We will explore how to integrate the skills cultivated through insight meditation into your instrumental practice and performance. 

Each day will feature a different topic of discussion and related experiential workshop. 

Learn practical techniques to help---

• Break down the process of “conscious practice” into 4 basic components

• Listen with discernment rather than judgment, and become your own teacher

• Maintain a calm and centered internal presence in performance and auditions

• Use mindfulness meditation to lessen the negative effects of performance nerves

• Create a relaxed freedom to “get in the flow” of spontaneous joy in music-making

• Understand how neuroplasticity enables constant improvement in our playing

Barbara Bogatin is a cellist with the San Francisco Symphony, chamber music player, and educator in the field of mindfulness training for musicians. In 35 years of practicing insight meditation, she has integrated the embodied knowledge this contemplative work nurtures into effective methods for improving instrumental practice and performance. She will present daily talks about how the skills we cultivate during meditation can be helpful in our music-making. 

Each day will feature a different topic of discussion and a related experiential workshop. There will also be opportunities to have one-on-one sessions with Barbara and other faculty members.

This program is open to students, professionals, and amateurs with different instruments.

Theme 1

Practice - Barbara will share an overview of her experience with sitting meditation retreats and explain the art of “conscious practice,” breaking down the process of practicing our instruments into 4 basic components which will be explored in depth. 

Experiential Workshop where students demonstrate how they practice a difficult passage and engage in habitual practicing patterns, then consider ways to make their practice more efficient and effective. 

Theme 2

Focus and Calm - Specific guided meditations can help us discover ways to maintain a calm and centered internal presence. We can apply this approach to performance anxiety and audition nerves, greeting every moment with wise attention and intention.

Experiential Workshop where students “perform” for each other in a masterclass setting, and try out different techniques of mindfulness training to lessen the negative effects of performance nerves. We can learn how to focus our minds in stressful situations, and use the flow of energy in our body to help us play our best.

Theme 3

Deepening Musical Expression - We all want to feel a sense of relaxed freedom in performance, where we can be fully present with the emotions we’re trying to express in the music. This is often referred to as a “state of flow.” Practicing metta (loving kindness) meditation can help us cultivate a heart-centered approach, which encourages improvisation and spontaneous joy in music-making.

Experiential Workshop where students play for each other and explore the “meaning underneath the notes.” We can imagine a story, a feeling, or a word that unlocks the emotions the composer is trying to convey. Contemplative practices can open the door to the creative process of flow.

Evening Talks and Group Inquiry on Meditation, Music, and Contemplative Science

With Dr. Clifford Saron, UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain

Clifford Saron, PhD, is a cognitive neuroscientist at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain and the UC Health MIND Institute in Sacramento, with a long-term interest in the effects of meditation on brain function and psychological well-being. His first experience with Buddhist insight meditation 50 years ago triggered a curiosity about the impact of contemplative practice on our minds and bodies. Inspired by participating in dialogues about Buddhism and science with H.H. the Dalai Lama over the past three decades with the Mind and Life Institute, he has led a research program investigating the effects of intensive meditation on sustained attention, emotion regulation, markers of stress and cellular aging, and adaptive psychological functioning. Along with his wife, cellist Barbara Bogatin, he has created a workshop called “The Buddha, the Brain, and Bach” that explores the intersection of meditation practice, contemplative science, neuroplasticity, and music performance. 

Cliff's informal talks will integrate Power Point presentations with plenty of time for group discussion and inquiry.

Topic 1: Neuroplasticity and Musicians' Brains - How musical training shapes our brains.

• Beholding the space of the brain

• A rapid and deep dive inside the brain

• The importance of maps in the brain

• What is neuroplasticity?

• How does musical training change the brain?

• Consequences of musical training on other skills. 

Topic 2: Brains in Concert - Brain-to-brain coupling during performance.

• Embodied cognition 

• What is brain-to-brain coupling?

• Musical communication and brain synchrony

• Musician-audience connections

• Research studies with musicians

Topic 3: There's Something About Stillness - The effects of meditation on perception, attention, and emotion.

• The complexity of contemplative science research

• Findings from the Saron Lab’s research on intensive meditation 

• What can we learn from meditation research?

• Can meditation help the cultivation of compassion?