University of South Florida School of Music in collaboration with the Performing Arts Medicine 

Association and The Music Gallery Presents



Free to Play: Piano Pedagogy Symposium

"Playing free is to master the art of mind-body connection"



Course Description:

The effective use of the body for the pianist will help produce good tone, develop sound technique, 

prevent injury, and maintain longevity as performer. The Symposium will focus on how to become 

more aware of the body and to maximize mind-body connection in learning, teaching



and playing. Six internationally renowned pianist-pedagogues with expert training in pianists  

psyphysiological mechanics will conduct a two- day Piano Pedagogy Symposium at University of 

South Florida School of Music Bareness Recital Hall.



Target Participants

Piano teachers at all levels (university, schools, private), graduate and undergraduate collegiate 



pianists, and advanced pre-college pianists.



Objectives

Participants will learn:

- how tones are produced by well-coordinated movements of the upper body to finger tips

- how mind and body work together in this process

- how knowing the individual hand biomechanics can help effective and injury-free use of the mind-body-hand coordination

- how to apply the psychophysiology in playing various techniques and styles



Personnel:

Sang-Hie Lee, Professor of Music, University of South Florida, Director 

Martha Thomas, Professor of Piano, Associate Dean of University of Georgia Hugh Hodgson School of Music

Douglas Johnson, Associate Professor of Piano, Berklee College of Music

Kevin Robert Orr, Professor of Piano, School of Music, University of Florida

Grigorios Zamparas, Associate Professor of Piano, University of Tampa

Ken Hanks, Professor of Piano and Director of Arts Program, Hillsborough Community College

Carina Joly, Pianist-Physiotherapy, Zürich, Switzerland

Shuyuan Tsai, President, Mid-State FMTA

Jeffrey Chodil, MM in Piano Performance, Pedagogy, and Chamber Music, Researcher in Hand Biometrics

Tina Tidwell, E-RYT, BA, Artistic Director, Spec Performance