ABOUT
My name is Miriam Miranda Martins Hlavatý and I work as a Timani teacher, musicians health-practitioner, MER-practitioner and bodyworker, lecturer, pianist and curator of music. I grew up in Bærum, Norway with a Norwegian mother and Czech father and, in addition to an intermediate subject in classical archaeology, I hold a bachelor in performance and a Masters in applied music theory from The Norwegian Academy of Music.
I work as an institute teacher at the Musician´s Health and Movement Institute in Oslo at the 3-year online certification in Timani and I am also a certified Restorative Exercise specialist of Nutritious Movement™ in addition to being a certified bodyworker in Myofascial Energetic Release (MER).
Music has been a part of my essence since the age of 4 when my parents introduced me to the world of classical music through the ballet Swan Lake. The piano has been my life long friend for almost as long a time. But growing up in an over-sensitive body with frequent bouts of sickness, chronic pains and playing-related strain injuries also made me keenly aware of how emotional and mental states affect, and is affected by, the physical states of the body. How we are all living within bodies that are carrying the total sum of our life experiences, good and bad, and how this is part of our everyday experiences with our bodies, both as musicians and as human beings.
In order to change something we need understanding and understanding comes through the ability to listen.
In my work as a musician, lecturer and composer listening playes a crucial part, and one of my goals is to equip the audience with pathways into different musical landscapes. This has so far resulted in lectures and concert lectures centered around musical perception and different forms of listening strategies from the field of Sonology as well as musical history.
photo: Ragnhild Aarnes Holager
Timani
As a Timani teacher I give private lessons and lectures/workshops live and online both in Norway and abroad, and have held workshops in Timani and mental health for musicians in Germany, Denmark, Sweeden, England, Finland, and Singapore. I have been a guest teacher in work-physiology at the Conservatory of Music in Tromsø and I give an annual lecture in performance practice and self-regulation at NTNU in Trondheim. I also teach piano privately and have been a piano teacher at the NLA University College in Oslo.
Due to previous experiences with lengthy strain injuries and tendinitis my main focus as a teacher is to work towards the ability to use the body in a differentiated, conscious manner and to support the student which knowledge nessesary for any musician wanting their body to last through their entire career. There is nothing more detrimental for a musician than being hindered from playing due to pain or injuries, and I am happy to be able to offer a method which allows the act of playing to become a strengthening, rather than a straining experience. This is the method which allowed me to return to the piano after 20 years of cronic playing-induced tendinitis.
photo: Oda Hveem
PLAYING
As a pianist and lecturer my focus is on the art of listening: musical comprehension and active listening, listening intentions and musical perception. My repertoire often consists of contemporary piano music with a focus on alternative instrumental techniques that uses the inner parts of the instrument (strings, beams, soundboard etc.) as well as improvisation. I also uses composition as a means to explore the piano as a modern sound-exploring instrument. For some samples of what I do musically you can go to this page
Photo: Ragnhild Aarnes Holager
LISTENING
The master thesis The development of form-awareness by means of aural Sonology explores the development of form-awareness in musicians and is centred around the topics of musical perception, awareness and active listening strategies as a means of enhancing the listening experience, particularly regarding the perception and presentation of contemporary music.
The thesis is based on the subject Aural Sonology, developed by the Norwegian composer Lasse Thoresen, a subject which works as a foundation for much of my work as curator of music with a particular emphasis on listening.
WRITING
I contribute as a music writer in the Norwegian web magazine audiophile.no where I write about topics that concerns the listening experience and listening with and without filters.
In my blog: The listening experience, the art of mindful focus I write about listening, art, musical awareness, vanishing soundscapes, inflatable gutiars and instruments of wonder, biomechanics, Music as a political weapon, neurology, literary experiments and other fascinating topics. Some of these articles are also published in an English translation.
To sum up with a flare: I am also the proud little sister of the Norwegian TV-puppet Titten-Tei, made by my father the Czech puppet maker, scenographer and stage director Karel Hlavatý and costumed by my mother, Nina Martins, expressive art therapist, writer and maker of soul chairs and curiosities.