Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Category
Visual and Performing Arts (includes Creative Writing; sculpture, painting, video, dancing, music, reading, etc.)
Abstract/Artist Statement
In this practical research, I propose that performance anxiety in classical singing is more than simply “stage fright”, but a mental health concern directly tied to perceived identity. Classical singers, for whom professional preparation is lengthy and rigorous, are often referred to solely as their function in the fabric of a performance. For example, a soloist in oratorio or opera is simply seen as “the tenor”. This limiting of the totality of human embodiment weds performance outcomes with sense of self. The singer’s positive or negative perception of identity hinges upon a subjective measurement of success. The rigor of classical study combined with this identity/outcome relationship can result in symptomatic anxiety which negatively impacts the physiology of the singer, risking poorer performance outcomes and perpetuating the cycle onstage and, more concerningly, off.
In this presentation, I compare my embodied experience as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah over two separate performances - one before I began studying clinical mental health counseling and one after – and show (through live performance) the physiological differences in vocal technique. I will discuss the clinical symptoms of anxiety, model tactics for mitigation, and share my own journey as a counseling client whose deliberate cultivation of a non-contextual identity positively impacted my experience as a performer (and human).
It is no secret that mental health concerns are rampant among those whose identities are contingent upon precision of execution in a public arena (singers, athletes, etc.). Mental health strategies that holistically address the individual, rather than as an achievement-oriented “means to an end” are critically important tools for the performer, teacher or coach. For singers, this is such a tool. For teachers and coaches, this illustrates the tangible results of positive mental-health cultivation and culture.
Mentor Name
Veronica Johnson
Personal Statement
Since 2018, I have relentlessly studied the relationship between identity and performance. In 2021 I earned an MFA in Theatre and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies from the University of Montana, winning a Bertha Morton Scholarship for my studies on voice, gender and identity. During the 2021-2022 academic year, I served as a full-time faculty member at Gonzaga University, where I taught theatre through a Person-Centered (or Rogerian after Carl Rogers) lens. Along the way, I took counseling and psychology classes and enrolled full-time in 2022 at UM to pursue a second master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. My academic pursuits combined with my previous life experience (20 years as a professional in the performing arts) have convinced me that negative mental health outcomes in the arts are not adequately addressed and positive outcomes are not adequately pursued. Rather, there is a culture of achievement that is directly tied to subjective interpretation of success – internally and externally – and that the holistic well-being of performers has traditionally been ignored. I am encouraged by the broader contemporary conversation about this phenomenon, but I believe we have centuries of practices to update. As one who is studying in the healing milieu, I am hopeful that my lived experience as a performer with mental health concerns can inform my work both as a counselor and as an academic. I am particularly interested to engage with arts educators to help mitigate otherwise well-meant instruction that nevertheless may result in unintended neuroticism amongst their students. As mental health/illness becomes less taboo to address societally, it is incumbent upon those of us in academia to be at the vanguard of incorporating positive practices into our institutions and classrooms – and I am eager to be part of that conversation.
Slide presentation
IMG_1687.MOV (375711 kB)
Singing performance
Identity and Performance Anxiety in Classical Singing: A Counseling Perspective
UC South Ballroom
In this practical research, I propose that performance anxiety in classical singing is more than simply “stage fright”, but a mental health concern directly tied to perceived identity. Classical singers, for whom professional preparation is lengthy and rigorous, are often referred to solely as their function in the fabric of a performance. For example, a soloist in oratorio or opera is simply seen as “the tenor”. This limiting of the totality of human embodiment weds performance outcomes with sense of self. The singer’s positive or negative perception of identity hinges upon a subjective measurement of success. The rigor of classical study combined with this identity/outcome relationship can result in symptomatic anxiety which negatively impacts the physiology of the singer, risking poorer performance outcomes and perpetuating the cycle onstage and, more concerningly, off.
In this presentation, I compare my embodied experience as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah over two separate performances - one before I began studying clinical mental health counseling and one after – and show (through live performance) the physiological differences in vocal technique. I will discuss the clinical symptoms of anxiety, model tactics for mitigation, and share my own journey as a counseling client whose deliberate cultivation of a non-contextual identity positively impacted my experience as a performer (and human).
It is no secret that mental health concerns are rampant among those whose identities are contingent upon precision of execution in a public arena (singers, athletes, etc.). Mental health strategies that holistically address the individual, rather than as an achievement-oriented “means to an end” are critically important tools for the performer, teacher or coach. For singers, this is such a tool. For teachers and coaches, this illustrates the tangible results of positive mental-health cultivation and culture.