Barbara Lister-Sink, an internationally recognized pioneer in injury-preventive, well-coordinated piano technique, will visit Sweet Briar College to present an intensive training workshop for keyboard players on Saturday, Sept. 11 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in room 127 of Babcock Fine Arts Center. Registration begins at 9 a.m. in the Babcock lobby.

The workshop seeks to immerse keyboardists in the fundamental principles of good coordination of the whole body at the piano. Its substance is drawn from "Freeing the Caged Bird," Lister-Sink's national award-winning and internationally acclaimed video.

Following an opening lecture explaining her objectives, she will instruct a small number of pianists (minimum 6, maximum 12) in a hands-on, uniquely individualized pedagogical approach.

The workshop objectives include:

• developing injury-preventive, well-coordinated technique of the whole body with the instrument


• understanding the biomechanics of playing, through analytical and kinesthetic exploration of basic anatomy


• developing optimal skeletal alignment and efficient muscle use at the instrument


• discovering and eliminating habitual inefficient body-use patterns


• learning the Basic Stroke™ - the fundamental sensations and coordinations of sound production - through the Lister-Sink Method


• exploring the application of the Basic Stroke™ to incrementally complex repertoire

Lister-Sink has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout North America and Europe and recorded for NPR, the CBC and Radio Netherlands among other labels. As artistic collaborator, she has appeared with principal players of most major American and Dutch orchestras, with the Cleveland, Ciompi, Chester and Alexander quartets, and members of the Fine Arts, Lenox, Muir and Guarneri string quartets. During a six-year residency in the Netherlands, she was keyboardist for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

In 1986, she returned to her native North Carolina to become dean of the Salem College School of Music, and later artist-in-residence and professor of piano. A graduate of Smith College, she holds the coveted Prix d'Excellence from the Utrecht Conservatory.

In 1992, she was a presenter and performer for the First World Congress of Arts and Medicine in New York City, and in 1999 was invited to appear at the International Society for Study of Tension in Performance International Conference in London. In 2002, she received the 2002 MTNA-Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy National Award.

The workshop is hosted by the Central Virginia Music Teachers Association and is made possible by a Small Chapter Grant of the Virginia Music Teachers Association and
the McNutt Fund at Sweet Briar College.

For more information, please contact Rebecca McNutt, SBC professor of music, at (434) 381-6115 or mcnutt@sbc.edu or Shannon Wells, media relations coordinator, at (434) 381-6388 or