach to Bartók--The Collaboration of Physical Gestures and Sound Concepts in the Teaching of Style

approx. 90 minutes in length/equipment needed: overhead projector, screen

How often have we attended a recital where the student performed accurately, but where everything sounded the same? This lecture will articulate some essential guidelines to help students develop their own palette of color to be used in expressing the emotion and style of the music. Examples will be taken from intermediate-level repertoire.

Group Teaching and the Role of the Teacher

approx. 60 minutes in length/no additional equipment needed

What is group teaching all about? What are the benefits to the teacher and the student? The idea for this lecture originated years ago from the clinician's piano lesson experience studying in a group setting with Guy Duckworth, pioneer and group piano advocate, throughout her undergraduate and graduate work at Northwestern University. She now brings her thirty years of teaching experience to this topic, discussing how group teaching techniques enhance all aspects of her work today.

Performance Preparation: Nurturing Fit and Healthy Musicians

approx. 60 minutes in length/equipment needed: computer, screen and vga projector

Although every institution strives to offer students a complete education, it is rare to find courses that address the well being of the individual as a whole. This lecture will focus on the evolution of Performance Preparation, a unique course and the effect it has had on the students and faculty of Ohio University. It advocates the investigation of similar initiatives by other institutions and serves as an example for other colleges and universities wishing to incorporate musician wellness courses into their curriculum.