59 Sentences With "eurhythmics" | Random Sentence Generator

As well as trying out various ways to play, young visitors can take a sample class in dance or Dalcroze Eurhythmics.

Another Summer, Sugiyama's fourth studio album with his band Omega Tribe, finds the songwriter working synths like the Moog Polymoog and Yamaha DX-7 into his setup, while pop hits like Wink's "Sabishii Nettaigyo" create blissful synth-pop to rival anything to come from Eurhythmics.

Dalcroze Eurhythmics is taught all over the world. Its teachers have founded the International Federation of Eurhythmics Teachers (FIER - Fédération Internationale des Enseignants de Rythmique), based in Geneva.

Dalcroze eurhythmics, also known as the Dalcroze method or simply eurhythmics, is one of several developmental approaches including the Kodály method, Orff Schulwerk and Suzuki Method used to teach music to students. Eurhythmics was developed in the early 20th century by Swiss musician and educator Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. Dalcroze eurhythmics teaches concepts of rhythm, structure, and musical expression using movement, and is the concept for which Dalcroze is best known. It focuses on allowing the student to gain physical awareness and experience of music through training that takes place through all of the senses, particularly kinesthetic.

General education Eurhythmics classes are often offered as an addition to general education programs, whether in preschools, grade schools, or secondary schools. In this setting, the objectives of eurhythmics classes are to introduce students with a variety of musical backgrounds to musical concepts through movement without a specific performance-related goal. For younger students, eurhythmics activities often imitate play. Games include musical storytelling, which associates different types of music with corresponding movements of the characters in a story.

Eurhythmics often introduces a musical concept through movement before the students learn about its visual representation. This sequence translates to heightened body awareness and an association of rhythm with a physical experience for the student, reinforcing concepts kinesthetically. Eurhythmics has wide-ranging applications and benefits and can be taught to a variety of age groups. Eurhythmics classes for all ages share a common goal – to provide the music student with a solid rhythmic foundation through movement in order to enhance musical expression and understanding.

Porter's great-granddaughter, Rebecca Sullivan (née Hurd), studied oboe at the Cleveland Institute of Music from 2009–2013. She graduated with a double major in oboe and Dalcroze Eurhythmics. Taking from Porter's French influence, Rebecca studied French from a young age through college and applied for a Fulbright scholarship to study Eurhythmics and music in Switzerland.

Brenden Fraser went to Cornish and graduated with honors. Nellie Cornish recruited opportunistically where she saw talent, and the school soon offered classes as diverse as eurhythmics, French language, painting, dance (folk and ballet), and theater. In 1915, the first full academic year, eurhythmics was added and the first studio arts classes taught. Dance, with a ballet focus, became a department in 1916 headed by Chicago-trained Mary Ann Wells.

Eurhythmics classes can incorporate various activities to explore syncopation, including complex rhythmic dictations, the performance of syncopated rhythms, the exploration of syncopated rhythms in canon, and a general discussion of syncopated vocabulary.

The latter won the J. Walter Thompson Prize for creativity. Her trademark style of a singer or a band inside a dim room started with "I Need a Man" by Eurhythmics, shot in 1987.

Movement A key component of a rhythmic education, movement provides another way of reinforcing rhythmic concepts - kinesthetic learning serves as a supplement to visual and aural learning. While the study of traditional classroom music theory reinforces concepts visually and encourages students to develop aural skills, the study of eurhythmics solidifies these concepts through movement. In younger students, the movement aspect of a rhythmic curriculum also develops musculature and gross motor skills. Ideally, most activities that are explored in eurhythmics classes should include some sort of kinesthetic reinforcement.

During her 1927 visit she also examined students of Dalcroze Eurhythmics. Together with her friends and fellow activists Goldstein and Ina Higgins, John helped to establish the Rural Women's Industries Co-operative Women's farm in Mordialloc, Victoria.

The youngest of students, who are typically experiencing their first exposure to musical knowledge in a eurhythmics class, learn to correlate types of notes with familiar movement; for example the quarter note is represented as a "walking note." As they progress, their musical vocabulary is expanded and reinforced through movement. Performance-based applications While eurhythmics classes can be taught to general populations of students, they are also effective when geared toward music schools, either preparing students to begin instrumental studies or serving as a supplement to students who have already begun musical performance.

Body [gymnastics, Dalcroze Eurhythmics (his mother playing at the piano while he dance), boating, horse riding, trekking, swimming] and mind (piano lessons, attending school e.t.c.) were equally «exercised». It was an upbringing that – according to Manessis himself – laid the foundation for his later artistic endeavours.

Other classes include: music theory, piano lab, music history, solfeggio, eurhythmics, Studio Class, and the creative music technology class. Each Friday, students perform in a recital for their peers studying vocal music. They showcase songs that they work on in private lessons with the staff.

Read was a keen exponent of Dalcroze Eurhythmics, a holistic approach to music through bodily movement, developed by Swiss musician Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. In 1945 he established the lauded Ernest Read Concerts for Children, which ran until the late 1990s. ERSO remain active today (2015).facebook - ERSO including concert listings facebook.

In 1910 worked as a teacher of music and rhythm at Émile Jaques- Dalcroze's school in Hellerau. In 1912 she moved to Vienna to teach Dalcroze eurhythmics. She was an active member in the Dada movement and performed musical works in Zürich. In 1913 she trained in dance with Rudolf von Laban at Monte Verità.

Prince Serge Wolkonsky (also referred to as Sergei Mikhailovitch Volkonsky; ) (4 May 1860 - 25 October 1937) was an influential Russian theatrical worker, one of the first Russian proponents of eurhythmics, pupil and friend of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, and creator of an original system of actor's training that included both expressive gesture and expressive speech.

In Jerusalem, he married Theresa Gottlieb (1900–1987), a eurhythmics teacher who composed songs and plays for children. They had three children, Ayala, Ofra, and Elon. In 1957 he moved to the United States where he felt more able to remain focused on his studies. He settled in Philadelphia and worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Together St. Denis and Shawn founded the Los Angeles Denishawn school in 1915. Students studied ballet movements without shoes, ethnic and folk dances, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, and Delsarte gymnastics. In 1916 they created a collection of dances inspired by Egypt, which included Tillers of the Soil, a duet between St. Denis and Shawn, as well as Pyrrhic Dance, an all-male dance piece.Au, Susan.

From a family of Russian Jewish immigrants, Carmen was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up in Lyndhurst, Ohio. He has been involved with music since early childhood. By the age of two, he was entertaining his parents with impressions of Jimmy Durante and Johnnie Ray. By age three, he was in the Dalcroze Eurhythmics program at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Turning the body into a well-tuned musical instrument—Dalcroze felt—was the best path for generating a solid, vibrant musical foundation. The Dalcroze method consists of three equally important elements: eurhythmics, solfège, and improvisation. Together, according to Dalcroze, they comprise the essential training of a complete musician. In an ideal approach, elements from each subject coalesce, resulting in an approach to teaching rooted in creativity and movement.

The Maîtrise has approximately 180 students ranging in age from 7 to 17 who are accepted by a national audition process. Once accepted their education is free. The mornings are devoted to academic studies, with the school providing education from école élémentaire through the baccalauréat. The afternoons are devoted to music studies with training in both solo and choral singing, piano, harmony, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, and Alexander Technique as well as rehearsals.

In 1916 Čekanová's father founded the Forest Theater in Řevnice. She danced and acted in several theatrical performances and became part of the Chekan Drama Company, which performed at the theater. In 1924 she performed the role of Salome in Oscar Wilde's Salomé with the original score by Jaroslav Křička. She studied rhythmic gymnastics, expressionist dance, and Dalcroze eurhythmics with Alice Dubská, Helena Vojáčková, Volková, Vratislav, Leben-Vaňková, Kupferová, and Siblík.

Acarin is generally known by her stage-name, Akarova. She was called "the Belgian Isadora Duncan". She studied music and dance under Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, creator of eurhythmics, after which she joined the Antwerp ballet. She soon left due to disputes with the ballet mistress.. In 1922, attending a meeting arranged by Isadora Duncan's brother Raymond, she met artist Marcel-Louis Baugniet, with whom she would collaborate for many years.

In 1935, Lyndall and Myra Kinch taught a special course in eurhythmics at the University of Arizona's dance program, which was under the direction of Lyndall's student Genevieve Brown Wright. Lyndall was still teaching and touring in 1948, when she went to Hawaii to study children's dance programs, and was described as being frequently in Tucson, Arizona. In 1951 she visited Genevieve Wright in Arizona. Lyndall was a member of the Dancers' League.

Before taking a post teaching theory, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze spent a year as a conductor in Algiers, where he was exposed to a rhythmic complexity that helped influence him to pay special attention to rhythmic aspects of music. Jaques-Dalcroze also had an important friendship with Édouard Claparède, the renowned psychologist. In particular, their collaboration resulted in eurhythmics often employing games of change and quick reaction in order to focus attention and increase learning.

Music Together was founded by Kenneth K. Guilmartin, a composer and musician certified in Dalcroze Eurhythmics. In 1985 Guilmartin founded the Center for Music and Young Children (CMYC) to research and develop early childhood music programs for Birch Tree Group, Ltd., publishers of the Suzuki Method. In 1986 Guilmartin began to collaborate with Lili M. Levinowitz, Ph.D., at that time a doctoral student directing the Children’s Music Development Program at Temple University.

In 1922 the school was taken over by Misses Jones and Wells, "who are employing the Dalton and Montessori methods", but appears not to have survived beyond 1922. The Misses Jones and Wells were, with Calder, Eurhythmics teachers, of which Heather Gell was in South Australia the chief exponent. In September 1996 the Burnside Historical Society affixed a memorial plaque at the premises, 28 Statenborough Street, Leabrook, in recognition of Mrs Hübbe’s Knightsbridge School.

The institute uses pedagogue Emile Jaques-Dalcroze's educational method, whose centre is based at the Jaques-Dalcroze Institute in Geneva. The Dalcroze Eurhythmics method starts with the idea that the first instrument one has is the body. The learning of artistic expression must therefore begin with this instrument. Since 1975, the Dalcroze Institute of Belgium has been dedicated to exploring multidisciplinary artistic training, combining, through rhythm and improvisation, the study of music, body expression, movement, and circus arts.

Longy's Garden Street Entrance and sign, with conservatory students. Longy School of Music was founded in Boston in 1915 by Georges Longy, a French-born oboist and graduate of the Paris Conservatory who had joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1898. Upon his retirement in 1925, his daughter, Renée Longy-Miquelle, succeeded him as director. She recruited several of Georges Longy's Boston Symphony colleagues as faculty members, and established Dalcroze Eurhythmics as an important part of Longy's curriculum.

These classes were where the students could expand and experiment on the skills that were presented in class, making the movement innate in their bodies. A large amount of Holm's choreography came from the improv and comp classes. Hanya Holm taught anatomy, Dalcroze eurhythmics, improvisation, and Labanotation at her school. She taught at Colorado College, Mills College, University of Wisconsin, Alwin Nikolais School, and was the Head of Dance Department in New York's Musical Theatre Academy.

Du Pré was born Iris Maud Greep in Plymouth, Devon, in 1914. She was the daughter of Maud (née Mitchell) and William Greep, a shipbuilder. She started learning the piano at the age of seven. Having acquired a reputation as a gifted pianist, at age eighteen in 1932 she won a scholarship to the London School of Dalcroze Eurhythmics where she studied for two years before winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied piano and composition.

A few years later, Cuyjet began sending Jamison to other teachers to advance her dance education. She learned the Cechetti method from Antony Tudor, founder of the Philadelphia Ballet Guild, and studied with Delores Brown Abelson, a graduate of Judimar who pursued a performance career in New York City before returning to Philadelphia to teach. Throughout high school, Jamison was also member of numerous sports organizations, the Glee Club, and the Philadelphia String Ensemble. She studied Dalcroze Eurhythmics, a system that teaches rhythm through movement.

But, they said they could not accept her until she was nine, so she initially trained in the Dalcroze method. According to Wilkinson, "It was basically eurhythmics and was all about music and tempi and meters.""Raven Wilkinson: 2015 Dance/USA Trustee Awardee", Dance USA. For her ninth birthday, an uncle made her the gift of ballet lessons at the Swoboda School, later known as the Ballet Russe School. Wilkinson's first teachers included well-known dancers from Russia’s Bolshoi Theatre, Maria and Vecheslav Swoboda.

Gerda Alexander was born in Wuppertal, Germany and her parents were enthusiasts of Dalcroze Eurhythmics, passing on to her a similar interest in arts and movement. Gerda was born under the influence of Émile-Jacques Dalcroze in Germany. Gerda mentions that the "first contact [she] had with Dalcroze's work was some photographs from the first festival in Hellerau in 1911". She enrolled in the school of Otto Blensdorf (the Blensdorf-Schulen) in Wuppertal-Elberfeld, and was graduated in the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin in 1929.

Maggie Gripenberg (11 June 1881 – 28 July 1976) was a pioneer of modern dance in Finland. She was the first to introduce Dalcroze Eurhythmics to Finland and modeled her early works on the improvisational style of Isadora Duncan. As a dancer, choreographer and teacher, she laid the educational foundations for the study of movement and dance. She was recognized by numerous awards for her choreographic work as well as being honored with the Pro Finlandia Medal and as a knight of the Order of the White Rose of Finland.

A plan for father and daughter to travel together to Europe was scotched by the outbreak of World War I; plans to study in New York City also fell through, as did an effort to establish herself in Salt Lake City. She returned to Seattle, where she founded the Cornish School in 1914. Within three years it had enrolled over 600 students, and was the country's largest music school west of Chicago. The curriculum soon expanded to include subjects as diverse as eurhythmics, French language, painting, dance (folk and ballet), and theater.

Vocabulary Eurhythmics classes for students in elementary school through college and beyond can benefit from a rhythmic curriculum that explores rhythmic vocabulary. This vocabulary can be introduced and utilized in a number of different ways, but the primary objective of this component is to familiarize students with rhythmic possibilities and expand their horizons. Activities such as rhythmic dictation, composition, and the performance of rhythmic canons and polyrhythms can accommodate a wide range of meters and vocabulary. In particular, vocabulary can be organized according to number of subdivisions of the pulse.

It features Lennox (as herself) in an immaculately tailored white suit on a stage with several young schoolgirls in theatrical costume, who perform "Eurhythmics" (a music education type of dance from which the band originally took their name) to the song. Afterwards, Lennox and the girls take a curtain bow to a fake cheering audience. At the beginning of the video for "Wide-Eyed Girl", an untitled 1960s-style song is performed by Eurythmics and heard over a radio. The same song is heard over the end credits for the video album.

She instead decided to pursue her dream career in folk-dance after touring the country with Trinidad's leading folklorist, Andrew Carr. Many melodies and folk dances that would have been lost to Trinidad and Tobago were rescued by McBurnie and promoted in her dancing. In 1938, she enrolled at Columbia University in New York and studied dance with dance pioneer Martha Graham. McBurnie also worked with American modern dancer and choreographer Charles Weidman, African-American choreographer Katharine Dunham, and studied eurhythmics with Elisa Findlay - a student of Emile Jacques Dalcroze.

After graduating High School at Etobicoke Collegiate Institute, David Earle studied Radio and Television Arts for two years at Toronto's Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. At the age of twenty he left Ryerson after a Bolshoi Ballet performance inspired him to dance; he auditioned and was accepted as a scholarship student at Canada's National Ballet School. There he would meet Eurhythmics teacher Donald Himes who introduced him to the Laban technique at, modern dance artist, Yoné Kvietys' studio. David would go on to perform for two years with Kvietys' company.

Leck has published many choral arrangements with Hal Leonard Corporation and Colla Voce Music Publishing. He also authored the choral section of Silver Burdett music textbooks for grades 4, 5 and 6. He has produced four teaching videos entitled The Boy’s Expanding Voice: Take the High Road, Vocal Techniques for the Young Singer, Creating Artistry Through Movement, Dalcroze Eurhythmics and Creating Artistry with the Male Maturing Voice. Leck is also the editor of two nationally known choral series published by Hal Leonard and Colla Voce, from which many of his own compositions can be purchased.

She met Raymond Duncan, brother of Isadora, at this same party, who congratulated her on a wonderful performance, and again she was back into her passion for dance. She studied with Madame Rat from the Paris Opera, and later studied with Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, at Dalcroze College who introduced her to eurhythmics. One day at the Dalcroze College, Sergei Diaghilev, watched a class and then asked her to come back to Berlin and study with him in the Ballets Russes. There, Rambert aided them with figuring out Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring with Vaslav Nijinsky.

Patricia Shehan CampbellInformation gathered from personal interview. is Donald E. Peterson Professor of Music at the University of Washington, where she teaches courses at the interface of music education and ethnomusicology. Prior to this position, she was a member of the faculties of Washington University in St. Louis and Butler University. Her training includes Dalcroze Eurhythmics, piano and vocal performance, and specialized study in Bulgarian choral song, Indian (Karnatic) vocal repertoire, and Thai mahori, the latter two of which were launched during the period of her PhD studies in Music Education (with cognate studies in Ethnomusicology) at Kent State University.

In 1919, John was among the three Australians who attended a postwar conference in Zurich, along with Vida Goldstein and Eleanor Moore. Following the war, John became interested in the Dalcroze Eurhythmic style of dance, and in 1921 moved permanently to London to study it further. In 1932 she became the principal at the London School of Dalcroze Eurhythmics and continuing to hold that position until her death in 1955. John was a strong supporter of the Save the Children Fund and visited Australia in 1923 and 1927 to raise funds to ease the plight of thousands of Armenian refugees in Syria.

Her relationship with Arthur Waley was considered an indeterminate relationship in the eyes of observers such as Gerald Brenan. She traveled extensively, particularly in Bali and South Asia.Marie Rambert, 'Miss Beryl de Zoete: Eastern Dance and the Ballet', The Times, 19 March 1962 In the field of dance, she taught eurhythmics, investigated Indian dance and theatre traditions, and collaborated with Walter Spies on Dance and Drama in Bali (1937), which is still a standard reference for traditional Balinese dance and theatrical forms. She studied dance, at least in part with Emile Jaques- Dalcroze in 1913 and 1915, and subsequently taught dance until sometime in the 1920s.

Shortly thereafter, the first institutionalized ballet troupe, associated with the Academy, was formed; this troupe began as an all-male ensemble but by 1681 opened to include women as well. 20th century concert dance brought an explosion of innovation in dance style characterized by an exploration of freer technique. Early pioneers of what became known as modern dance include Loie Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Mary Wigman and Ruth St. Denis. The relationship of music to dance serves as the basis for Eurhythmics, devised by Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, which was influential to the development of Modern dance and modern ballet through artists such as Marie Rambert.

Sokolow began her dance training by taking classes at the Emanuel Sisterhood alongside her sister Rose. Her first teacher, Elsa Pohl, was influenced by the work of Isadora Duncan. Despite the objection of her family, Sokolow moved away from home and dropped out of school in favor of a dance career at age 15. While training, Sokolow supported herself by working in a factory. She began training under Bird Larson, Irene Lewisohn, Louis Horst, Martha Graham, and Blanche Talmud at the Neighborhood Playhouse at the Henry Street Settlement House in 1925 as a “Junior Player.” Talmud, Sokolow's main teacher, had a background in Delsarte and Dalcroze eurhythmics.

Cultures from around the world have different approaches to music education, largely due to the varying histories and politics. Studies show that teaching music from other cultures can help students perceive unfamiliar sounds more comfortably, and they also show that musical preference is related to the language spoken by the listener and the other sounds they are exposed to within their own culture. During the 20th century, many distinctive approaches were developed or further refined for the teaching of music, some of which have had widespread impact. The Dalcroze method (eurhythmics) was developed in the early 20th century by Swiss musician and educator Émile Jaques-Dalcroze.

Born to Polish-Jewish parents in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Abramovitsch Sorel studied Dalcroze eurhythmics before becoming a dancer in Mary Wigman's company in Dresden in 1923 where she remained for six seasons. From 1927-1933 she was a principal dancer with the Berlin State Opera where she was much admired as the lead soloist in the ballet Legend of Joseph. Abramovitsch Sorel was forced to leave the Berlin State Opera by the Nazis due to her Jewish heritage and Communist leanings. She left Germany for Poland in 1933 where she soon won first prize at the international solo dance competition in Warsaw for her performance of Salomé's dance of the seven veils.

Before the war Craig had founded a school at the Arena Goldoni where his students studied acting and stagecraft. For Craig any reform of the theatre had to begin with the training of the actor but he did not believe, as did Copeau, that it was possible. His idea of the übermarionnette, the super-marionnette, to replace the human actor completely was a product of the lack of faith in the possibility of educating the actor. On his return trip to Paris, Copeau stopped in Geneva for further discussions on the theatre with the scene designer Adolphe Appia and with Émile Jaques- Dalcroze, the musician and founder of the Institut de gymnastique rhythmique ("The Institute of Eurhythmics").

Several pedagogies exist which promote specific methods of training young children in music including Orff, Kodály, Dalcroze, and the Suzuki method are among the most widely recognized of these methods. Many of these pedagogies share commonalities such as music and rhythm development through body movements, folk songs, aural training, and belief that music literacy from an early age is beneficial. Each is known for particular characteristics, such as in Dalcroze Eurhythmics the use of lifelong body movement and expression through music and private instrumental instruction as early as age two in the Suzuki Method. institutions and teachers often use a combination of these pedagogies even if they might be affiliated with only one.

Bird family birth registry from Bird family bible Maria Bird was born Mary Edith Bird (pronounced Marie) on 24 August 1891 in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa and died in the village where she lived for most of her life, Westerham, Kent, England on 25 August 1979, aged 88. She is a descendant of Francis Bird the sculptor and Colonel Christopher Bird who was Colonial Secretary at Cape Town Castle (who has a famous landmark named after him in Kirstenbosch, South Africa – Colonel Bird's Bath). Her mother brought her children from South Africa to the UK to be educated and Maria attended a Scottish convent. Following school, she studied the Dalcroze Eurhythmics music and dance method under Émile Jaques-Dalcroze in Dessau.

Brisbane boronia, illustrated by Estelle Thomson, 1929 Estelle Comrie-Smith was born in 1894 in Glasgow, Scotland, daughter of photographer and artist, George Comrie-Smith and his wife Ethel (née Thomson). Her parents were naturalists and inspired Estelle's interest through family holidays to the Scottish Highlands and the Lake District. She attended Calder House School at Seascale, Cumberland, England and later studied physical culture in Dartford, Kent, after which she taught physical culture and eurhythmics. In 1917 in Glasgow, she married her second cousin Aubrey Frederick Thomson (who renounced his former surname, von Stieglitz, in favour of his mother's maiden name Thomson on 6 December 1917), a surveyor, who was then serving in the Australian Imperial Forces during World War I.

In 1937, she learnt to teach music at the School of Music José Angel Lick, where she learned piano from Moses Moleiro, musical theory from Eduardo Square, harmony from Antonio Estévez, and music history from Juan Bautista Square. In 1944, she studied music pedagogy at the New York Teacher's College of the University of Columbia, and in 1945 at the Juilliard School of Music, and finally, at the New York Dalcroze School. She taught Dalcroze Eurhythmics (developed by Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865–1950)) at both the Normal School Gran Colombia and the High School of Music (now called the School of Music Juan Manuel Olivares). In 1958 she developed, on behalf of the Ministry of Education, seminars and workshops on the implementation of the music education program of the Ministry.

In 1920, A. S. Neill started to search for premises in which to found a new school which he could run according to his educational principle of giving freedom to the children and staff through democratic governance. On a trip to Europe, which started out as a research visit into progressive schools on behalf of the Theosophical journal New Era, he found the ideal accommodation in Hellerau near Dresden, a village founded on principles based on the Garden City movement in England. By combining with two other projects, the Neue Deutsche Schule (New German School), founded by Carl Thiess the previous year and an existing school with many international students dedicated to the teaching of Eurhythmics, a joint venture named the International School or Neue Schule Hellerau was launched. Neill's sector was called the "foreign" school (in contrast to the Thiess's "German School").

With an average enrollment of 80 students, the instrumental music program is one of the largest of the GSA departments. The program offers professional training and a wide variety of performance experience to classical and jazz performers including those interested in conducting, composition and audio engineering. Instrumental music students are given three hours of intensive training each weekday afternoon in many facets of music including chamber music/jazz combos, sight singing, ear training, eurhythmics, keyboard skills, literature, improvisation, theory, composition, classes in the latest computer technology related to music, audio recording (Pro Tools), sectionals, music business, audition preparation, performance classes and ensembles such as the Big Band, and the Symphony Orchestra. All classes take place in the flourishing musical and academic environment of the downtown Norfolk campus, which includes the Virginia Arts Festival and Todd Rosenlieb Dance.

Roma Pryma was born into a musical family in Przemyśl, a city in present-day Poland, but spent her formative years in Lviv, a city in present-day western Ukraine (at the time, part of a newly established Soviet republic). At the age of 5, her mother, Ivanna Pryma, sensing her daughter's talent for movement, enrolled her in eurhythmics classes, as well as in the study of modern dance, under M. Bronevska, a disciple of Mary Wigman. Between the years 1939–44, Roma began performing at the Lviv Opera and Ballet Theater, and after a year and a half, she moved up from serving in the corps de ballet, to small solo roles of a character nature. Leaving her homeland after World War II, Roma and her mother resettled in Austria in 1944, where after 3 years she graduated with honors from the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Vienna and later became a soloist in the ballet group of the National Theater in Innsbruck.