Dr. Kees Hein Woldendorp, PhD

Playing music at an advanced and professional level demands the utmost from a person. This applies to both a physical and mental level, and the parallels with top-level sports are therefore striking. While in sports it is common to realize that the limits of human functioning are being pushed to the bodily (and mental) limits, there is unfortunately still a long way to go in the music world. Musicians, movement scientists, therapists, and doctors need each other more than ever to understand how to elevate music-physical (and mental) functioning. This is not only to prevent injuries (which are very common!), but above all to improve the musical performance itself. This often turns out to be a search for details that are usually irrelevant to the non-musician.

In 'Fluent  Flute‘, Leonard van Biljouw has succeeded admirably in chronicling his quest to continuously optimize his motor skills and breathing for the benefit of playing the flute. It is a fascinating book with enormous qualitative depth, at the intersection of music performance and movement science. Useful for anyone involved in music, full of practical information and exercises. For movement scientists and therapists/doctors, it is more than a challenge to further develop all the information.

In the meantime, we have already been able to help a number of musicians with injuries and/or technical music-related problems move forward using Leonard's approach. This makes it clear that Leonard has uncovered a number of fundamental issues that cannot be found in other books on music practice.

A book written with great dedication! It also requires dedication from the reader/user; it cannot be read from cover to cover in a single evening!

Dr. Kees Hein Woldendorp, PhD