Teaching & Playing

Playing with expression

How to build an emotional connection with music that shines through in every note

TIMOTHY EDDY Professor of cello at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, US

BORN

Exeter, NH, US

STUDIED WITH

Bernard Greenhouse, Luigi Silva

TEACHES

Conservatoire students aged 17+

There is an illusion among many young musicians that if they play technically ‘perfectly’, they will sound beautiful. Technical excellence is essential to enable us to say something of value with our playing, but it doesn’t mean that we will. I can be extremely impressed by someone’s technique and sound but be unmoved by their playing. So how does one connect with another person’s heart? To play from the heart is the ultimate goal, with the same passion that drives us to speak with conviction, guided by the human stories we inherit from composers through their writing. Our sounds should be evidence of our feelings, and by listening with the heart, aided by curiosity and a good technique, we can learn to express ourselves openly and eloquently, unencumbered by worries about how to manage our playing. We can engage passionate objectivity to adapt our playing so that we communicate what we really feel and mean to say to our audience.