Presentations Abroad

Helsinki, March 2009

A four-day event under the Erasmus Programme, hosted by the programme the musical faculty of Metropola University, consisted of 7 presentations on various Kovács Method-related issues, including presentations of practical exercises. The participants were university students and lecturers.

The Building of Metropolia University in Helsinki

Veľký Kamenec, Slovakia, August 2008

An entire day at this international master class held for instrumentalists and musicologists was dedicated to presenting the basics of the Kovács Method. The German, Slovak, Finnish, English and Japanese students learnt the method for reasonable, hand-friendly practising, relaxing exercises to be performed during practising as well the the theoretical basics.

View in Nagykövesd/Veľký Kamenec

Bologna, July 2008

Participants of the 28th ISME World Conference were given a sample of the programme that prepares students for playing an instrument. The isolated movement of fingers, the subtle command of the instrument and sensitive touch, the suppleness of the wrist, the free arm, fast reflexes, differential employment of force, musical sense of time and a great many other auxiliary abilities are required for beautiful musical expression. It is reasonable to acquire a grounding in these before we start to learn an instrument. As a result, we ‘spare’ the music we play, on account of the fact that a well-prepared apparatus will make for a more beautiful-sounding instrument from the start. The talk included excerpts from the DVD Musical Movement Preparation Without Instrument. Some of the elements of movement preparation without inzstrument could be tried by the participants in the workshop that followed.

The courtyard of the Conservatory in Bologna

Fürstenfeld, April 2008

One of the challenges of teaching is that students and teachers grow tired in the course of their daily work. Attention span dwindles, nothing will stick in the memory, motivation drops, behaviour worsens and performance sags. Moreover, exertion can be bad for one’s health. Tiredness can be relieved through short exercises inserted into the process of learning and practising. That was the gist of the talk given at the international pedagogical conference, held by the János Kodolányi College in Fürstenfeld.

Art Relic in Fürstenfeld

Bern, 2007–2008

The Kovács Method made its debut in Switzerland at the symposium held on the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Musik-Medizin (SMM), at the invitation of trombone-player Pia Bucher, founding president of the SMM. The Bern Conservatoire, headed by Director Werner Schmidt, hosted the event, and enjoyed the patronage of numerous musical intitutions and foundations. In March 2008 a two-day training course was held at the Bern Conservatoire, with the participation of music teachers and artists.

Dr. Zsuzsa Pásztor presents at the Musik-Medizin Symposium in Switzerland

The Conservatory in Bern

Kuala Lumpur, 2006

The 27th ISME World Conference was held here in July 2006. The event was housed by the immense conference centre that had been built 2 years before near the famous Petronas twin towers, then the tallest in the world. The sheer size of the conference is marked by the fact that it involved some two thousand participants from 70 countries around the world. Over 600 talks and presentations were given in at least 30 areas. The Kovács Method was presented in a workshop, with a focus on the early, little-known reasons behind occupational hazards in the musical profession, preparing the ability to perform and health education in music schools.

The ISME Conference Location in Kuala Lumpur

Barcelona, Terrassa, 2005

The 11th Euroepan (2nd World) Conference ‘Health Promotion in Musicians’ was held in Terrassa near Barcelona 16–18 September 2005. The hosts included doctors from the Institute of Physiology and Medicine of Art in Terrassa, Dolors Rosines i Cubells and Jaume Rosset i Llobet. The participants were shown a short film about the Kovács Method.

The Palace of Catalan Music in Barcelona