Practising, Listening, Performing with Kenny Werner

Practising, Listening, Performing with Kenny Werner

  • Wed 30 June, Thurs 1 July & Fri 2 July, 5pm–6:30pm
  • €30
  • Zoom
Kenny Werner2
Taking Charge of your Performance Career 2021: Join Kenny Werner online for a set of three interactive Zoom workshops for professional musicians working in all genres.

Kenny Werner, world class pianist, composer and author of the landmark book Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within will present three talks on how musicians can navigate obstacles to truly connect with their instrument and their music. Musicians will learn how to re-programme their practise and listening techniques from a psychological and spiritual perspective in order to deliver masterful and liberated performances.

Ticket price: €30 for three workshops

Please note, this is a professional development course for professional musicians working in all genres. Ticket holders must be available to attend all 3 workshops. Places are limited to 30.

Workshop 1: What Gets In Your Way?

Wednesday 30 June 5pm – 6.30pm

How much do thoughts complicate your pathway in your playing, in your practising, in your listening? Self-Doubt. Self-Judgement. We could call this the two-headed monster, but there are more heads! In this session, Kenny will help musicians to identify the thoughts and emotions that create barriers to true mastery, and the following workshops will focus on overcoming those barriers.

Workshop 2: Making the True Connection

Thursday 1 July 5pm – 6.30pm

Learning to turn away from the conscious mind to what Kenny calls The Space. Practising and performing in the moment without thought, care or worry—that is every musician’s goal. In this workshop, Kenny will explain how detaching from the mind’s thought habits can help musicians to reconnect with their heart and their true intellect when playing, allowing them to become a clear conduit for the music.

Workshop 3: Knowing Your Material Will Make You Free

Friday 2 July 5pm – 6.30pm

Having achieved The Space, you can approach the items to practise with more focus and clarity than ever before, allowing you to achieve freedom in performance. Kenny will explain that proper preparation, which involves training your body to play the music with ease and without effort, is the key to true virtuosity. There's an ancient Sanskrit saying, "In The Mind, bondage. In The Mind, liberation’. And so it is for musicians.

Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Musician Within - Kenny Werner, Talks at Google

Kenny Werner has been a world class pianist and composer for over 40 years and is the author of the landmark book Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within. The New York Times has called him a “virtuoso,” the Boston Phoenix has called him “an extraordinary gifted artist,” and his prolific compositions and recordings have won National Endowment for the Arts grants, a Grammy Award nomination and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Kenny has created videos, lectured worldwide, and authored many articles on how people can discover the ‘master creator within’ through surrendering thoughts, which are the source of all unrest. Playing and practicing from ‘the space’ brings one into the moment and away from the difficulties of the mind. Detaching from the mind’s thought habits connects one with their heart and true intellect. Spiritually, it connects one to the master creator within, to all that is; an ocean of consciousness. Then one’s actions naturally benefit all other living beings and the planet in general. Those actions always create the right outcomes for one’s own self. They bring the true happiness we’ve been looking for, perhaps everywhere but from within.

"When the soul of the performer starts to vibrate, and he receives his inspiration from that vibration, the souls of the audience start to vibrate. This is the experience behind the music we all crave."

This three-part series with Kenny Werner is part of Taking Charge of Your Performance Career 2021, Music Network's online professional development series for musicians working in all genres. This is just one of a number of ways in which Music Network will support musicians throughout the year.

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