{"id":820,"date":"2024-11-01T08:04:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T13:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/?p=820"},"modified":"2025-12-23T12:00:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T18:00:37","slug":"brianna-matzke-essential-tremor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/brianna-matzke-essential-tremor\/","title":{"rendered":"Pianist\u2019s tremor shapes her art, inspires advocacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Like all professional pianists, Brianna Matzke relies on deliberate, precise movements of her hands and fingers to expertly strike the keys. She has perfected her playing since childhood, each motion ingrained through countless hours of practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Movements that she cannot control, however, are also an element of her work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI shake all day, every day,\u201d says Matzke, f\u201909, who in 2020 was diagnosed with essential tremor, a neurological condition that causes shaking in the body, often in the hands, as it does for Matzke. \u201cI don\u2019t know how to exist in a body that doesn\u2019t have essential tremor, so if I woke up tomorrow and the shaking in my hands was gone and I tried to sit down and play the piano, I would probably have to relearn my approach. My artistry is the shaking\u2014it\u2019s an inherent part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Piano has been part of Matzke\u2019s life as far back as she can remember. Her mother taught high school band and owned a piano, and Matzke, who grew up in Minnesota, fast developed a fondness. \u201cPiano has always been my safe place,\u201d she says. \u201cIf I\u2019m having a bad day or need to work out my emotions, I go sit in front of the piano, and it helps me work through things and feel better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brianna Matzke<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When Matzke was ready to apply to colleges, a mentor who was a professional pianist put KU\u2019s School of Music on the young artist\u2019s radar. On Mount Oread, Matzke joined the University\u2019s Contemporary Ensemble, directed by Forrest Pierce, professor of composition, who found Matzke\u2019s talent transcended just hitting all the right notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a kind of soulfulness about Brianna\u2019s playing that\u2019s not present in everyone,\u201d Pierce says. \u201cThere was something solid all the way to the core about the way she approached making music, and there still is. She\u2019s a very special musician, and it\u2019s something on the inside, not just her fast and fancy fingers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduating with her degree in piano performance, Matzke pursued her master\u2019s and doctorate at the University of Cincinnati, which is when a shaking in her hands first became apparent. \u201cI didn\u2019t notice it\u2014other people did,\u201d says Matzke, who shared a campus office with fellow graduate teaching assistants. \u201cThey would remark from time to time, \u2018Brianna, are you OK? Your hands are shaking.\u2019 I just thought I\u2019d had too much coffee or didn\u2019t sleep enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She didn\u2019t know whether she should be concerned about her persistent trembling\u2014or whether it was affecting her work. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard, when you\u2019re experiencing the nerves that come along with a performance, to distinguish what are normal nerves and what isn\u2019t normal,\u201d Matzke says. \u201cIt was hard to tell if I missed a note because I just didn\u2019t practice enough or some other human error was at play, or if my body was truly out of my control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctors gradually ruled out other possible causes of the shaking and referred Matzke to a neurologist, who diagnosed her with essential tremor, which can apply to involuntary shaking in different parts of the body, such as the head, voice and legs. According to the International Essential Tremor Foundation, the condition affects an estimated 7 to 10 million Americans and has no known cure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor some people, it\u2019s extremely debilitating. For me, it\u2019s mild,\u201d Matzke says. \u201cPutting on eyeliner or mascara is challenging. I don\u2019t always have the neatest handwriting. Eating soup in public on certain days doesn\u2019t go very well. But other than that, there\u2019s very little stress. Most people who have essential tremor describe the worst parts of it, other than difficulties with the shaking, as the feeling of embarrassment or being misunderstood, because there\u2019s a lot of stigma associated with someone who is shaking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tense muscles tend to exacerbate shaking from essential tremor, so given that proper piano technique minimizes tension in the hands, Matzke says her shaking does not hinder her playing. Yet working in the world of classical music, which prizes perfection, Matzke worried that negative perceptions of her shaking could harm her career as a professor and avid performer (she is an associate professor of music at Wilmington College in Ohio). She ultimately decided to share her diagnosis so she could control the narrative and, she hoped, use her art to foster understanding and connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early in her career, Matzke developed \u201cThe Response Project,\u201d which commissions artists of diverse disciplines\u2014musicians, dancers, sculptors, painters, poets and others\u2014to create works around a given theme. For her latest installment, she invited artists to respond to essential tremor and their personal experiences with matters of ability and disability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTremor,\u201d a concert and art exhibition, debuted in May at the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati. Matzke, who is on sabbatical, has taken the project on the road this fall, performing throughout the Midwest and eastern U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watch the teaser for Brianna Matzke\u2019s \u201cTremor.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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