Janet Crouch Shulman
Alexander Teacher and Cellist
Janet Crouch Shulman trained as a teacher of The Alexander Technique at the Alexander Technique Studio in London, England, and at the Alexander Training Institute, Los Angeles, California. She teaches privately at her home in Topanga, as well as giving workshops throughout the Los Angeles area. Janet has a wide range of experience with students of all ages and from all walks of life. Being a performer herself she takes a particular interest in working with musicians, actors, singers and dancers.
Janet studied the cello at the Royal College of Music in London with Anna Shuttleworth and at the Royal Academy of Music with Derek Simpson. Subsequently she took lessons from Ralph Kirschbaum and William Pleeth. As a professional cellist, Janet has worked in a number of performing arts fields. She has taken part in orchestral concerts and recordings with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Britten Sinfonia, the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta and the Academy of Ancient Music among many others. She has performed on cello with The Rambert Dance Company, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Kenneth Brannagh's Renaissance Theatre Company and for many Television and Film soundtracks both in London and more recently in Los Angeles. She also has a particular interest in chamber music and has worked with many leading groups including the Endymion Ensemble, the Almeida Ensemble and as guest cellist with the Britten Quartet and the New Hollywood String Quartet.
Janet was assistant professor of cello at the Royal College of Music from
1987-1999, and during this period undertook her extensive training as an Alexander
Teacher. Now residing in Southern California with her husband, cellist and conductor
Andrew Shulman, and their two children, she continues to teach both cello and
Alexander Technique, incorporating her extensive experience in music, theatre
and dance.
Janet has given regular Alexander Technique workshops and classes for The California Institute for The Arts (CalArts), the Antaeus Theater Company in Hollywood,
the Los Angeles Shakespeare Academy, the intensive
'Shakespeare Seminar' at the Will Geer Shakespeare Theater at the Theatricum Botanicum, Topanga, as well as
a class for young cellists from the Colburn School of Music in Los Angeles.
She works closely with students of Elizabeth Howard, vocal teacher and founder of the 'Vocal Power' workshops in Los Angeles, herself a strong advocate for the Alexander Technique. Janet also continues to give individual Alexander lessons from her home in Topanga, helping people with problems as diverse as postural misalignment, Parkinson's disease, Scoliosis, back and neck pain, excessive tension and performance anxiety.
