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W<\/span>hat did Heath Ledger, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sir Ian McKellan, David Ben-Gurion, George Bernard Shaw, Alan Rickman, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Yehudi Menuhin, Madonna and Sting all have in common?<\/p>\n No, it wasn\u2019t a love of vegetarianism or a delight in the fine arts. All of these acclaimed individuals turned to Alexander Technique, a method for alleviating pain, improving efficiency and ease of movement, and overall better \u201cuse\u201d of the body.<\/p>\n Frederick Mathias Alexander, an Australian actor, developed his method of body use in the early 20th and late 19th century after encountering problems with voice projection and hoarseness when performing. Alexander discovered his tense and stiff use of his body hindered his ability to project and perform with ease. He developed a technique where one could re-educate their body to perform in a higher way, now endorsed by numerous artists, educators, athletes, dancers, military personnel, and scientists.<\/p>\n Behind the scenes with some of Toronto\u2019s great musical performers and students, the principles of Alexander Technique are alive and well. Both the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto\u2019s Faculty of Music include some form of Alexander Technique as part of their curriculums, as well as the Juilliard School, the San Francisco Conservatory, Royal College of Music and most major American and European music institutions.<\/p>\n In Toronto, one Alexander guru who has helped countless Toronto musicians is Verna Johnson<\/a>, many of whose students have taken lessons with her for decades.<\/p>\n Johnson turned to Alexander Technique over forty-five years ago, not because of injury or sickness, but because she loved the holistic experience of Alexander.<\/p>\n \u201cIt spoke to me on a very profound level, almost emotionally, the way it made me feel better about myself,\u201d she describes. \u201cI started to see how it\u2019s the way you use yourself; it\u2019s the application of the work. The work is not like a pill to make you better. It is entirely up to you how far you want to go with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Rory McLeod, violist and co-director of Toronto-based Pocket Concerts, turned to Johnson and Alexander Technique in 2007, after pinching a rotator cuff muscle that caused him to cut back on playing. Since then, McLeod has been a devoted student of Alexander Technique, claiming that his sessions with Johnson vastly improved his quality of life in general, as well as improving his playing.<\/p>\n \u201c[Alexander Technique] taught me that my physical state and my mental state are inextricably linked: if my mind is out of whack it will affect my body, and vice versa,\u201d McLeod describes. \u201cPut simply, you have only one \u2018self,\u2019 and that includes all <\/em>of you \u2014 emotions, too.\u201d<\/p>\n He says his Alexander Technique sessions have taught him, \u201cto think of playing viola as a process, rather than a series of specific tasks that need to be accomplished as accurately as possible,\u201d and that problems can often be solved indirectly, by incorporating better use of the body as a whole.<\/p>\n Wendy Nielsen, acclaimed Metropolitan Opera soprano and current head of voice at the University of Toronto and head vocal consultant for the Canadian Opera Company\u2019s Ensemble Studio, has incorporated the principles of Alexander Technique into her teaching since the 1990s, initially working with Malcolm Balk, an Alexander Technique and running specialist. Nielsen says Alexander helped her singing tremendously, particularly concerning alignment and breath. She now combines her knowledge of Alexander with additional bodywork, developed by Jennifer Swan and based loosely on pilates.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say that my teaching is quite physical in nature,\u201d Nielsen explains. \u201cI feel that voice training is actually brain and body coordination training. We are training the \u2018housing\u2019 so that the vocal apparatus can operate with freedom and expressive ease.\u201d<\/p>\n Verna Johnson agrees that when working with musicians, applying the principles of Alexander Technique and better use of the body does lead to increased freedom in musicians\u2019 sounds.<\/p>\n \u201cI notice with musicians that you can hear when it\u2019s freer,\u201d Johnson describes. \u201cYou don\u2019t just open your mouth and sing; there\u2019s loads more going on. You don\u2019t just pick up a bow and stroke it and play the violin.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson also often finds that musicians often make the best Alexander Technique students.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s because musicians know about practise,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about hitting the notes but what you bring to it. Musicians are accustomed to practise and there\u2019s always a new way or a new understanding of a piece of music so they\u2019re more, shall I say, dedicated to their practise and their craft than even actors.\u201d<\/p>\n And after studying the Alexander Technique, musicians often not only feel physical changes in their playing, but emotional changes in their confidence and sense of well-being. Rory Mcleod affirms that since studying Alexander, he has felt, \u201can improved sense of self-respect and self-esteem, and a general increase in confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n Verna Johnson agrees. \u201cYou feel it in your soul, your body, your neck, your fingers – it\u2019s a holistic experience, in a sense,\u201d she shares.<\/p>\n Though Alexander Technique is not just for musicians. Verna Johnson notes that all sorts of people come to her for lessons, including lawyers, accountants, yoga teachers, school teachers, I.T. workers and more.<\/p>\n So next time you\u2019re watching a Colin Firth or Alan Rickman movie, attending the Toronto Symphony or the Canadian Opera Company, watch how the performers move. It may be something they work just as hard on as learning their fingerings, bowings, and stylistic interpretations.<\/p>\n Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and reviews before anyone else finds out? Follow us on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/u><\/a>\u00a0or <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/u><\/a> for all the latest.<\/i><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What did Heath Ledger, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sir Ian McKellan, David Ben-Gurion, George Bernard Shaw, Alan Rickman, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Yehudi Menuhin, Madonna and Sting all have in common?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":44420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,14,4967],"tags":[9531],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/Alexander-Technique.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-byq","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44418"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44418"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44424,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44418\/revisions\/44424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44418"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=44418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n