About us

In 2009, a small group of music lecturers and performers from The Netherlands, Ireland and Australia were invited by staff from the Sibelius Academy, Finland to come together to share and discuss teaching and research work in the beautiful, natural surrounds of the Finnish countryside. What happened during this initial meeting was like a spark igniting a flame. As each one of us spoke about our innovative teaching ideas for practicing and performance planning, it became obvious that there was a common interest and enthusiasm for developing our ideas in an inspiring and supportive way. What united the group was a passion and focus on practical strategies for musicians, such as tips for planning practising, goal setting strategies, mind training techniques, optimal experience ideas and sports coaching concepts. The group of six called ourselves the 'Fellowship' to symbolise our unity of purpose in developing and sharing work to benefit music teachers and students.

We organised to meet over several years at Symposia at our respective Universities under the banner 'From Potential to Performance'. Within this framework, it was determined that the continued development of our work would benefit from the identification and rectification of gaps in our knowledge base. To this end, we invited experts in neuroscience, psychology and research as guest speakers, such as renowned neuroscientist and musician, Professor Eckart Altenmuller, psychologist, Dr Sarah Sinnamon, performer and researcher, Professor Adina Mornell, and sustainable development coach Frank Heckman.

The website 'From Potential to Performance' represents the natural evolution and culmination of the totality of the group's work. It has developed out of our united desire to share and develop practical ideas for all musicians and music teachers in order to inspire each person on their journey towards achieving their own potential.

Päivi Arjas, PhD.

Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, Finland

Päivi Arjas, born in Helsinki Finland, studied music education at the University of Jyväskylä and violoncello at the Conservatoire of Kuopio. She works at the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki, Finland) as the head of the string department, as well as being a lecturer of performance coaching. Earlier she worked as cello teacher at The Finnish Conservatoire, (Jyväskylä), in several music schools and at the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences. She has been a member of the AEC Polifonia pre college-working group and has published books about performance anxiety and mental training for musicians. She works regularly as a visiting lecturer both in Finland and abroad.

paiviarjas.com

Erja Joukamo-Ampuja

Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, Finland

Erja Joukamo-Ampuja graduated from Sibelius-Academy in 1987 completing her Master of Music and she continued her studies (1984-2001) in Norway, Austria, Germany, England, Canada and USA with famous pedagogues. She completed her licentiate degree of Music in Sibelius-Academy in 2010, doing her research about musicians creativity.

Erja Joukamo-Ampuja played with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (1984-2001) and has been teaching the French Horn at the Sibelius-Academy since 1987, currently being a Senior lecturer of Horn and Pedagogy. She has been giving master classes and lectures in Scandinavia, Europe, Australia and USA since 2000. Erja has also participated in various research projects and specialized in Music Medicine. As well as teaching the horn, Erja Joukamo-Ampuja lectures in: mental practising in teaching/performing; creative approaches to teaching and improvising; teaching practising skills and strategies; and, how to avoid injuries.

www.erjajoukamoampuja.fi

Wieke Karsten

Royal Conservatoire, The Hague, The Netherlands

Flutist Wieke Karsten studied at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and in England with the famous flute pedagogue, Trevor Wye. Her interest in teaching already came to light as a student and upon graduation she was appointed as flute teacher at the conservatories of both The Hague and Groningen.

Wieke is expert on ‘Music making, practising and the brain’. This focuses on the relation between practising and performing under stress, training focus and attention and practising interpretation and expression. Concerning this topic Wieke coaches individual musicians and gives workshops and lectures to both students and teachers in the Netherlands and abroad. She has a regular column focusing on teaching in several instrumental magazines, such as Fluit, Flöte Aktuell, Arco and Klarinet. Since 2009 Wieke is teaching at the Dutch Flute Academy (www.Neflac.nl). She writes a blog:
aandachtvoordemusicus.nl

www.wiekekarsten.nl

Gabriela Mayer

CIT Cork School of Music, Cork, Ireland

Dr Gabriela Mayer is currently the Head of the Department of Keyboard Studies at Ireland’s largest music conservatoire, the CIT Cork School of Music. As a recipient of a Fulbright Graduate Fellowship to Germany in 1997, Ms. Mayer studied piano performance at the Hochschule für Musik 'Hanns Eisler' in Berlin. She also completed a Doctorate in Musical Arts at the University of Maryland in the USA, graduating with the highest honours. In America, she taught at the American University in Washington DC and Smyths College in West Virginia. Since moving to Ireland, she has been teaching as well as performing both solo and chamber music recitals. In addition, she has promoted awareness of health and performance issues in her school through organising workshops and lectures. Her own interest is in the area of Reflective Practice and utilising coaching techniques to improve student performance and develop self confidence.

She has been involved in activities of the Association of European Conservatoires (AEC) and European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA) through participation in seminars, giving presentations at conferences on pedagogical and performance topics and as an international representative of the AEC on institutional review panels. Her students have won prizes and awards in piano performance and chamber music competitions and many of the MA graduates she taught have secured professional careers as musicians.

csm.cit.ie/contacts/staff/gabrielamayer/

Eve Newsome

Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, Australia

Eve Newsome is an experienced performer having held oboe and cor anglais positions with the Queensland Philharmonic, the Melbourne Symphony and Orchestra Victoria and toured internationally with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Melbourne and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras. She has featured as a soloist with the Queensland Philharmonic, Orchestra Victoria and Camerata of St Johns and is a founding member of several chamber ensembles including Lunaire Collective, ensemble in residence at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University (QCGU).

Prior to becoming Lecturer in Wind at QCGU in 2008, Eve lectured in oboe and chamber music at the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University. Since that time she has been active nationally and internationally teaching her unique Flow Music Method. The method is based on a range of optimal experience techniques including concepts from sport and other domains pertinent to music. Eve has been invited internationally to lecture in flow at the Sibelius Academy, Finland, the Royal Conservatory in the Netherlands and the Cork Institute of Technology in Ireland as well as within Australia and New Zealand where she has presented at numerous conferences and seminars. Eve is currently completing a PhD at QCGU focussing on optimal experience in instrumental practice and performance.

www.flowmusicmethod.com.au

Susan Williams

Royal Conservatoire, The Hague, The Netherlands

Susan Williams is one of the leading performers and teachers of the natural trumpet and has performed and recorded extensively as soloist, chamber musician and in orchestras in many of Europe’s finest early music ensembles including Collegium Vocale Gent, Les Arts Florissants, Concerto con Anima, Elbipolis, and many others. She is known for her rhetorical style, emphasising the importance of developing variation of colour, nuance and articulation as a way to show the many facets of the natural trumpet. Susan founded her own ensemble Clarini and co-founded the Bachischen Collegium Bremen.

In addition to teaching at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and at the University of the Arts Bremen, Susan gives several natural trumpet workshops at other institutions each year. Susan’s approach to teaching is a holistic one, drawing on baroque practice as well as knowledge from modern performance science. Her elective courses on practice methods and performance preparation uses an approach based on two concepts: The Musician as Instrument and Music as a Language. She has given lectures and workshops both at conservatoires and at international conferences on topics such as flow, audiation, mental training and mindset.

Currently Susan is undergoing a doctoral study researching the effects of attentional focus on skill acquisition and on optimal performance.