Stage fright among musicians and music students is a severe problem, and a problem moreover that is not easily talked about. This researchreport is a reflection of the project Peak Performance & Reducing Stage Fright, in which six students of the Prince Claus Conservatoire got the opportunity to take the HeartMath training. A training developed by de GGZ Heerenveen. The research, which is described in this report, was aimed at the usefulness of this training for professional music students.
Within a study on ‘musicians as lifelong learners’, explorative biographical research was used. When analysing the learning biographies informed by grounded theory, the emergence of profession-related health issues was striking. More than half of the portrayed musicians suffered from both physical and psychological problems, the latter mostly consisting of performance anxiety (stage fright), which was often connected to low self-esteem.However creative coping strategies were also frequently found by the musicians, showing their extensive use of metacognitive skills. This paper addresses the coping strategies found and relates it to musicians’ transformative learning.
The main focus of this article is on performance anxiety and stage fright in musicians, seen through the lens of biographical research. In short, biographical research deals with research into learning, taking as point of departure that important learning always needs to be understood in relation to the biography of the learner (Alheit 2009, p. 116). Within biographical learning people can act as their own change agents. This article discusses biographical findings on musicians’ generic leadership when coping with profession-related health issues and the transformative and transitional learning evolving from this.
