How music performance science can help you flourish!
Program
Lecture Theatre, Royal Northern College of Music
11th October 2023, 2pm – 5:30pm
Click on the title to read more about the talk and the speaker!
Session 1 (2pm start)
Session 2 (3:10pm start)
Session 3 (4:15pm start)
A harm reduction approach to substance use amongst working musicians
Jeordie Shenton
From classical through to popular music, substance use amongst working musicians has simultaneously been romanticised, demonised or medicalised. This presentation will explore why instead, a harm reduction approach needs to be applied to the music industry, by employing a holistic model to understand the high prevalence of substance use amongst working musicians. Findings from research (academic and industry) over the past 80 years will be highlighted throughout, with the aim of informing working musicians about the individual and environmental factors that increase prevalence of substance use, and how the negative effects on physical, mental and social health can be minimised.
About Jeordie
Jeordie is a psychologist and sociologist, conducting PhD research into the prevalence and contributing factors of substance use amongst working musicians. Alongside this, Jeordie is the Coordinator of Tonic Rider, a national programme from the registered charity, Tonic Music for Mental Health, with the aim of promoting good mental health in the music industry. The main responsibility of which is to design, manage and review the mental health support and training for artists, crew and other personnel working in and around music. Outside of these roles, Jeordie is a contributing author and research assistant within the field, most recently writing the ‘Mental Health in the Music Business’ chapter in ‘Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual’ (by Tamsin Embleton). Other notable activities include talks and interviews for industry events and media requests, such as panels, podcasts and also featuring in ‘Bodies: Life and Death in Music’ (by Ian Winwood).
Bad Brains: Exploring the relationship between mental health and touring musicians
Jake McAllister
How do the unique conditions of touring impact musicians’ mental health? Touring musician Jake McAllister digs deep into the major themes that can negatively affect the mental health of touring musicians, why these are the case and how we can start to tackle them.
About Jake
Jake McAllister is a songwriter and touring musician with his band SUNLINER and a recent master’s graduate of Leeds Beckett University, where he focused his research on the relationship between touring musicians and their mental health.
Eight shows a week: investigating the psychological cost of a career in musical theatre
Emma Risley
The musical theatre industry can be both physically and psychologically demanding, and despite calls from industry professionals, many performers lack sufficient support to lead sustainable careers and maintain their well-being. Alongside two leading industry well-being organisations, I’m investigating the factors underlying the “psychological cost” of a career in musical theatre, identifying key priorities for improving the well-being of professional performers, and ultimately helping hundreds of current musical theatre performers in the UK.
About Emma
Emma is currently undertaking her PhD at the University of Sheffield, investigating the impacts of performing eight shows a week on professional musical theatre performers. Prior to her PhD, she studied BA in Music at York and MA in Music Psychology at Sheffield. Last year, she was the Musical Director for the University of Sheffield Big Band, which she found to be the most fantastic experience. As a musician and researcher, she realises the importance of cross-sector collaboration to ensure research reaches the people who need to hear it most.
Using your musical skills for the greater good
Soon Yi Chua
Music is used for a variety of purposes in daily life such as for relaxation and stress relief, socialising with others, and emotion and mood regulation. For certain groups of people in society, music serves other practical purposes. For instance, music facilitates communication skills and improves psychological wellbeing in people living with dementia; music enhances social behaviour and interaction skills in students with autism. As musicians, we can seek to harness the power of music and use our musical skills to bring positive impact to and enrich the lives of people in society.
About Soon Yi
Soon Yi Chua is a master’s student in music education at University College London. She recently completed her first master’s degree in psychology of music at the University of Sheffield. For her master’s dissertation, Soon Yi explored the use of acousmatic storytelling to facilitate verbal and nonverbal communication and social interactions in people living with dementia. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from Singapore University of Social Sciences and a bachelor’s degree in business from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). Soon Yi’s research areas of interest include music and wellbeing, and music education for students with special needs.
Addressing Music Performance Anxiety: Practical Strategies for Music Performance Students
Yi Wang
Do you often experience anxiety before auditions, examinations, and competitions? Do you find yourself trembling, sweating, and struggling to catch your breath when facing an audience? Wondering how to navigate these challenges? Join me for an insightful presentation on overcoming music performance anxiety (MPA) – a challenge every conservatoire music student can face. Discover practical MPA coping strategies that can be easily fit into contemporary students’ lives.
About Yi
Yi Wang is a PhD student in the Reid School of Music at the University of Edinburgh. Her current research focuses on pedagogical issues that might exacerbate music performance anxiety among university music students and how these issues can be addressed. She earned her BA in Music Performance from Central South University, and a MA in Music Education from University College London. She is a Chinese folk music singer, and her voice has graced stages in prominent cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, and Changsha. She is also a passionate conductor who has led choirs comprising over six hundred students in total.
It’s not a Virus! Redefining Music Performance Anxiety
Bex Herman
Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) is one of the biggest challenges facing musicians today. It affects significant numbers of performers, and can affect their health and wellbeing, and performance quality and enjoyment. There is a wide range of interventions available to support musicians experiencing MPA. However, the numbers of performers struggling with it are unchanged since the 1980s, suggesting we don’t yet have an effective way of managing it. In this presentation, doctoral researcher Bex Herman will argue that we haven’t yet solved MPA because we’re looking at it in the wrong way, and will suggest a new reconceptualisation of an old problem.
About Bex
After training as a cellist at the Royal Academy of Music, Rebecca Herman performed all over the world with ensembles including the Philharmonia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Britten Sinfonia, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, and English National Opera. In 2017, Rebecca stopped performing due to debilitating stage fright, and went back into education to find answers. After completing an MSc in Performance Science in 2018, Rebecca is now a third year PhD student at the Royal College of Music, researching the impact of mindfulness training on performance anxiety (supported by the London Arts & Humanities Partnership). Last summer, Rebecca returned to the stage after a five-year hiatus, and last month she performed at the BBC Proms. Rebecca is passionate about de-stigmatising performance anxiety, and helping musicians perform healthily and happily. Alongside her research, performing work and cello teaching, Rebecca has a 2-year-old son, a golden doodle, and a cat and enjoys experimental cooking and challenging misogynistic assumptions around parenting.
What is good posture anyway?
Ellen Casey
Sit up straight! As a society, we hold widespread stereotypical beliefs regarding good posture. Sometimes these beliefs appear to conflict with the requirements of instrumental playing or singing, leading us to reject the very idea of posture altogether in favour of movement or behaviour. But have we really understood what posture is? Because posture exists, and it is important. In this talk we will explore posture as the dynamic neuromuscular support system that underpins skilled movement. Such understanding might help us find more constructive ways to achieve that elusive “good” posture that can support healthy musical performance.
About Ellen
Ellen is a cellist and teacher based in London. Originally from the Orkney Islands, she studied music at Cardiff University (BMus) and a postgraduate diploma in cello performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama before moving first to Paris, where she joined the post-rock band Kwoon and toured Europe, then Buenos Aires to train as a teacher in the Alexander technique. Ellen’s experience of Alexander training led her to develop an interest in the role of embodied practices in music learning and performance. She completed an MSc in Performance Science at the Royal College of Music in 2020, and is currently undertaking ethnographic research into Alexander technique training in music contexts for her PhD in music education from the Royal Northern College of Music.
How Playing Music with Others Can Promote Self-Transcendent Wellbeing
Peter Varga
Ever wonder how playing music with others contributes to wellbeing? Much research examines audience experiences but considerably less the emotional experience of performers and composers. The science behind ensemble emotion convergence suggests ways musicians can benefit from playing together and sharing these experiences with audiences. This talk covers concepts like shared intentionality, interpersonal chemistry, and psychological flow as vital components of ensemble music making that foster wellbeing beyond traditional measures of happiness and meaningfulness (e.g., self-transcendence). Experimental social psychology is just beginning to intersect with empirical musicology and performance practice in a collaborative investigation that promises valuable insights for musicians’ wellbeing.
About Peter
Peter Varga is reading for the DPhil in Experimental Psychology at Christ Church, Oxford, where he also manages the College Choir. He received his BA in psychology from The Catholic University of America (Washington, DC) with minors in neuroscience, philosophy, and theology & religious studies, earning honours in classical philosophy, theology, and humanities. He went on to receive his MS in psychological sciences from the College of William & Mary in Virginia, where he directed the William & Mary Schola Cantorum. Prior to pursuing psychology, he studied classical guitar performance at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts whilst concurrently serving as organ scholar at St Dominic’s Church, San Francisco. His research examines the interpersonal transfer of emotion from composers to listeners via performers, inspiration and imagination in the creative process, aesthetics and spiritual yearning as correlates of wellbeing in science, and higher goods as indicators of self-transcendent wellbeing.
