Leslie Purcell Upchurch

Bio

Leslie Purcell Upchurch holds the Certificate and License in Dalcroze Eurhythmics from Carnegie-Mellon University and has a BFA in Music from Carnegie Mellon University and a Masters of Music from The University of Wisconsin/Madison, both in piano performance. She teaches Dalcroze Eurhythmics at The Lucy Moses School and The Dalcroze School at Lucy Moses, both a part of the Kaufman Music Center in New York CIty. Her students range from very young children to professional musicians, music teachers training in the Dalcroze work, and older adults interested in the health benefits of Dalcroze Eurhythmics.

Teaching “Brain Health and Better Balance Through Dalcroze Eurhythmics” is an initiative Ms Upchurch has undertaken. She currently holds weekly classes at both the Lucy Moses School and the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan in New York City. In addition the Carnegie Mellon Osher program offers her course in conjunction with the Dalcroze Training Center Summer Workshops. Her students have reported both their memories and physical movement improved due to taking classes that follow her DalcrozeNYC curriculum. 

Working with older adults and senior citizens caught the attention of Miwa Nagura McCormick, a New York based producer for the Japanese station NHK TV. Ms McCormick created a segment about Dalcroze Eurhythmics for older adults and seniors for a weekly NYC program which aired in Japan on NHK TV in January of 2020. Sessions at both the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan and Lucy Moses School were filmed. Due to copyright restrictions the video is primarily in Japanese; a link to the translation is above the video. 

Ms. Upchurch’s Dalcroze teaching experience includes teaching for seven years as the founding music teacher at The Maple Street School in Manchester, Vermont, and workshops for teachers ranging from preschool educators to college professors interested in the Dalcroze work. She has taught courses in Dalcroze Eurhythmics and its applications to teachers in training at Muskingum College, Southern Vermont College, and at several community colleges. She was also the Eurhythmics instructor for Carnegie Mellon University’s summer Pre-College Music Program. 

Recent workshop clients have included The Buttonwood Academy of Music in Beijing, China where she was a founding faculty member, The New York and New England Dalcroze Society organizations, the Success Academies of New York City, and the Early Childhood Music Association of Ontario in Toronto. In addition, she presented sessions on Flow in both improvisation and pedagogy at the Dalcroze Society of America National Conference in Princeton, New Jersey.