I often ask string players if anyone ever mentioned breathing to them in connection with their playing. The answer, usually, is no. In my own life as a cellist I was sometimes encouraged to breathe (catch my breath?) ‘between phrases’, or told not to hold it. Playing the cello was something my fingers did to […]

In my meditation practice recently, I noticed something subtle but revelatory: Even when I believed I was ‘breathing naturally’, I was controlling my breath in the minutest of ways because I was trying to keep it in time. I realized that, once I felt my breath establish a rhythm, rather than letting the breath enter […]

As musicians move out of pandemic-induced hibernation, back into rehearsal and on to the concert platform, there will surely be excitement and joy. An email I received last week from a professional violist, however, made me reflect on what an important transition this is for so many and what else might be lurking in the […]

Reflecting on 40 years of making music – whether in the basement of a Cornish fisherman’s cottage or in prestigious concert halls – it occurs to me that my teachers, my teachers’ teachers, the musicians who have touched me and, in turn, their teachers, all spring from one source: Pablo Casals. My yoga practice also […]

Many people ask me on Breathing Bow retreats if stage presence is something we can practice, if it is possible to find a way to be exactly where we are - in a concert hall with an audience right here and right now, about to share what we love? I believe that the answer is […]