Musical education for children of all ages

IGUDESMAN & JOO’s unique edu­ca­tion pro­gram is designed for any musi­cian who wishes to widen their hori­zons and approaches to cre­at­ing, learn­ing, rehears­ing, and, per­form­ing music. “8 To 88″ explores often– ignored and less-practised aspects of music mak­ing and encour­ages musi­cians to be more open to such aspects, which may include impro­vi­sa­tion, chore­og­ra­phy, the­atri­cal­ity, psy­chol­ogy of per­for­mance, stage man­ner and pre­sen­ta­tion, dif­fer­ent styles of music, clas­si­cal and non-classical rhythm, com­po­si­tion, dra­maturgy, and humour.

Musi­cians are invited to bring their own instru­ments, and any other instru­ment they might play, and are encour­aged to bring along any own com­po­si­tions, sketches (musi­cal, or the­atri­cal), and to share any “hid­den talents”.

IGUDESMAN & JOO’s “8 To 88″ is avail­able to all musi­cians, and while it is cer­tainly not exclu­sive to string play­ers or pianists, vio­lin­ists and vio­lists would ben­e­fit from work­ing with Igudesman’s var­i­ous “work­outs” in dif­fer­ent styles, alter­na­tive sound pro­duc­tion, and, non-classical ornamentation.

The con­tent and direc­tion of the pro­gram can vary dra­mat­i­cally depend­ing on the enrolled par­tic­i­pants on any given day, which fol­lows IGUDESMAN & JOO’s organic and reac­tive coach­ing style that addresses each sit­u­a­tion and individual.

Stu­dents come away from “8 To 88″ inspired and invig­o­rated, and many leave some of their fears and inhi­bi­tions behind. The over-arching empha­sis is on being able to have fun with music, and feel­ing inspired and con­fi­dent to be cre­ative and break new grounds for their own musi­cal journeys.

In August 2014, IGUDESMAN & JOO will offer guidance to the participants of “A Feast of Duos”, the first competition for duos of violin and piano at the Sion Festival. Going beyond the usual boundaries of music competitions, IGUDESMAN & JOO will act as both jurors and coaches for the duos. The spirit of “8 To 88” is carried forward to the environment of a first-class music competition.