Your Body Is Your Strad posits that our real instrument is our body. The sound that an instrument produces, whether string, wind, keyboard or voice, depends on the way the musician moves and activates it. In order to gain the ability to meet any composition’s demands, instrumentalists must have a vast repertoire of movements that will give them the freedom to use their bodies with maximum efficiency. Most people accept the way they move, ascribing it to genetic makeup. In reality, human learn to move by trial and error and their nervous systems are wired according to experiences. Unless a musician questions and challenges this historic wiring, possibilities for expression remain limited.

Twenty-two cellists, selected by audition submissions, delve deeply into the connections between body awareness and higher degrees of cellistic proficiency, artistic performance and creative and effective teaching. Participants are exposed to a range of performance and pedagogical topics, presented by internationally acclaimed faculty. All selected participants attend the full two-week Your Body Is Your Strad program, which includes the Feldenkrais for All Musicians component.

National Summer Cello Institute activities help participants advance instrumental performance and injury prevention by examining the integration of body and mind through movement and providing an introduction to the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education. The 2013 event will include master classes, movement classes, seminars, individual sessions and lessons, group discussions, chamber music, cello choir, as well as improvisation and baroque dance sessions.

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