Guitar Master Classes
4 one-hour individual lessons
(2 from Antigoni Goni + 1 hour from visiting artist + 1 hour from teaching assistant)

Master Classes aim to prepare not only accomplished and skilled musicians but also intelligent and insightful artists.The program offers master class instruction with workshop’s director Antigoni Goni, her assistant and the guest artist. Each student will receive a total of 4 lessons in a master class setting. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in guitar Trios and Quartets, coached by Ms.Goni's assistant.

Each year the selected chamber pieces are sent to the participants one month in advance.

The program concludes with The Volterra Project Laureates concert, where a selected group of participants will perform in the historic Palazzo dei Priori in Volterra.

This year, in addition to the master classes, Antigoni Goni and Elena Papandreou will also present a lecture/ round table on “Competitions: before, during and after!”

Business Seminars
3 two-hour lectures

Lectures and individual consultations will focus on topics such as

• Effective promotional materials-biographies, news releases, program notes, websites, ads, etc
• Media coverage, media interviews and the development of other promotional skills.
• How-tos of arts education and outreach
• Concert Programs, and “concert artist etiquette”

Participants will leave the “Volterra Project” with an understanding of how the media work and how best to position themselves for promotion of concerts, recordings, residencies and teaching with a focus on career-long strategy.

Music Physiology
Daily openings, ca. 45’ group sessions
2 x 45’ individual sessions
2 x 60’ group sessions

The subject of this year’s music physiology courses will be “Music Ergonomics after Roland Fogel”. These courses have been designed to develop an understanding of our most important artistic instrument: our own body.

“From first to the last tone, body and mind are the most important instruments for a musician.” Roland Fogel

Every musician is an artist using mind, body, and instrument to create music. The direct connection of all three creates useful synergies in a holistic way.This process falls in between the mechanics of guitar playing, and the physiology of the musician’s body.

Roland Fogel not only combines musicianship, instrumental mastery, and pedagogical knowledge with the interdisciplinary aspects of physiology and psychology, but also with the results of modern scientific research, studies of medicine and ergonomics, decades of observation professional experience, and direct interaction with international guitarists. One of the results of this constant research was the development of a series of exercises (Fogel Canon) with a direct influence on the player-guitar system.

During the Volterra Project week, the Canon will prepare both body and mind for playing the guitar in a more efficient and easier way during the day. This training will be a basis for everyday use. At the end of the Volterra Project the participants will be able to use this canon to develop a personalized routine that will help them in everyday activity, helping them to stay or become comfortable again in playing the instrument, and prevent diseases caused by making music.

Articulated both in individual classes and group lectures, the course will focus on the following aspects:

Individual sessions:

• The physiological aspects of guitar playing, the structure and functioning of the human body and the way we use or misuse it
• Body-mind structure reflecting special techniques, and questions concerning pieces of music the students are currently working on
• Increasing our awareness of our own body, our habits, our unconscious movements, how they affect our playing, and how we can start to change them