Carola Grindea ( Rabinovici) (29 January 1914 – 10 July 2009) was a Romanian-born British pianist and piano teacher who established the European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA) and the International Society for Study of Tension in Performance (ISSTP). She taught at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle and later the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music school, music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz al ...

and developed the Grindea Technique to encourage a balance though not relaxed body posture to eliminate muscular tension and better the performer's technique.

Early life

Carola Rabinovici was born in the Romanian city of

Piatra Neamț Piatra Neamț (; ; ) is the capital city of Neamț County, in the historical region of Western Moldavia, in northeastern Romania. Because of its very privileged location in the Divisions of the Carpathians, Eastern Carpathian mountains, it is con ...

in the province of

Western Moldavia Western Moldavia (, ''Moldova de Apus'', or , also known as Moldavia, is the core historic and geographical part of the former Principality of Moldavia situated in eastern and north-eastern Romania. Until its union with Wallachia in 1878, the P ...

on 29 January 1914. She was of

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descent, and had one sister, Anna (1908–1984). Grindea was educated under the tutelage of Constanța Erbiceanu at the National University of Music Bucharest. She earned a diploma in piano and won first prize for her achievements. There, she attracted the attention of Miron Grindea, the literary journalist. The two became romantically involved and were married in 1936 and had a daughter.

Career

Grindea was holidaying in Europe before the outbreak of the Second World War and she and her husband arrived in the port town of

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on 2 September 1939. She had the phone number of Myra Hess, the pianist, and the latter invited the couple to her house in Golders Green, where they learnt of the declaration of war. Grindea urged Hess not to enlist as an ambulance driver and instead establish a series of lunchtime concerts at London's

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that ran during the war. She earned money by teaching and playing piano. Grindea also studied piano with Hess's teacher Tobias Matthay from 1941 to 1943, and worked for the Romanian language division of the

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. After the conclusion of the war, the Grindea's home was visited by a group of international writers and musicians and began tutoring pupils there. From 1950 to 1967, she taught piano at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in London. The following year after she left, Grindea's enthusiasm for teaching earned her the role of a piano professor at the

. She also began a lecture series called ''Techniques of Piano Teaching'', which was considered a revolutionary in the United Kingdom because of the prevalent attitude amongst young pianists at the time that those would could not play taught. Halfway through her tenure at the Guildhool School of Music and Drama, she officially launched the European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA) on 27 March 1978, having gathered inspiration from teaching in the United States and entering a dialogue with piano teaching groups. The objective of EPTA is to improve teaching of piano through the holding of conferences, master classes, recitals and workshops for those musicians who were traditionally isolated. Grindea was given advice by the organising secretary and her personal friend

Nannie Jamieson Agnes Jessie Hamilton Jamieson (9 May 1904 – 18 January 1990) was a British violist. She was a founder member and violist of the Robert Masters Quartet from 1939 until 1963. She was a founder member of the Menuhin Festival Orchestra, and Profes ...

and the principal Allen Percival, who lent his support to the organisation. In 1980, she established the International Society for Study of Tension in Performance (ISSTP) after she expressed concerns over the increasing number of musicians who suffered from too much anxiety and tension that caused injuries while in performance. Grindea developed a method called the Grindea Technique to encourage musicians to have a balanced though not relaxed posture with the head, neck and back in the correct alignment that eliminated muscular tension and better the performer's technique. This move saw businessmen, public speakers and actors visit Grindea at the

London College of Music London College of Music (LCM) is a music school in London, England. It is one of eight separate schools that make up the University of West London. History LCM was founded in 1887 and existed as an independent music conservatoire based at ...

to be taught the technique. She edited the ''ISSTP Journal'' from 1985 to 2007, and took over the editorship of ''Piano Journal'' from 1986 to 1996 after the death of Sidney Harrison. Concurrently, Grindea organised international conferences on health and the performing arts. She established the first music medicine practitioners course. Grindea also founded the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe in 1993 and another musical journal. On the occasion of her 80th birthday, she made a threat to establish an association for octogenarians though she desisted. On 2 November 2007, the

Music Teachers National Association Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) is an American nonprofit professional organization for the support, growth, and development of music-teaching professionals, with more than 17,000 members in 50 states, and more than 500 affiliated loca ...

awarded her a "Citation of Leadership", which was collected by her daughter when Grindea was unable to attend the ceremony. The following year, Grindea published a book of interviews with musical performers called ''Great Pianists and Pedagogues''. She died on 10 July 2009. Her husband predeceased her and she was survived by her daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grindea, Carola 1914 births 2009 deaths People from Piatra Neamț Jews from Western Moldavia Romanian women academics 20th-century pianists Romanian expatriates in the United Kingdom National University of Music Bucharest alumni Academics of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Romanian women classical pianists Jews who immigrated to the United Kingdom to escape Nazism