Vanessa Breault Mulvey

 

Illuminating the anatomy behind movement to refine playing is how Vanessa Mulvey guides musicians to transform performances from good to great. The unique combination of anatomy education and movement retraining unleashes expression and leads to healthy playing habits.  

Vanessa’s deep fascination with understanding movement inspires her work and life. This desire was initially sparked by a Body Mapping workshop where she found a clear, reliable way to enhance expression and relieve neck and shoulder discomfort. These changes inspired her to dig deeper into understanding the relationship between movement and playing.

In 2009 she completed her Licensure with Andover Educators, the Body Mapping organization, and teaches the course ‘What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body’.   Her quest for knowledge and movement skill did not end there, in fact it led her to seek out ways to explore movement away from the flute.  Notable lessons include:

• Learning to utilize optimal performance awareness on the flying trapeze to execute a trick.
• Mustering the mental and physical endurance to complete a Spartan sprint.

These activities challenge her to understand and develop her  movements skills and uncover movement accuracy, fluidity and precision.  Exactly what musicians use in performing.

At the New England Conservatory of Music and Longy School of Music of Bard College where she is on faculty, she teaches popular Body Mapping courses. Guided by her core values of:

• practicing movement both in the context of music-making and independently
• embracing intention
• lifelong learning

Her courses combine Body Mapping with movement experience to unlock the artistry within each musician.  

Vanessa is a frequent guest artist, presenting specialty workshops at music schools, conferences and festivals, including the Frost School of Music, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and the British Isles Music Festival.  She also offers private one-on-one coaching to address individual needs.

Vanessa’s innate curiosity guides her learning and playing.  She performs on concerts throughout the region including: North Country Electronic Music Festival, Wolfeboro Friends of Music, Chromatic Club, King’s Chapel Concert Series, Friends of the Reading Public Library, 1794 Meeting House, Longy SeptemberFest and Faculty Artist Concerts and on WGBH radio as well as freelance gigs.  She especially enjoy performing music from the late twentieth century through today.

B.M. with honors from the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York in Potsdam M.M. from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.