The Importance of Mental Training for Musicians

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A good mental disposition is essential to the equipment of a performing artist. It is a tall order to maintain the highest level of performance every day; the tensions that go with it are sometimes hard to bear. A lecture by Rico Schuijers.

A good mental disposition is essential to the equipment of a performing artist. It is a tall order to maintain the highest level of performance every day; the tensions that go with it are sometimes hard to bear.

Mental training is the systematic acquirement of skills that can be deployed to optimize performance. If you want to make a difference on the stage, you need to know how to prepare yourself mentally, so as to peak at the right moment. You need to be ‘in control’ while performing.

Which goals do you set? What do you do just before an audition or an important concert? Do you relax or build up energy? How to stay focused under the gaze of a committee, or under unfavorable performance conditions? How to stay confident even after a mistake or a bad performance?

Rico Schuijers, who accompanied Dutch athletes to the Olympic Games in London, will speak about the impact of stress on performance and about mental training methods that help contain it.

Fri 30 November 2012
2.00-4.00 uur p.m. Bernard Haitinkzaal
Conservatorium van Amsterdam
English spoken 

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