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Who We Are
We are the creators, teachers, practitioners, and designers behind Peaceful Musicians
Amanda Rice
Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Amanda is a violinist, music educator and yoga instructor, currently residing in St. Paul, Minnesota. She teaches individual violin, ukulele, guitar and piano to students between the ages of 4 and 70. In the spring of 2020, Amanda became a 200-hour vinyasa yoga teacher, with the goal of specializing in yoga for musicians. She currently teaches vinyasa, yin and gentle yoga classes at Studio One Yoga in Roseville, Minnesota, as well as virtual Yoga studio "Yoga for All Musicians."
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While in Trinidad, Amanda studied with a Tibetan Buddhist monk for several years, which led to her interest in how meditation can benefit those with anxiety. Amanda’s graduate thesis was on the benefits of yoga and meditation for performance anxiety. During this study, she led yoga and meditation classes three times a week for six weeks, focusing on breathing techniques and yoga poses to alleviate the symptoms of performance anxiety in the weeks leading up to these students’ recitals. Each participant reported experiencing significant decreases in performance anxiety, as well as increased body awareness and the ability to focus on their breath and being mindful/in the moment.
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Amanda holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from the University of the West Indies, as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts in the Performing Arts, specializing in Music, from the University of Trinidad and Tobago. She also has a diploma in Western classical music. Amanda graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) with a Master of Music in Music Education in 2018, where she studied with Dr. David Edmund and Rudy Perrault. Amanda has received scholarships to attend music festivals at Dartington International Summer Festival and the British Isles Music Festival, both in England, and the Tuckamore Chamber Fesitval in Newfoundland, Canada. She has performed in masterclasses with Priya Mitchell, Oliver Lewis, Nancy Dahn and Vernon Regehr.
Rie Tanaka
Native of Osaka, Japan, Dr. Rie Tanaka is a Pianist, Yoga practitioner, and music educator. She completed her 200 hours of Yoga Teacher Training in Florida in 2020, studying under Shri Yogi Hari, an internationally recognized Yogi from the Shivananda lineage. After an initiation, he accepted her as one of his disciples and named her Radha (the fortunate). She has learned, practiced, and is certified to teach Sampoorna Yoga - Yoga of Fullness, which combines 6 paths of Yoga; Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Gyan Yoga, and Nada Yoga.
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Rie’s serious pursuit of wellness and healing began when she injured both wrists from playing piano in 2012 which prohibited her from playing for over seven months. She was able to recover from injuries through physical therapy and Yoga practice. She recognized the culture of "normalizing physical and mental pain" in the Classical music world, and she has been passionate about bringing wellness and peace to musicians ever since.
For the past 4 years, Rie has led her original program “Wellness for Musicians,” designed to help musicians to prevent performance injuries through lectures and daily Yoga sessions. Developed by her doctoral research and her own recovery from injury, she taught at various music camps and festivals, including Minnesota International Piano Camp, Saint Paul Chamber Music Institute, and Green Lake Chamber Music Camp. Her comprehensive approach to raise awareness, develop strength and flexibility, and regain a healthy body and mind has impacted many lives.
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Rie’s mission is to bridge the gap between the vast majority of music students and the wealth of methods and information about injury prevention. To build a culture of healthy musicians, she believes that it is essential to educate teachers. In her doctoral thesis, “Wellness for Musicians; Blueprint to Your Very Own Injury Prevention Course,” she introduces applicable Yogic activities, methods, and mindsets that an individual teacher can implement into their own teaching to promote healthier instruction. She has been featured as a guest lecturer at Universities and Music Teachers Associations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington, and South Dakota.
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Rie currently lives in Mound Minnesota with her husband Jesse and cat Munchie, and enjoys being surrounded by abundant lakes and nature. She maintains a full concert schedule for solo and chamber performances, and has been featured on American Public Radio's Your Classical, Wisconsin Public Radio's Route 51, and Des Moines Symphony's DMSO at Home, among other programs and podcasts. She currently teaches Piano at the Saint Paul Conservatory of Music and Mount Olivet School of Music.
Amanda Leger-Harewood
Amanda Leger-Harewood is a musician, teacher, academic, and consultant in the Twin Cities.
She has an MA in music theory from the University of Minnesota and a BA in vocal performance from the University of San Diego. Amanda studied pedagogy in both of her degrees, including 100 hours of hands-on training in diverse classrooms. Her teaching experience includes several years of private piano, voice, and ear-training lessons from age 5-65, and two years teaching undergraduate theory and ear-training as part of her Master’s in music theory.
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Amanda loves to perform and has found a variety of ways to do it: she’s sung in operas, services, recitals, and weddings, accompanied church services, participated in steel pan ensemble, insinuated her way into a New Orleans style jazz band as a guest singer, directed a backup choir for Carole King on national television, sung jazz to a farmer’s market, and performed in every musical she could squash into her busy schedule. She hopes to share this joy with everyone who wishes to perform more often and more freely.
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Amanda’s investigation into practice habits began as a result of this performing drive; like many musicians, she found that her practice was not equal to her performance goals. Furthermore, shame and negative motivation seemed to be driving thoughts around practice, rather than the pleasure of music and focus on a goal. As a firm believer in, and soliciter of, healthy mental practices, she designed a system that tracks and celebrates progress made in the week’s practice and helps students identify goals (and rewards) that motivate them.
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Amanda is passionate about the way music can connect people in a shared experience, and works to that end in several capacities. She is a music director at St. Matthews Episcopal Church, seeking to facilitate encounters with the divine through music and foster a loving, inclusive community. She also sings at the Basilica of St. Mary, and plays and sings professionally at several other Twin Cities churches, including St. Lawrence Catholic Church and Newman Center, and St. Jude of the Lake.