2023 Cello Immersion @ Converse

The Cello Immersion Camp at Converse University is a five-day cello intensive that helps cellists take their playing to the next level! We will explore the most important aspects of playing the cello, including cello technique, practicing, performance, and ensemble playing. Playing the cello is a very complex physical activity, so the other major focus of our workshop will be body awareness as we play our instruments. These sessions will be led by a body awareness specialist in conjunction with our cello faculty. We will finish our week with a fun concert at Converse University to wrap up our intensive and all that we have learned together.

Location: Blackman Music Building – Converse University
Daily Schedule: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
The daily schedule includes Cello Ensemble, Technique, Performance, and Feldenkrais sessions.
Workshop cost: $400 (includes t-shirt)
Ages: 10 – Adult
Playing level: a minimum of Suzuki Book 2 (shifting, 1st through 4th position)
Attendees are responsible for bringing their own instruments and meals. Chairs, music stands, and music will be provided.

Register Here

Meet Our Faculty

Kathleen Foster, cellist, received her BS in music from Indiana University in 1969 where she studied with Janos Starker and Fritz Magg. She received her MM from Bowling Green State University working with Peter Howard. More recently she spent four years studying with master teacher and performer, George Neikrug. She lived in Maine for almost 20 years where she was on the faculty as the cello teacher at Bates and Bowdoin Colleges. She also taught at the Merriconeag Waldorf School. As a freelance musician, she was principal cellist of the Maine State Ballet Orchestra, the Maine Chamber Ensemble, and PORT opera company. She has been a member of the Portland Symphony since 1990.

In 2007 Kathleen relocated to Rutherfordton, NC. She now teaches at the Petrie School of
Music at Converse University. She is a member of the Converse Trio and the Spartanburg
Philharmonic.

Kathleen is a dedicated teacher for students of all ages and at all levels. She has studied both
the Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais. She incorporates this knowledge in her teaching,
where she helps the student find ease in playing. She has hosted several Feldenkrais
workshops since moving to NC to help her students gain greater insight into good body use and
awareness.

Cello instructor Ben Smith teaches at the Lawson Academy for the Arts at Converse University.Ben enjoys being an explorer on many musical adventures, both on well-trodden paths (classical) and on some less explored ones (pop, traditional, jazz, etc). He holds music degrees from Florida State University and the University of Miami and has shared the stage with many wonderful musicians.

He is a member of the Spartanburg Philharmonic and the Piedmont Chamber Orchestra. He also serves as the Principal Cellist of the Hendersonville Symphony and the Brevard Philharmonic.

Lindy Ost has been a practicing physical therapist for 40 years. In order to complement her training as a PT, she became interested in the Feldenkrais Method® following a discovery of a small difference in movement that up until that moment had been absent in her awareness. That discovery was the initial impetus to continue her studies in the Feldenkrais Method, becoming a practitioner in 1994.

Since then Lindy has integrated the Feldenkrais Method with physical therapy, creating ways to work with adults and children so that learning, ease of movement and comfort are more accessible in their daily lives. She has worked in hospital settings, home health agencies, private practices, schools, early education and started 2 private practices, the second being her current practice, Movement Matters.

In the early 2000’s, she began to work with Kathy Foster, cello performer and teacher, because of pain that she was having in her knees. In Kathy’s recovery, she realized that what she was learning could help her cello students and there began a 20+ year collaboration that included Awareness Through Movement® lessons for musicians. In addition, Lindy began to study with David Kaetz, a professional musician and Feldenkrais practitioner who teaches, “Listening with Your Whole Body,” expanding her understanding and practice in integrating seeing, hearing, listening, sensing, movement and imagination in relating to one self and the fullness of living an embodied life, making it easier for people to make changes that are unique to them.

Lindy is a current member of the American Physical Therapy Association, a North American Feldenkrais Guild member and the President of Feldenkrais Education of New England, a non- profit organization for training and providing learning opportunities in the Feldenkrais Method. She has three adult sons and enjoys dancing, hiking, and currently tennis!