News on further education:
5th Further Education Day on September 27 2025, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Campus Music-Academy:
Program
- 10:00 a.m. Start
- 10:00 – 10:50 a.m. Plenum, Neuer Saal:
- Warm up I with voice and body, Martin Wettges
- Presentation of the 3 workshops by Patsy Gilbert, Margareta Tina Nielssen & Stephanie Czernin
- Warm up II – Timani, Margareta Tina Nielssen
- 10:50 – 12:50 a.m. Parallel workshops part 1
- Patsy Gilbert: Who are the Role Models of today?, Kleiner Saal
- Margareta Tina Nielssen: Unlocking Musical Freedom Through the Body: An Introduction to Timani, Vortragssaal 6 – 301
- Stephanie Czernin: Communication techniques for delicate conversations – empathic and effective communication, Neuer Saal
- 12:50 – 13:30 p.m. Free lunch, cafeteria
- 13:30 – 16:10 p.m. Parallel workshops part 2
- 16:10 – 17:00 p.m. Free apéro riche, cafeteria
- 17:00 p.m. End
Registration for the workshops is possible from June 2025 via ASIMUT.
The workshops
Who are the Role Models of today?
Patsy Gilbert
10:50 – 16:10 p.m., Kleiner Saal
Globally our communities are changing – and how we engage with music and education is also changing. Traditional models of musical training and education must also adapt in order to maintain their relevance and to ensure we can train a healthy, compassionate and skilled graduate who is able to progress the future of Classical Music.
Can we move away from models of mastery? And move towards equality in environments willing to adapt and listen?
Where are the areas we feel less equipped to meet a changing landscape? And what can we do collectively to support that?
Can we be good role models by considering the student as a whole person? Rather than ‘just’ a musician?
In this interactive workshop session we will explore together who are the role models we have in our lives, in our art, in our organisation and in our communities. Then we’ll explore together how we too can be reflective, competent and inspirational role models – to our students, to our colleagues and to ourselves. Finally we will take time to reflect where we think we need further development in order to meet the needs of a changing student group. This session is for anyone who is committed to changing, advancing and developing our working environment and interested in how the world of music and education is changing.
Patsy Gilbert is Vice Principal at Leeds Conservatoire, a progressive conservatoire in the North of England with a focus on equality, diversity and how it is represented in the music, theatre and art we make together. She spends a lot of time working alongside other conservatoires, universities and government organisations to explore how together we can build a sustainable, equitable landscape for everyone. You can find out more about her here: https://www.leedsconservatoire.ac.uk/about-us/tutors/patsy-gilbert/
Workshop
Unlocking Musical Freedom Through the Body: An Introduction to Timani
Margareta Tina Nielssen
10:50 – 16:10 p.m., Vortragssaal 6 – 301
How we move deeply influences how we play or sing. Musicians often struggle with tension, physical limitations, or discomfort without realizing that small changes in coordination can unlock major improvements in sound quality, technique, and artistic expression. In this workshop, participants will experience how instrument specific, targeted exercises based on anatomy can directly enhance musical performance.
We will explore how physical awareness supports musical freedom and how teachers can integrate simple, effective tools into lessons to help students develop sustainably with more ease, less effort, and greater musical flow.
Participants will learn practical exercises that can immediately be applied to practice and teaching. No prior knowledge is needed, only curiosity to know more about the complex interplay between the body and making music.
The instructor Tina Margareta Nilssen is a pianist, educator, and the founder of the Timani method, an anatomically based approach that optimizes musical performance. She’s based in Norway, but has taught thousands of musicians world-wide through workshops, masterclasses and individual coaching at institutions such as Juilliard (NY), Thornton (LA), Royal Danish Music Academy (Copenhagen), Hanns Eisler (Berlin), HKB (Bern) and Musik Akademie Basel. Her work focuses on empowering musicians to move more freely, prevent injuries, and deepen their artistic expression through a conscious connection between body and instrument.
Link to website:
Workshop
Communication techniques for delicate conversations – empathic and effective communication
Stephanie Czernin
10:50 – 16:10 p.m., Neuer Saal
We will work on basic techniques of effective and empathic communication and how to create a calm and safe atmosphere through emotion regulation and language techniques. I will introduce a few tried and tested basic techniques of empathic language that will immediately give you better control of the conversational atmosphere and more clarity. This allows you to build better (working) relationships and psychological safety.
The workshop content:
- Insight into the neurobiological processes behind our reactions as well as the possibilities of emotion regulation and self-management.
- Basic human biology and the importance of the other person’s receptivity for effective communication.
- Introduction to basic techniques (7 steps + active listening).
- Basic principles of successful communication (general, Watzlawick).
- Strategies for creating a calm and safe atmosphere through emotion regulation and linguistic techniques.
- Framework conditions, clarifying the assignment, setting boundaries, feedback rules, etc.
Dr. med Stephanie Czernin MSc: With a background as a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy, Dr. Czernin now works as a self- and career management coach in Basel. Her areas of specialization include emotion regulation, self-management, strategic and conscious action as well as effective and empathic communication. She works with systemic and hypnotherapeutic methods, among others.
Registration for the workshops is possible from June 2025 via ASIMUT.