Liszt Academy's Teacher Held Workshop in Munich

Organized by Adina Mornell, head of the Institute for Music Education, the Art in Motion 2025 symposium took place on May 16–17 with the participation of renowned music educators and experts in music pedagogy, as well as sports coaches and sports scientists from four continents. László Stachó, a faculty member at the Liszt Academy, was invited to hold a workshop on his own musical attention training method, Practice Methodology.

Among the invited workshop leaders at the symposium were Noa Kageyama; author of Bulletproof Musician, one of the world’s most widely read music pedagogy websites and blogs and faculty member at Juilliard; Graham Fitch, one of the United Kingdom’s most respected piano pedagogy experts; Frank Heuser, a prominent professor of music education at Boston University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for decades; the internationally renowned team from The Zurich Centre for Musicians’ Hands (ZZM) of the Zurich University of the Arts, led by Horst Hildebrandt; and members of the Motion-Emotion Lab at the Vienna Academy of Music’s music psychology department, led by Matthias Bertsch.

Dr Stachó has taught his musical attention training method, Practice Methodology, in masterclasses and as a guest lecturer in 20 countries to date. This training is designed to help music learners navigate musical processes with ease and confidence, enabling them to remain focused and deeply connected to the expressive content of the music at every moment. The music-specific focus skills developed while studying or practising repertoire through this training are not only beneficial for all instrumental students, but also for singers, choral conductors, and orchestra conductors during rehearsals.

The training is particularly effective for both beginner music students and advanced performers preparing for top-level competitions and auditions. As such, it provides a uniquely efficient toolkit for both developing musicians and experienced artists. Acquiring this toolkit enables performers to become deeply immersed in the moment while performing; to engage emotionally with the music with full concentration; to maintain a steady sense of timing with ease; and to take expressive risks and manage mistakes during performance. Moreover, training musical attention through Practice Methodology enables performers to overcome instrumental and vocal technical challenges with remarkable efficiency, saving both teacher and student months or even years of intensive work in the teaching and learning process.