Vanessa Mulvey

“Movement is the foundation to the art of music-making.” A flutist by training, Vanesa Mulvey’s
keen interest in this relationship has guided her teaching and playing. Her multi-faceted
approach to music-making began with Body Mapping and grew exponentially including
influences from Pilates, flying trapeze and Parkour. Today, she uses these experiences to
guide musicians in unleashing expression, building confidence, while cultivating healthy playing
habits.

Upon receiving Licensure as a Body Mapping Educator she looked for novel ways to continue
to explore movement from both functional and experiential perspectives. Initially, this included
traditional modalities like Feldenkrais, and Alexander Technique, and soon expanded to include
non-conventional sources. In her third flying trapeze class, it became clear that experiencing
and learning movement outside of the practice room was an important avenue for her to follow.
It was in this class that her fear of heights transformed into the joy of the process of flying and
being caught by a catcher. The impact of this experience illuminated the power of a new way
of learning about movement along with the pressures of performance. Vanessa has never
looked back.

Vanessa teaches Body Mapping based classes at Longy School of Music of Bard College in
Cambridge, MA and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. One of the goals of
her teaching is to support the studio teaching of faculty colleagues through educating and
empowering their students to access to the body’s design for movement in their playing. This
allows musicians to integrate guidance and instruction efficiently into their playing as they
maximize expression and build reliable playing technique. Her popular Body Mapping classes
fill each student’s tool belt with a movement approach to music-making allowing them to
develop their musicianship, stage presence, and a powerful connect with their audience.

Vanessa credits both flying trapeze and Parkour with awakening her to the power of stepping
into the shoes of a beginning learner at any stage of life. These unusual disciplines, brought
her face to face with faces, challenged self-concept and physical coordination in judgement
free zones. This is exactly what she was looking for in her playing and teaching. Additionally,
Parkour combined movement with improvisation that requires the same awareness, and timing,
as music-making. Functionally, she has delved into Core Movement Integration (CMI), personal
training, functional strength training and the primary courses of The Postural Restoration
Institute.

As a result of these experiences she looks at music-making from the perspective of the whole
body which often holds the key to overcoming technical and expressive limitations, playing
plateaus, and performing without pain.

A sought after clinician, Vanessa leads hands-on workshops at numerous music schools,
conferences and festivals including: Vocal Professional Pedagogy Institute at Boston
Conservatory,Boston University Tanglewood Institute, PAMA International Symposium,
Shepherd School of Music, Peabody School of Music, Via Academy, University of Michigan and
Varna International Music Academy.

A graduate of the Crane School of Music and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of music in
flute performance, her credentials also include NASM Certified Personal Training Certification,
Certified Functional Strength Coach, Parkour A.D.A.P.T. Level 1 coach, Core Movement
Integration Level 1, along with the Primary Courses of the Postural Restoration InstituteTM. In
2022 Vanessa edited the flute edition of Mountain Peak Music’s ‘Big Book of Sight Reading
Duets. She has been awarded numerous faculty development grants to further her study and
reach new audiences. Her writing has been included in CelloBello, and Flute Talk and is a
contributor to ‘Playing Well Anatomy and Movement Series’ created by Serap Baptiste of the
Peabody Conservatory.