Biographic notes

At the age of five I had my first piano lessons. However, in the beginning I wasn’t very enthusiastic about playing composed pieces of music. I preferred to spend my time exploring beautiful melodies and harmonies on the piano.

Later I discovered the creative possibilities offered by fixed compositions and I experienced ever more joy in “playing myself into” the music of other people and other times.

As a youngster I transferred to a grammar school with an emphasis on music. There I had the opportunity to gather many different musical experiences in a variety of ensembles, which inspired and enriched me deeply.

 

As a piano student at the conservatory, I engaged in an intensive study of an differentiated striking technique while also learning how to deploy my whole body in a relaxed and conscious manner in my piano playing. I was especially impressed and surprised by the realisation that mastering difficult passages in pieces of music has less to do with motor skills than technical knowledge.

And I was also deeply touched by the experience that, through my practical exploration of compositions, I was able to gain a deep emotional connection to certain composers and periods.

 

Rieke Frey

 

I noticed early on in my teaching career that I derive more pleasure and satisfaction from supporting other people in their artistic development than from being on stage myself. This led me to study music therapy and finally to my dual professions as a teacher of piano and improvisation, on the one hand, and as a music therapist with a focus on body psychotherapy, on the other

 

 

 

Tabular

 

1979–1984      Piano studies (M.F.A.) under Prof. Christoph Back at the Academy of Music, Mannheim-Heidelberg; Diplom
1984–1986   Postgraduate studies (on a DAAD scholarship) in Music Therapy at the Psychologisches Institut, the Mozarteum and the Orff-Institut, Salzburg, Austria; post-graduate certificate in Music Therapy
1987–1992   Many years of experience as a piano teacher and music therapist for children and adolescents at various music schools in the Heidelberg region and at the “Akademie für Ältere” in Heidelberg; chamber music performances in the Heidelberg region and Stuttgart
1993–2000   Study of both Musicology and Art History at the Freie Universität Berlin; certificate in musicology
2000–2003   Further training in “Erfahrbarer Atem nach Middendorf” under Thomas Abbé and at the Ilse-Middendorf-Institut in Berlin
2001–present   Independent practice as a piano teacher in Berlin
2010–2020   Teacher of free improvisation at the exploratorium berlin

 

While continuing to teach students in piano and improvisation on a private basis, since 2012 I have also been treating patients body-psychotherapeutically and music-therapeutically in an independent practice. I have found my work in music education and psychotherapy to be complementary and that combining them in my professional life has been deeply enriching to me.