Creative Embodied String Performance

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Creative Embodied String Performance derived from Diane's PhD research, completed in 2019, funded by the Irish Research Council and awarded the inaugural Aloys Fleischmann prize for outstanding based arts practice research. 

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She writes - 

"As a professional classical violinist, my career was built on many hours of daily practice, based on conventional ideas of violin pedagogy including technique building, combined with the learning and memorization of classical repertoire. Midway through my career, I started to question my approach to music-making. Like many professionals, I have built a parallel career as a teacher, both of violin (individually and in groups) and in recent years as a workshop leader and animateur, specializing in early years and primary age children. In this context I become reacquainted with the teachings of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze – ideas I had first studied as a conservatoire student, but only ever engaged with as an education tool for young children."

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A core part of CESP  is exploring ways to make classical music more accessible by making it more visually engaging for the audience and more embodied and joyful for the players. It focuses on helping musicians to use their bodies to unlock and enhance their music making experiences.

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The Dalcroze Eurhythmics approach enables musicians to explore the movement within the music and to discover how the music moves. Her teaching focuses on fun and creativity, with a strong emphasis on students developing their own expressive voice through body work and improvisation.

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Many of the principles of CESP are woven into the Masters Degree in Classical String Performance at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in the University of Limerick.

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Libra strings is a professional ensemble developed to develop and disseminate the ideas of CESP.

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