Experiencing a pianist’s performance, whether through watching or listening, offers a deeply engaging and pleasurable encounter. The combination of the pianist’s artistry and the instrument, enhanced by their proficiency, training, and presence, generates a sequence of unforgettable moments for both the performer and the spectators. Yet, is there a method to enhance the performance while increasing our comprehension of how the artist and their instrument collaborate to produce this enchantment, all while reducing the risk of performance-related injuries?
Mi-Eun Kim, the head of keyboard studies in MIT’s Music and Theater Arts Section, along with Praneeth Namburi PhD ’16, a research scholar at MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, are exploring the body’s functions during piano play. Their collaborative initiative, titled The Biomechanics of Assimilating a New Piano Skill, seeks to generate mechanistic insights that could revolutionize our comprehension and teaching of piano techniques, mitigate performance-related injuries, and bridge artistic expression with biomechanical effectiveness.
Their venture is among the recent recipients of a SHASS+ Connectivity Fund grant from the MIT Human Insight Collaborative.
“This project emerged from a mix of mutual interests and personal encounters,” notes Namburi. “Mi-Eun observed a significant number of injuries among her fellow pianists and realized how such injuries could disrupt careers.”
Kim is an esteemed pianist who has graced stages across the United States, Europe, and Asia. She has received numerous accolades, including the Liszt-Garrison Competition’s Liszt Award and the Corpus Christi solo prize. At MIT Music, she instructs piano and chamber music through the Emerson/Harris Program and chamber music via MIT’s Chamber Music Society. She holds advanced degrees from the University of Michigan and a bachelor of arts degree in history from Columbia University.
Namburi specializes in the biomechanics of effective, expressive, and coordinated motion. He draws inspiration from performers and athletes in unique movement disciplines, like dance and fencing, to analyze skilled movement. He earned his PhD in experimental neuroscience from MIT and a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
Embarking on the project
Kim and Namburi embarked on their venture by following different paths into the arts. While Kim was finalizing her studies at the University of Michigan, Namburi was engaged in dance classes as a pastime in Boston. He discovered that both expressive and sustainable movements may have a shared foundation. “A vital realization was that elastic tissues are essential for coordinated, expressive, and sustainable movements in dance — a concept that could extend beyond just dancing,” he comments.
“We acknowledged that investigating elastic tissues could illuminate ways to decrease injury risk and better understand musical expression and the embodiment of playing the piano,” Kim explains.
Kim and Namburi initiated their collaboration on what would evolve into their project in October 2023, although the initial groundwork was laid months prior. “A visiting student, collaborating with me on a research project about pianists in the MIT.nano Immersion Lab, reached out to Mi-Eun in the summer of 2023,” recalls Namburi. A collective Instagram video showcasing their configuration with motion capture devices and a pianist interpreting Chopin on a digital keyboard piqued Kim’s curiosity. The Immersion Lab serves as an open-access, shared facility for MIT and beyond, dedicated to visualizing, comprehending, and interacting with vast, multidimensional data.
“Although I couldn’t comprehend all the sensors, I instantly recognized that they were using a digital keyboard,” she notes.
Kim aimed to enhance the quality of these studies by equipping the musicians with the appropriate instruments and equipment. While the previously used digital pianos are portable and provide MIDI data, they fall short of delivering the experience of an authentic piano. “Pianists aspire to perform on a perfect instrument — a 9-foot concert grand with impeccably calibrated 24-inch keys that react to every musical intention effortlessly,” Kim states.
The researchers introduced a Spirio grand piano to the Immersion Lab and noted that the instrument could both capture the velocity of the pianists’ hammer strikes and reproduce them to replay the performance. While observing Kim’s performance on the concert grand piano, they both noticed significant variations in her playing technique.
“In spite of the sensors, lighting, and observers, performing felt so instinctive that I forgot I was in a lab,” she recalls. “I could concentrate solely on the music, without the concern of adapting to a smaller keyboard or digital sound.”
This arrangement enabled them to observe the natural movements of pianists, precisely what Kim intended to investigate.
During the Independent Activities Period 2025, Kim and Namburi offered a fresh course, Biomechanics of Piano Playing, in the Immersion Lab. Students and faculty from MIT, Harvard University, the University of Michigan, the University of Toronto, and the University of Hartford participated. The participants learned to utilize motion capture, accelerometers, and ultrasound imaging to visualize bodily signals during piano performance.
Insights and results
If the efficiency and perceived fluidity of an expert pianist’s movements originate from leveraging the body’s inherent elastic mechanisms, Kim and Namburi propose that it’s feasible to redesign the teaching methods of piano playing. Each aspires to decrease the frequency of playing-related injuries and enhance how musicians acquire their art.
“I want to connect the realms of artistic expression and biomechanical efficiency,” expresses Namburi.
Through their exploratory sessions at the Immersion Lab, Kim and Namburi discovered commonalities, gathering insights from their observations and experiences in piano and dance using sensor technology, including ultrasound.
Additionally, Kim recognized the opportunity for redefining piano pedagogy. “Conventional teaching leans heavily on subjective descriptions and metaphors transmitted through generations,” she observes. “While these methods are valuable, they could be enriched with objective, scientific comprehension of the physical processes underlying proficient piano performance — a more evidence-driven approach to piano pedagogy, if you will.”