Path to effortlessness: Mauricio Fuks' pedagogical perspectives on the art of violin playing

Abstract

For Mauricio Fuks, Rudy Professor of Violin at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, effortlessness in violin playing has more implications than mere technical facility. It is the aesthetic ideal and the essence of the finest artisanship that may lead to true artistic freedom in playing. The concept of effortlessness in Professor Fuks’ teaching practice involves the paradoxical project of making an effort to play effortlessly, to obtain a degree of violin mastery in which playing is full of intensity and free of needless tension, and to achieve the technical virtuosity as nonchalance or Sprezzatura, an essential foundation in one’s endeavor to reach the highest level of artistry. His meticulous yet plainly elucidated instructions on the physiology of violin playing and its relationship to the mental process not only eradicate any hindrance to attaining technical effortlessness but also reveal the path to self-discovery and artistic identity. My project in this document is to describe how Professor Fuks’ teaching brings this technical and aesthetical ideal about.