Alexander Technique Wes Howard

Want to be more comfortable in the workplace? Come join me for this Body Awareness and Movement class at Heartland college!

Move with greater ease in Moving Free With the Alexander Technique!
Explore this holistic approach to improving posture, body awareness, and natural movement. Learn simple habits you can use every day to support relaxation, balance, and overall well-being.

https://heartland.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassInfo.ClassInformation&int_class_id=962&int_category_id=0&int_sub_category_id=0&int_catalog_id=0

Julian Lage talks Alexander Technique and his journey rehabbing his hands from injury to health. Very similar to my classical guitar journey where I had to stop playing because of repetitive stress injury. I was able to completely restructure and relearn guitar using the Alexander technique and have been pain free since.
https://www.premierguitar.com/features/artist-features/julian-lage-the-art-of-limitations?xrs=RebelMouse_fb&ts=1773592280&fbclid=IwY2xjawQ6HEpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe2eqT1TKpnKtoHBfZDtIcn1ld-XtrQf2fxeNg15eGZxOm5xAep_j4XeOMZPs_aem_WmX7LMd024Q67hpC6UIS4g

Julian Lage: The Art of Limitations The jazz-guitar virtuoso discusses his new album Scenes from Above, composing over 100 songs in 20-minute bursts, battling hum in midtown Manhattan, and overcoming focal hand dystonia to rediscover how to play.

Alexander D. Murray - Flautist, Alexander Technique teacher trainer and creator of the Dart Procedures passed away on Tuesday March 24, 2026.

Remembrance of Alexander D. Murray May 13th, 1929- March 24th, 2026 by Wes Howard

Alex was a truly astounding human being and his accomplishments will live on in many people. I'm going to toot his horn a little bit because he never really did it much for himself. I first met him in 1990 when I visited the Alexander Technique teacher training course located in the basement of Joan and Alex Murray's home. There was such an air of excitement and feeling that something special was happening at 508 West Washington in Urbana. I started the course because Joan Murray's Hands-On work was superb. But as I got to know Alex I became more and more impressed with him and came to respect him deeply. He had endless curiosity, an inquisitive nature and was always researching and reading and learning new things. He seemed to have boundless energy and a light vibrant attitude that was so exuberant, it lifted anyone's mood who was in his presence. I've met few people who knew so much, about so many things. Like other highly intelligent people, he was incredibly funny and I found myself constantly laughing when I was around him, but I think you had to get to know him to really appreciate it fully.

Alex was born in South Shields, UK in 1929. At the age of 11 Alex was one of 300 children evacuated by ship to Cape Town to escape the War in Europe. When he returned to England, he attended the Royal College of Music for a short time, but was drafted into the Royal Air Force band. He then attended the Paris Conservatoire where he continued his studies in music and flute. After his studies, he was awarded a position playing with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and eventually became principal flute of the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1954, he married Joan Elvin, a very talented dancer who performed in long running musicals in London. They both began studying the Alexander Technique in the late 50s with Charles Neal. But after Neal passed away, they studied with Walter Carrington and completed their teacher training during the very early years of Walter Carrington's training course.

In 1967 Alex changed his career path and took a position teaching flute in the United States at Michigan State University. In 1974 Joan and Alex moved to the Netherlands where he was the Professor of Flute at the Royal Dutch Conservatory. In 1977 Alex took the appointment of Professor of Flute at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois where Joan and Alex co-founded the Urbana Center for the Alexander Technique. At the Urbana Center, Joan and Alex trained hundreds of Alexander teachers creating one of the largest training lineages in the Alexander community. In 2018 they retired and moved back to their house in Blackheath London.

Alex was not just a Professor of Flute at the University of Illinois, he was a great flute player with a very successful performing career. In the 1950s and '60s he played in the Royal Opera House and was principal flute for the London Symphony Orchestra and performed with an amazing array of famous conductors. When he left the LSO, he was replaced by none other than the great James Galway. When Joan and Alex settled in Champaign-Urbana, he continued to perform locally with Sinfonia Da Camera and many other projects. It always seemed like Alex was rubbing elbows with amazing people including a musical collaboration with the well-known Tai chi master, philosopher and dance artist Al Chungliang Huang, the author of the book Embrace Tiger Return to Mountain.

As a fellow classically trained musician I've run into a lot of great musicians and I sometimes wondered if Alex fully grasped the depth of his talent or understood why so many people struggle with music. I continued to visit the Murray training course until they left Urbana in November of 2018 to move back to London. Just a few years before leaving, I had a conversation with Alex and he told me he had studied with Nadia Boulanger while studying flute at the Paris Conservatoire. Nadia Boulanger is known as one of the greatest composition teachers of the 20th century who taught many well-known composers including Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Philip Glass, John Cage, Quincy Jones (produced the Michael Jackson Thriller album), Aster Piazzola, and many more. I was rather shocked because it never occurred to me that as a flute player, he might have studied with Boulanger at the Conservatoire. It was a great honor and a testament to his young talent that he was allowed to attend her composition classes. Also while studying at the Paris Conservatoire he won first prize with the performance of a newly commissioned piece by composer Olivier Messiaen.

One of Alex's flute students studied Alexander Technique with me and conveyed a conversation he had with the Sinfonia Da Camera music librarian. Apparently Alex returned the music folder for a Tchaikovsky symphony, but the final movement was missing. So she talked to him and asked him to return the music for the final movement. He said the final movement was never included in the folder. She asked him how he played it without the music? Then in classic Alex fashion he replied "Well you either know the tune or you don't." I completely believe this story. It sounds exactly like something he would say and I do not doubt he could play the movement by ear from the memory of its sound. Very few musicians would have been able to pull off that feat.

If that wasn't enough, he was also instrumental in collaborating with flute designers in the development of the "Murray flute" which, as I understand it, fixed some of the intonation and fi*****ng problems of the traditional flute. This was some very influential work because if you Google "the Murray flute" you'll find a lot of information about it.

It is not an exaggeration to say that many of us in the Alexander Technique might not know the name Raymond Dart or practice the Dart Procedures if it weren't for Alex Murray. In the summer of 1967, Joan and Alex were back in London from Michigan. While visiting Walter Carrington Alex mentioned that he thought the habitual use of the jaw could affect the balance of the head and consequently affect your whole Use. Walter told him that sounded like something Raymond Dart had written. Walter went in his basement and found a paper by Dart entitled The Postural Aspects of Malocclusion. Since photocopy machines didn't exist back in 1967, Alex took the paper home and copied it by hand and then returned it to Walter. Alex and his inquisitive mind started to read this paper, but at first he admitted it took a long time to understand because of all the technical anatomy and physiology that was completely new to him.

The evolutionary stages and sequences described in Dart's papers were quite technical and Alex with the help of Joan recreated them as a series of postures and movements. They started to understand the connection to the Alexander Technique when they realized the anthropoidal crouch was very similar to Alexander's "monkey" procedure.

To make a very long story short, Alex was able to have a phone call with Raymond Dart. This eventually led to Joan and Alex having a series of visits with Professor Dart in Philadelphia at the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential where he was a scholar in residence. In their visits with Dart, Joan and Alex were able to present their sequences and receive his feedback and corrections. Alex was also able to take a sabbatical and visit Johannesburg, South Africa to visit Dart for 3 weeks. These visits were very fruitful and the collaboration of Dart, Alex and Joan led to the creation of The Dart Procedures.

The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential was formed by Glenn Doman and Carl Delecato based on the evolutionary insights of the neurosurgeon Temple Faye. At the Institutes they were doing research on Developmental Movement and using it to "pattern" the movement of brain injured children to stimulate their neurological development. Apparently these two men didn't even know that Dart had written these groundbreaking papers on evolutionary movement! Even Dart had forgotten much of what he had written and became very excited by Joan and Alex's explorations of his work and wanted to revisit the papers he had written long ago.

Joan and Alex took one of the Institutes' week long Intensive Orientation courses and eventually even Walter and Dilys Carrington came to America to take this course. This was likely the introduction of Developmental Movement into the Alexander Technique community.

In 1969, Alex had Alexander Technique colleague Pam Hartman, a former cartoonist for Walt Disney, make drawings of the Dart Procedures. Alex's collaboration with Dart eventually led to Dart giving the annual Alexander Memorial Lecture to the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique in 1970 which he called "An Anatomist's Tribute to F.M. Alexander."

In the 1990s, with the help of his trainee students, Alex published a compendium of Dart's papers entitled Skill and Poise. He also published his own book - Alexander's Way: In His Own Words and in the Words of Those who Knew Him, dedicated to his wife Joan and published in 2015.

In short the legacy and influence of Alex Murray on the Alexander Technique community cannot be overestimated! This is a hard loss for many of us who knew and loved him. For me, he was always my go-to person to find out anything about the history of the Alexander Technique. I've never met anyone that knew more about the history of the Alexander Technique. One of the greatest intellectuals of the Alexander Technique is gone. A huge loss for us all.

Alex is survived by his wife Joan and his daughter Fiona.

Germany’s Breakthrough in Regenerative Medicine: Self-Regenerating Synthetic Cartilage
In a groundbreaking achievement, a team of regenerative medicine researchers in Munich has developed synthetic cartilage that doesn’t just replace damaged joints, it actually regenerates itself inside the body. This innovative technology could spell the end of traditional joint replacements for conditions like arthritis, injuries, and worn-out knees.

The synthetic cartilage, made from a bioresorbable hydrogel with stem-cell attractors, functions like scaffolding when implanted into the body. It encourages nearby stem cells to migrate, attach, and grow into real cartilage, restoring the cushioning and flexibility of joints without the need for full surgery.

In animal trials, the damaged knees were restored to 90% of their original function within just 4 months. Remarkably, the synthetic material gradually fades away, leaving behind fully grown, natural cartilage. Unlike current implants, this material doesn’t wear out over time, and there’s no need for future joint replacements.

The procedure, which can be done through keyhole surgery in under 45 minutes, offers quick recovery times weeks instead of months and eliminates the need for extensive physical therapy. The German health ministry has fast-tracked clinical trials for this revolutionary technology, and if approved, it could potentially eliminate the need for artificial knee replacements for good.

In London I had a short visit with an Alexander Technique teacher who owns one of FM Alexander's plates from his dinner serving set. I'm off to Ireland now to go to the international Alexander Technique Congress.

Necks Free to turn our heads towards our interests, Heads Up to experience life with poise and calm, Backs Long and Wide to breathe fully and deeply, Legs Free to dance through the next year.
May 2025 bring you all Health and Happiness!🙏😊