Your News Source for the Hilltop

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 3, 2003

Birmingham-Southern piano professor, Birmingham physician to give wellness recital

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Birmingham-Southern College Professor of Music and Artist-in-Residence William DeVan, along with Dr. Robert Poczatek, Spinal Chord Injury Medicine Fellow at Spain Rehabilitation Center, will hold a special wellness recital Sunday, Feb. 9. The recital will be at 2:30 p.m. at the Forbes Piano Store in Homewood.

DeVan and Poczatek will discuss musical, medical, and psychological issues that work together to produce an effective public piano performance. DeVan will play works of Chopin, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff. The performances will then be discussed in an interactive session with Poczatek and DeVan. Both speakers will explain to the public the process of practice that leads to a successful performance, covering physiological, technical, neurological, and musical aspects of piano playing.

DeVan is a proponent of wellness for performance. The performance wellness movement is a national phenomenon. Poczatek is a former student of DeVan's and received his bachelor's degree in music at BSC. He also won the college's Alys Stephens Piano Competition in 1992 and is the recipient of a 2000 Grammy Award Grant to study focal hand dystonia in musicians. Focal hand dystonia is a condition in which fingers curl up under the hand instead of staying in proper playing position.