Alexander Technique for Performers

Specialised work for performers

Teachers at MATTS have long experience working with musicians, actors, dancers and other performing artists.

Many students attend classes to enhance their performance skills, or to address performance-related difficulties including pain, tension, anxiety, coordination, breathing, injury recovery and prevention, and problems connected with habits of practice and performance.

The school has particularly strong connections with musicians and conservatoire training, although performers from many different backgrounds attend classes and lessons at MATTS.

A practical working environment

Performers attending MATTS participate in classes alongside trainee teachers, qualified teachers, long-term students and other visitors as part of the ordinary working life of the school.

Many performers value the opportunity to work within a focused but relaxed practical environment in which performance problems can be explored gradually and without pressure.

Performers attending practical classes will usually receive attention and support from a number of teachers over the course of a session.

Student and professional performers

The school regularly welcomes conservatoire students, professional performers, teachers and people preparing for auditions, performances or periods of intensive professional work.

Some performers attend only briefly, while others continue to participate over many years and occasionally go on to undertake professional teacher training.

Musicians and conservatoire connections

Because we are ourselves the primary instrument that we bring to performance, the Alexander Technique has long been recognised as an important practical discipline for musicians and is taught in many leading conservatoires internationally.

The school has particularly strong historical connections with musicians and conservatoire training. Teachers and students connected with the school include many professional musicians, conservatoire graduates and music teachers working across classical, jazz, folk and popular traditions.

The MATTS training course was affiliated with the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) for many years and continues to maintain strong connections with musicians and conservatoire teachers in both Manchester and London.

Training at MATTS may be particularly suitable for performers who wish to:

apply the Alexander Technique more deeply to performance
undertake intensive practical study
train as a teacher of the Alexander Technique
pursue postgraduate work connected with performance

For advanced trainees and postgraduate students, we can usually arrange opportunites to observe or shadow Alexander Technique teaching at one or more music conservatoires.

Please feel free to contact us to discuss the possibilities.

Further information about MATTS teachers and conservatoire connections

MATTS has longstanding connections with musicians, conservatoires and specialist performance training. Our Director Emeritus, Malcolm Williamson, taught the Alexander Technique at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) for nearly forty years alongside his career as a principal orchestral violist. He continues to teach regularly in the school on two days each week. Our senior assistant teacher, Alex Proudfoot, is a graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and for many years worked professionally as a violinist alongside teaching the Alexander Technique. Our STAT-appointed Moderator Dorothea Magonet has been teaching AT to young musicians at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) for 40 years and is a sculptress and fine artist. Several other teachers at the school are professional musicians or combine performance and music teaching with Alexander Technique teaching. These include teachers working across classical, jazz, folk and popular traditions. The course itself was affiliated with the RNCM for many years and continues to maintain close connections with musicians and conservatoire teachers in both Manchester and London. Regular MATTS teachers have taught or continue to teach at institutions including: • the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), • the Royal Academy of Music (RAM), • Chetham’s School of Music, • and other specialist music institutions. Marie Leenhardt, principal harpist of the Hallé Orchestra and visiting professor at the RNCM, teaches the Alexander Technique as part of her work with young musicians at Chetham’s School of Music. David Hudson, a folk guitarist and singer, regularly organises concert performances locally for musicians of all genres and our students and teachers are often able to participate. Several of our teachers have organised conferences and professional events for Alexander Technique teachers working in conservatoires and specialist music training. Training at MATTS can include opportunities to observe or shadow Alexander Technique teaching within conservatoire environments. 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 if you are already an AT teacher who wishes to undertake postgraduate study with a special interest in work with musicians, then studying at MATTS may be particularly suitable for you.

A few reflections from performers and teachers

I find The Alexander Technique very helpful in my work. Things happen without you trying. They get to be light and relaxed. You must get an Alexander teacher to show it to you. John Cleese, Actor 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 I love the Alexander Technique. It has corrected my posture, improved my health and changed my life. Alec McCowen CBE, Actor 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 Of all the disciplines that form the actor training program, none is more vital, enriching and transformative than the Alexander Technique. Harold Stone, Associate Director, Theatre Department, The Juilliard School, New York USA The Alexander Technique changed my life. It enabled me to devote more time to creating beauty. This inner strength is essential for all. Andrew Logan, Sculptor With the best intentions, the job of acting can become a display of accumulated bad habits, trapped instincts and blocked energies. Working with the Alexander Technique has given me sightings of another way... Mind and body, work and life together. Real imaginative freedom... Alan Rickman, Actor Early in my professional career the celebrated conductor Sir Adrian Boult, who had himself had Alexander lessons, sent me for lessons in the Technique. 'My boy,' he said, 'you'll end up crippled if you go on like that.' I have been a pupil of the Technique now for over forty years, the benefits to me have been immeasurable ... Sir Colin Davies, Conductor Question: Which book changed your life? Answer: The one the teacher put under my head during the Alexander Technique sessions at RADA. I grew an inch and a half. Q&A: Jonathan Pryce, Actor, The Guardian, May 7, 2015 In an interview in The Mail on Sunday: “The fastest way to lose 5lb and take off five years is to stand up straight...I’ve studied the Alexander Technique in the past, which really helps with posture...It not only looks better, it opens the throat and makes it easier to breathe properly. I took up the Alexander Technique because I’d noticed on TV that my posture wasn’t great. But, importantly, it also helps you to feel more at ease in your body — and clothes sit better on a woman who’s comfortable with herself." Lulu, Popular Singer Good acting is revealing yourself, not covering yourself up. If your body is free, your mind is free. (The Alexander Technique allows) you to feel what it's like to stay open physically, and also stay fully involved in whatever you're supposed to be doing. Annette Bening, Actress Yehudi Menuhin (violinist and conductor) wrote about the Alexander Technique on several occasions. The following passage is taken from his foreword to Niso Ticciati’s 1953 introduction to the Technique for musicians, Posture, Tension and Technique: "It is a particular pleasure to bring to the attention of the public an approach to the general problems of motion and technique...which rests on a broader basis, one of balanced effort, than is usually the case. So often the apparently specific defeats itself as any problem can only be successfully conquered by an understanding of its whole rather than of only a limited section of its circumference. I can only suggest from my sympathetic interest in my colleagues, of all ages and all levels, that it is a useful one and especially welcome in such cases where continued and renewed efforts seem only to dig more deeply into a rut."

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