Workshop with Molly Gebrian, July 10, 2021

As a regular feature of our annual meeting, we are privileged to welcome a guest clinician. This year, Molly Gebrian will be leading a workshop on “What Musicians Can Learn About Practicing.” All teachers and parents from any location around the world are invited to join us for this special presentation.

If you are not in the Indiana Suzuki community, you can register for just the workshop with Molly Gebrian. The workshop will be limited to 100 participants, and the Zoom link will be sent to you during the week before the meeting. 
Special Workshop Registration

If you are currently a member or would like to become a member of the Suzuki Association of Indiana, use this form to register for the workshop: Membership Meeting and Workshop

Special Workshop

Saturday, July 10, 2021

Clinician Molly Gebrian, Presentation: 1:00-2:30 PM (EDT)

Topic: What Musicians Can Learn About Practicing


This presentation will focus on what neuroscientists have discovered about how our brains learn and how to apply these insights to practicing and teaching so that practicing becomes more efficient and effective, leading to enhanced performance ability, enjoyment, and confidence. Topics include: how to get rid of bad habits, how to make things automatic/reliable on stage, the role of sleep in learning, the power of mental practicing, how to use the metronome to greatest effect, and the benefits of random practice for enhanced performance.

About the Presenter

Molly Gebrian

Violist Molly Gebrian has distinguished herself as an outstanding performer, teacher, and scholar throughout the US and Europe. Her love of contemporary music has led her to collaborate with many composers, often in premieres of works written for her. She has worked closely with the Ensemble Intercontemporain and Pierre Boulez for performances at the Lucerne Festival and she spent the 2011/2012 academic year in Paris to undertake an intensive study of contemporary music with violist/composer Garth Knox. Her other principal teachers include Peter Slowik, Carol Rodland, and James Dunham. Molly completed her Doctor of Musical Arts in viola performance from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and also holds graduate degrees in viola performance from the New England Conservatory of Music, and Bachelors degrees from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, in both viola performance and neuroscience. She served as the Assistant Director for two interdisciplinary conferences on music and the brain while at Rice, has published papers dealing with music and neuroscience in the Journal of the American Viola SocietyFrontiers in PsychologyFlute Talk Magazine, The Oxford Handbook of Music and the Brain, and The Strad. Her background in neuroscience gives her unique insight into how the brain learns and how musicians can best use this information to their advantage in the practice room. Given this expertise, she is a frequent presenter on topics having to do with music and neuroscience at conferences and universities in the US and abroad. During the summer, she is on faculty at the National Music Festival and Montecito International Music Festival, and has also taught at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. After teaching for five years at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, she joined the faculty at the Fred Fox School of Music at the University of Arizona in the fall of 2019.