Click here to listen to her play Chopin Fortepiano by K. Hill after Graf, 1997. Performed using the moderator and una chorda throughout. As you may hear for yourself, from the various recorded musical samples which you can find highlighted in blue around this site, Marianne Ploger has an extraordinary ability to communicate the complex Affects of each piece of music she plays. This ability arises from her particular and intense interest in how the brain processes sounds. As a cognitive and musical scientist, her discoveries include: The Acoustical Foundation for: Absolute or Perfect Pitch Perception, Equal Temperament, The Longest Lasting Standard of Pitch -A-440, Key Color Perception, The Selection of Plate Pitch in Violins as practiced by makers such as Stradivari and Guarneri “del Jesu”, The Phenomenon of Sound Color in Musical Instruments, and, last but not least, Human Personality; The Acoustical Explanation for: Why Musical Intervals are Perceived as They Are which led to her development of the Ploger Method for Instant Recognition of Musical Intervals in Real-Time, a method which allows any musician to acquire the ability to know exactly what is happening in music at the speed of music entirely by ear; The Perceptual Foundation for Modulation and how it works in Tonal Music, a useful and practical Theory of Music by which any musician can learn to hear, recognize, and articulate modulations in music as they occur in Real-Time (at the speed of music) entirely by ear; as well as being the co-discoverer, with her husband, Keith Hill, of The Perceptual Foundations for Musical Communication and the 12 cognitively based techniques used in performances and in compositions by the greatest musicians and composers throughout history to move and inspire listeners. It is because of these discoveries as well as her extensive experience as a teacher that she is sought after to conduct workshops and master classes at conservatories and music schools both in the United States and in Europe. The most recent of these workshops have been at the Conductor's Retreat at Medomak, Maine, the Brüchner Conservatorium in Linz, Austria, the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany, the Hochschule für Kunst und Musik in Berlin, Germany, the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen, Denmark, Oberlin Conservatory, and the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point. Many of these workshops were on The Forgotten Craft of Musical Communication. Marianne founded the Institute for Musical Perception in Ann Arbor, Michigan. And, from 1997-2008, she was a member of the top ranked graduate conducting faculty at the University of Michigan School of Music. Her students are winners of international music competitions and many hold faculty positions at some of the most prestigious schools of music throughout the world. Presently, Marianne is teaching her "Ploger Method" for musicianship training at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She is also devoted to conducting her Musicianship Intensives as a means of providing professional musicians with a way of becoming fluent in every aspect of aural perception and awareness. For it is in these intensives that musicians are able to make the most and rapid progress in acquiring fluency and understanding in music. Marianne Ploger has her Bachelor of Music Degree from the St. Louis Conservatory and her Master of Music Degree from the University of Michigan. She was also one of the last students of the great music pedagogue Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Fontainebleau. It was Mlle. Boulanger who inspired Ms. Ploger to understand music and how it is perceived and communicated. Ms. Ploger has premiered and recorded her compositions and has conducted a string version of her Berceuse at its premiere at the Conductors Retreat at Medomak. The Monarch Brass Ensemble recently premiered her Sanctus for Wind Ensemble. Currently, Ms. Ploger is writing a book discussing her numerous discoveries in musical perception and communication.