More than Surviving: Collegiate Stress, Burnout, and Musicianship

This session focuses on the collegiate experience of stress, burnout, and musicianship. Through smartphone-enabled full group brainstorms and small group break out sessions, participants will actively engage in applying presented research to their lived experiences as college musicians. The goals of the session are to: identify the ways stress and performance anxiety impacts the body; identify how that might impact one’s ability to perform and participate in coursework; explore research-supported strategies for completing the stress cycle and dealing with music performance anxiety; and to develop a teacher identity that promotes balance and wellness for self and students. To begin exploring stress, first we differentiate between stressors and stress. Participants will brainstorm stressors that exist in college musicians’ lives. We will identify the steps of the stress cycle and consider the specific psychological and physiological impacts on a musician. There are multiple research-supported methods to complete the stress cycle, and we will discuss how to implement them at appropriate times. There is significant overlap in the research of stress (though a trauma-informed lens) and music performance anxiety. To prepare for the future, we consider the implications of burnout and the need for personal wellness. We will explore how to apply our understanding of the stress cycle to the prevention of burnout. Utilizing Dr. Nadine Burke Harris’ six domains of wellness, we will celebrate areas in which we thrive and identify areas that need our attention. Finally, participants will be asked to think about their future selves, perhaps as public school choir teachers or private voice teachers, and to grapple with these questions: How do we maintain high musical standards while looking to eliminate unnecessarily stressful experiences for students? How do we integrate coping strategies into future classrooms to equip students with the tools to be musically successful under stressful conditions? How do we model balance and wellness for students so as not to normalize living with toxic levels of stress?