BLANKAPESJA

Blanka Pesja is one of the most dedicated art teachers you’ll ever meet. She is inventive, passionate and critical when necessary. She keeps innovating her methods, always aiming to find new ways to inspire her students. For me, the Lyric Lab lessons were about experimenting and reinventing my reading and writing skills. It’s about exploring your senses, approaching themes from different angles, puzzling with words, rhythm, and meaning. But most of all: being able to create actively instead of waiting for inspiration to find you.

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Amsterdam, The Netherlands

“Equipped with a sharp musical – lyrical instinct, extensive educational experience and a substantial knowledge of neuroscience, conceptual artist and Lyric Lab teacher Blanka Pesja passionately inspires music students to not only develop their very own lyrical voice but compile a wide array of reliable methods in lyric writing. She skillfully supports songwriters in creating avenues from mind to word to song to audience, thus paving the way for the true emergence of the artistic self. As a former student of Blanka Pesja’s and creator of a competition - winning, lesson - written piece, I highly recommend her courses: both as a journey to rich creative horizons as well as a rewarding venture to self-discovery..

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Vienna, Austria

"I met Blanka when I was studying Jazz in Amsterdam, at the Conservatorium. She was a teacher on a subject that Jazz students didn't have access too, before that year: Lyric Lab. I always loved to write so I signed up for the course without really knowing what to expect. The truth is, that course is the reason why I'm a singer-songwriter today. Step by step, Blanka lead us on a journey of self-discovery that really changed my path. It was not about a formula, or the rules to write a perfect song, but more about unblocking our own creativity, questioning our safe zone, and challenging the rules that can be so dangerous in an Academic environment, especially in an Arts School. Of course, there was technique involved, I gained tools that I use with my own students nowadays. How to use the sound of our language to make music. How to tell a story from an interesting point of view. How to own what we say, and mean every word. How to organize a song to deliver a message, in an effective and musical way. But most of all it was more about unleashing the songs I had inside, with no restrictions. It was a lot of fun! Blanka, as all the great teachers, brought the best in us and encouraged us to go further, always. I feel very lucky to have met her, and that she shared her knowledge with me.

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Lisbon, Portugal

Blanka's unique approach and thought provoking methods of lyric writing pushes one to discover himself through sound, rhythm and the multilayered meaning of his chosen words. With a flexible yet challenging mindset, Blanka's attentiveness to the dynamic of the study group doesn't hinder the personal attention every songwriter craves for, and creates a fertile greenhouse for individual discovery as well as unique collaboration experiences. Through time I found out that even my daily formulation of sentences have been upgraded, sensitivity for semantics has enhanced and rhetoric skills bloom, a lesson for daily interaction as a bonus to building the foundation of understanding the connection between words and music.

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Tommy and the Humans, Maccabin-Re'Ut, Israel