The Alexander Technique for Musicians

"Alexander students rid themselves of bad postural habits and are helped to reach with their bodies and minds, an enviable degree of freedom of expression."

Michael Langham, Director, the Juilliard School, New York USA

"The Alexander Technique can be sustaining; it is something that if learned well, can be carried along with you for the rest of your life. It gives you confidence to be who you are when you are up in front of an audience."

Patrick Maddams, Managing Director, Royal Academy of Music, London

Because we are ourselves the primary instrument that we bring to our performances, the Alexander Technique is well-established as an important tool for musicians and is taught in most of the leading conservatoires in the UK and around the world. By applying the AT to our performance we can play better and avoid pain.

If you are a musician who has already had some AT lessons and would like intensive help to apply the AT to your performance, or to train as a teacher of the AT, or to undertake postgraduate study with a special interest in work with musicians, then studying at MATTS may be particularly suitable for you.

The teachers* and students at our school include many professional musicians (classical, jazz, folk and popular) and many gifted amateur musicians. Our training course was, for many years, affiliated to the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), and we continue to maintain strong ties.

Training as an AT teacher at MATTS includes opportunities to shadow AT teachers at the RNCM and we can usually organise similar opportunites at Chetham's in Manchester and at the Royal Academy of Music and other conservatoires in London.

Please feel free to contact us to discuss the possibilities.

*Our "Director Emeritus", Malcolm Williamson, is in our classes two days each week and had a long career as a principal violist and taught the AT at the RNCM for nearly 40 years. Our most senior assistant teacher, Alex Proudfoot, is in the classes two days each week and is a graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama at Glasgow and a professional violinist. Our course director is an amateur classical musician and taught at the RNCM for several years. Our training course Moderator has been teaching at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) since 1984 and was awarded an Honourary ARAM. Several of our our other teachers (such as Pete Robinson) are professional muscians who also teach at the RNCM. One of our teachers is the principal harpist for the Halle Orchestra. Some of our other teachers combine their career as a musician or as a music teacher (in several genres) with teaching the AT. Two of our teachers have organised large conferences for AT teachers who teach at Music Colleges.