Biography
Jessica Roemischer is a pianist, composer, and advisor whose
transformational model, The Piano Duet Paradigm(R) has been developed over the course of
three decades working with individuals of all ages and backgrounds.
In performances, workshops,
coaching sessions, retreats and lessons, Jessica is sharing the catalytic power of her work
throughout the United States and internationally.
Jessica Roemischer is a consummate artist whose piano interpretations have a rare beauty and
authenticity. More than just an accomplished solo musician, she calls upon her abilities to help
awaken others to their own true nature. Using her pioneering approach to piano duet
improvisation, The Piano Duet Paradigm(R)
Jessica Roemischer has improvised side-by-side at the piano with hundreds of individuals, including those with profound disabilities.
Her wide experience has given rise to a profound understanding of the human condition
while revealing the dynamics of healing and change.
The result: a potent, transformational framework that
can be applied with or without music in personal, educational, organizational, and geo-political contexts.
Born into a musical family, Jessica began piano at age six and was
improvising and composing from the outset. Her pedagogical lineage through her mother, pianist Miriam Roemischer, links directly to Frederic Chopin and
Ludwig van Beethoven.
Captivated by the timeless beauty of classical music, Jessica was also a "child of the '60's" (and '70's) and found herself equally
as compelled by the soaring harmonies of Crosby, Stills, and Nash,
the inimitable guitar of Led Zeppelin, and the hypnotic vocalizations of Van Morrison.
Learning to play her favorite songs by ear, she simultaneously pursued classical piano studies with Marilyn Sophos and won awards at the Westchester (NY)
Symphony and Westchester Conservatory Concerto competitions, among others.
Since graduating magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1982, Jessica Roemischer has taught hundreds of individuals on four continents. Her innovative work in music is informed by a life-long study
of philosophy, aesthetics, spirituality and evolutionary thought--a tutelage that began with her parents, both of whom hold doctorates in educational philosophy.
From 1989-1999, Jessica was on the Applied Music Faculty of Middlebury College, Vermont. She has concluded that, when given
the optimum environment, an individual will invariably come forth with extraordinary strengths and creative capacities.
Jessica Roemischer generates this ideal environment through her unique approach to piano duet improvisation, The Piano Duet Paradigm(R). In so doing, she makes it possible for
everyone--regardless of age, background or even the presence of a developmental disability--to access his or her deepest and most far-reaching potential. Jessica
conducts a unique music program at Riverbrook Residence for Women in Stockbridge, MA, the oldest
facility of its kind in New England and a model of care for women with disabilities.
Her ground-breaking work with the women at Riverbrook has received support from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Caroline and James Taylor.
Jessica's eclectic background includes writing, journalism, photography, and architectural preservation. Her National Register listings and innovative
architectural education program in the Adirondack region of northern New York earned her a New York State Historic Preservation Award in 1995, as well as
a nomination for the New York State Council on the Arts award. As a magazine editor and writer from 2002-07, she has dialogued with some of the world's cultural and spiritual icons,
including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Carlos Santana, theologians Karen Armstrong and Huston Smith, Apollo astronaut,
Edgar Mitchell, and many others. Jessica's major article, "The Never-Ending Upward Quest," is widely recognized as the most comprehensive and accessible introduction
to the evolutionary theory of Spiral Dynamics.
Jessica Roemischer believes that the transformational approach she has developed is an
effective means for grappling with the challenges we face individually and collectively. In a wide variety of settings--performances, lectures, workshops, business and leadership consulting, and individual coaching--Jessica
is sharing the catalytic power of her work throughout the United States and internationally.
Jessica lives in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts and is married to acclaimed teacher and Teen Life Coach, Lawrence Carroll.
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