“When we hear music, we often experience how the physical flirts with the spiritual in profound and moving ways. But what we don’t realize is that this confluence is possible not just in music, but in life, and it’s easier than you think,” says the founder and artistic director of the Effortless Mastery Institute at the Berklee College of Music Kenny Werner in his new book, BECOMING THE INSTRUMENT: Lessons on Self-Mastery from Music to Life (Sweet Lo Press; January 2022).
KENNY WERNER has been a world-class pianist and composer for over 40 years. His prolific output of compositions, recordings and publications continue to impact audiences around the world. He has performed with such legendary musicians as Dizzy Gillespie, Betty Buckley, Toots Thielemans, Charles Mingus, Marian McPartland, Bobby McFerrin, Lou Rawls, Michel Legrand, Gunther Schuller, Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny, Elvin Jones and many more. He is the founding artistic director of the Effortless Mastery Institute at the Berklee College of Music and has composed for international orchestras, received numerous NEA grants and been nominated for an Emmy Award.
Packed with profound insights and uplifting anecdotes from his 40 years of studying, performing and teaching music, BECOMING THE INSTRUMENT follows his landmark book that revolutionized how musicians approach their craft, Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within, with a guide for accessing the spiritual in our everyday existence and applying it to the pursuits we love. Werner shows us how musicians, artists or even business people can allow their “master creator” within to lift their performance to its highest level, showing us how to be spontaneous, fearless, joyful and disciplined in our work and in our life.