MTNA Conference Recap: Stage Fright, Laban Movement, and Entrepreneurial Mentorship 2.0

It's been a whirlwind of a week. Needless to say, my travelling adventures worked out; I made it to Albuquerque for the Music Teachers National Conference after all, and got to enjoy two and a half days of hyper-stimulation about all things music. I had fun with my poster session, and got more feedback about Entrepreneurial Mentorship, and of ways to view it from different perspectives (I sense another paper brewing...).

What makes these conferences fun (besides catching up with people from across the U.S., and learning about what's happening out there in the field-at-large) are the unexpected gems - the sessions that offer both substantially rewarding information, and deflate the stress of such a packed week of events.

The two highlights for me came on the final day of the conference. Frederic Chiu is not only one of my favorite pianists, but he is also a skillful clinician. His entertaining, intellectual, and probing session on stage fright brought together issues of musical training, the efficacy of routine, and psychological analysis. His discussion on Silvan Tomkins' Affect Theory was a particular "Ah-Ha!" moment for me. The idea that our emotional responses preclude (or at least out-pace) our rational responses, gives a new perspective on how our psychological state can influence and/or cause performance meltdowns. It also enhances the notion of regret aversion, which Barry Schwartz links to the mental trauma of making decisions - both in terms of musical interpretation/technical choices, and of the stress we face in our career development. In his book The Paradox of Choice the world of ever-expanding choices, we artists (often as "maximizers") not only have to deal with the opportunity cost of those options we gave up, but also of the ramifications those decisions have on our future trajectory. This can be traumatizing, and I am beginning to think there may be a connection between these feelings and the decisions we make - especially when we face the choice of leaving the field for "better" opportunities. Linking these two concepts from psychology offers a glimpse at how we may learn to control, or at least deal with, such challenges and perhaps quell some of the career-related fears of many artists.

Paola's session was also fantastic. I know I'm biased, but she held a crowd of 60+ people at 8am for the entirety of her talk. Blending a lecture with interactive movement experiences, I think this was perhaps the best session I've attended on movement/performance health/expression yet. We got an overview of Laban Movement Analysis (LMA), Bartenieff Fundamentals, and plenty of resources on how to use those principles towards greater physical health, flexible alignment, and (most important, perhaps) more effective musical communication. I know she also got great feedback on her ideas, and can't wait to move forward with more work on Laban Movement Analysis, and hopefully more conference presentations delving deeper into how we can better couple movement awareness with musical expression to further communication between artist and audience. Brava! (Check out her website here for more info)

Now I have to tell you about Santa Fe....which was a delight in and of itself...but that will be coming in my next post! For now, I have to catch a flight. Hope all is well in Madison, could the Terrace possibly open by the time Easter rolls around?