"Maestro Nicotra's teaching is based upon the physical relationship between your hands and the sound, not just the tedious process of memorizing every shade of ink in the score. Thus you are always in contact with the music and ideally never making any movements that are unnecessary. This has helped me tremendously as an instrumentalist as well, as I have largely eliminated "coasting" or "checking-out" from my playing. Although I am a percussionist, I have learned how to breathe with my orchestra as though I was a wind player or a string player retaking a bow."
Jacob Steuer
Estonian National Opera
