24: Debbie Poryes on Jazz Teaching and the Taubman Approach

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Born in Santa Monica, California, Debbie Poryes found herself at the piano when she was five, practicing everything from Chopin to show tunes. Playing led to fascination with musical theory and structure, then jazz standards, composing, and improvising. Hearing Monk and Miles as a teenager, she fell in love with their music and decided to become a jazz pianist. At twenty, her first regular paying gig lasted a year at a Berkeley restaurant, playing five nights a week from 5 p.m. to midnight.

Debbie has always gone her own way musically, even while maintaining a constant study through transcription and analysis of her favorite players and composers, such as Bill Evans, Wayne Shorter, Keith Jarrett, Horace Silver, Hank Jones, Sonny Clark, and Clare Fischer. Drawn strongly to 20th century classical music, she has been influenced by many composers, including Aaron Copland and Norman Dello Joio. In her early years as a musician in Oakland, her passion led her to play frequently at jam sessions while continuing to study classical music and jazz with local players. She composed and arranged music, and produced her own concerts with her duos, trios and quartets in addition to freelancing with various local singers and bands. She has performed all over the San Francisco Bay Area notably, at the Stanford Jazz Festival, SFJazz, Yoshi’s Jazzclub, the Berkeley Jazzschool, the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, and the Piedmont Piano Company. True to her beginnings, she still loves playing in restaurants and played twice-weekly for 6 years at the New Orleans-styled Oakland restaurant Pican, only stopping when the restaurant up and closed! 

A significant aspect to Debbie’s musical life has been her experience with tendonitis in her wrists. In her thirties, pain forced her to stop playing for two years, during which time she explored many avenues of healing. A breakthrough came when she happened upon Dorothy Taubman’s piano technique, which emphasized maintaining the natural coordination of the fingers, hand, and arm. Absorbing this new way of thinking, Debbie continues to study it with her teacher John Bloomfield in New York and pass it along to her grateful students. The injury turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it led not only to Debbie’s development of a beautiful sound without harshness but also an ease and control she didn’t have before. One has only to see Debbie play to appreciate how comfortable her hands are at the keyboard.

Debbie felt the call to teach early in her career and continues to adore helping students understand jazz and further their own playing. Debbie has internet students around the globe in addition to her students at her home studio. She taught at the Berkeley Jazzschool for over 20 years as well as many summers at the Stanford Summer Jazz Program and has given presentations to the California Music Teachers’ Association on how to teach jazz. 

In the summer of 2018 Debbie moved to Philadelphia. Her husband Tony Fels retired from his teach

This Summer, Edna Golandsky, renowned pedagogue and leading expert on the Taubman Approach will release her first book with Amplify Publishing Group. Entitled ‘The Taubman Approach To Piano Technique: A Comprehensive Guide To Overcome Physical Limitations and Unlock Your Full Pianistic Potential.’ Visit: www.ednagolandsky.com to learn more.

The Golandsky Institute's mission is to provide cutting-edge instruction to pianists based on the groundbreaking work of Dorothy Taubman. This knowledge can help them overcome technical and musical challenges, cure and prevent playing-related injuries, and lead them to achieve their highest level of artistic excellence.
Please visit our website at: www.golandskyinstitute.org.