Performance Anxiety Strategies: A Musician's Guide to Managing Stage Fright

Music performance anxiety has long frustrated the artistic community and, while tricks and folk remedies abound, a comprehensive plan to solve this problem has remained elusive. Accomplished violinist Casey McGrath combines her experiences with the research of Karin S. Hendricks and Tawnya D. Smith to provide a resource guide to the most current solutions and therapies, as well as educational applications, for both individual and classroom use.

Divided by area of therapeutic interest, Performance Anxiety Strategies presents relevant and noteworthy research and insight into some of the most popular and many lesser-known therapies―including holistic, exposure, cognitive, behavioral, and medicinal treatments. Each chapter also features self-guided activities and exercises, words of wisdom from established performing artists and athletes, and suggestions for music teachers, as well as first-person narratives about the authors’ personal journeys with music performance anxiety both onstage and in the classroom.

Including a wealth of offerings and approaches, this book is an invaluable resource for anyone who has ever experienced performance anxiety, from the aspiring classical musician to the garage band guitarist.

Casey McGrath holds a doctorate of musical arts in performance and literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and a master of music from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She serves as concertmaster for the Fox Valley Orchestra and on the music faculty of Joliet Junior College.

Karin S. Hendricks is assistant professor of music education at Boston University. She is an award-winning music teacher and taught orchestra in public schools for thirteen years. She has presented research and practitioner workshops nationally and internationally and has published papers in many professional and peer-reviewed journals and books.

Tawnya D. Smith is lecturer in music education in the College of Fine Arts at Boston University. She completed a PhD in curriculum and instruction at the University of Illinois and a certificate of advanced graduate study in expressive arts therapy at Lesley University.