Filling the Gaps
If you are anything like me, you have been horrified and mystified by the disappearance of Malaysian Airline Flight 370 on March 8. How could a Boeing 777 jetliner carrying 239 people just disappear from the sky about an hour after take-off? With no apparent signals...
Performance Anxiety and Potholes: Can Accidents be Avoided?
I was driving around town recently and gradually realized that I was not as aware of the ice and snow that had been coating our roads for several weeks. Previously, I had been driving defensively on our treacherous streets, fearful of skidding – or of being skidded...
Performance Anxiety and Therapy in a Jar
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to de-clutter my house. What better place to begin than clearing the kitchen counters of all the unordered and unwanted magazines, brochures, and flyers from uninvited merchants that have accumulated over the holidays? How so many...
Performance Anxiety and Nelson Mandela
I doubt Nelson Mandela ever thought of himself as a psychologist or as someone who made comments that are relevant about performance anxiety. Following his recent death, when reading many news accounts about his remarkable life and his attitudes, I came to think of...
Performance Anxiety and Pumpkins
You may ask: what do performance anxiety and pumpkins have in common? First I have to tell you about my good friend, Patty. Patty has been my friend ever since we were in kindergarten. We stayed friends all the way through high school. Then we became separated by...
Music as Psychological and Social Commentary
One of my all time favorite musicals is “West Side Story” with music by Leonard Bernstein. I hesitated as I wrote the previous sentence. Not because of any doubt about “West Side Story”, but rather, what should I call “it”? It is a Broadway musical, it is a...
From Past to Present and Back Again: My Performance Anxiety and Book Signing at Juilliard
I promised I’d tell you more after my book signing for “Melodies of the Mind” at Juilliard October 4. I entered and graduated from Juilliard many years ago as a pianist – but a performer who struggled mightily with stage fright. I returned to Juilliard this time as...
Time Capsule: Back to the Future
I am about to go back to my past. I am preparing to return to my musical alma mater, The Juilliard School. I graduated from Juilliard many years ago with two degrees – majoring in piano performance. But I also joke with people that my “minor” was in performance...