PIANO TECHNIQUE: THE UTILITY OF IRREDUCIBLE FUNDAMENTALS
On Sunday 30th January 2022 (at 11 a.m. via Zoom) we are delighted to welcome our founder, Dr Frank Heneghan.
Although Frank, now 90 years old, has been in retirement for more than 25 years he will be remembered as the Director of the DIT College of Music (now part of TU [Dublin]) and teacher of more than 200 Feis Ceoil First Prize winners. Nor has he been inactive in his retirement, as teacher and mentor on the global scene; his travels have taken him to all five continents and Oceania where his activities in more than 20 universities have brought a galaxy of doctoral pianists, inter alia, under his influence.
Frank would like to present to our members the fruits of his recent extensive technical research which he was able to complete during the Covid lockdowns. This is in response to requests, from his many collaborators, to share the secrets of his personal methodology, which has been so successful at home and abroad. He is a great believer in taking enquiry back to irreducible technical fundamentals, which have arguably been notably neglected in many approaches to the associated problems. In particular the topics of axial rotation, articulation, alignment, ‘wrist’ freedom, holistic flexibility, stress minimization and artistic tone production will be comprehensively addressed. He claims to have initiated some new and colourful approaches which condense technical training to an economical menu of non-repetitive warm-up routines which is easy to use. His recent launch into online teaching has spectacularly proved the adaptability of his method to all stages, from beginner to virtuoso level, and in the widest global contexts.
Frank claims that his discoveries have been dramatically revelatory, even to himself, and he is anxious to share them with EPTA members. There are no gimmicks – just plain common sense, logic and a lifetime of focused enquiry.