SAM DINGMAN: This coming weekend marks the kickoff of the 2025 Flagstaff Piano Festival. Pianists of all skill levels will gather for a week of workshops, recitals and master classes, including a session on performance anxiety.
Silvan Negrutiu, the festival’s artistic director, he told me that for a true performer, managing your emotions is just as important as mastering your technique.
SILVAN NEGRUTIU: It's a central part of what we have to cope with as performers. We get shaky hands, perhaps shaky legs. There are extreme cases where there is a situation kind of like the mind goes blank. And, especially for us, as classical pianists, playing from memory on stage, that can create very difficult situations. It's the fear of messing up on stage and being embarrassed in front of an audience.
SAM DINGMAN: Yeah. Well, I just to say, I mean, I think that's a really important point you're making there, which is that it's not a skill issue. It's not that they don't know the material or aren't prepared. It's something about the idea of performing it. Right?
NEGRUTIU: I think, unfortunately, at times it could be both.
DINGMAN: OK. [LAUGHS]
NEGRUTIU: [LAUGHS] And that's why any talk on performance anxiety that I give begins with the emphasis on preparation. Because of course, if we are not fully prepared for a performance, then we have all the reasons to be anxious about it.
DINGMAN: Yeah. [LAUGHS]
NEGRUTIU: But, you know, scientific studies show that, at our best on stage, as performers, we probably give around 80% of what we can. And therefore, my philosophy is that in order to give that, we really need to be prepared 150% to give our best. And then, we begin the conversation about performance anxiety that is not necessarily related to lack of preparation.
DINGMAN: Yeah. Well, so let's assume that someone's preparation to the 150% level, as you were putting it, is in place. What are some of the ways that you talk to your students about these other issues that can crop up even if you've done all your homework? What are some of the reasons you find that these anxiety symptoms manifest themselves?
NEGRUTIU: As pianists, especially, we spend many hours every day in a locked room between four walls, just with a piano.
DINGMAN: Yeah.
NEGRUTIU: And the way we feel in the practice room — in that comfort zone — is very different from the way we feel on stage. And there is a great disconnect there that needs to be mended, so to speak. When we walk on stage, all of a sudden we become hyperaware of every single gesture, of every single note — every finger that we use on every key.
DINGMAN: That's very interesting. So, if I'm hearing you right, you're saying that the key to mitigating performance anxiety is finding a way of having the performance environment as part of your consciousness when you're in the practice room?
NEGRUTIU: Correct. And there are really only two ways to do that. Either find a way to feel onstage the way you want to feel in the practice room.
DINGMAN: Right.
NEGRUTIU: Which is very difficult to do and probably impossible for most, or to bring the level of awareness in the practice room to the one on stage. So, for instance, when I prepare for a performance, I sit at the piano at home or in my studio, and I close my eyes and I imagine that I'm on stage.
Another method, given the readily accessible technology in our pockets, that I advise my students to do is to record themselves with video on their phones. It's like here, in the studio, once it says on-air in red, there is a certain level of, I mean, a little bit of nerves that come with that. And of course. ... If you probably think back to the first time you were on-air, you were probably more nervous than you are now.
DINGMAN: Yes. Yes.
NEGRUTIU: That's because you did it so much and so frequently,
DINGMAN: Right.
NEGRUTIU: That you learn how it goes, what you need to do to prepare for it. ... And you know what to expect.
DINGMAN: Yes.
NEGRUTIU: And it's the same for us. Exactly the same. So, back to the recording, once we press that red button on the phone, there is a certain level of nerves that come with that, that make us focus in a more elevated way if we don't do that. And another, part to it, of course, is to do it as much as possible, even if it's in front of two friends, family — doesn't matter. But just to perform in front of someone.
DINGMAN: Yeah.
NEGRUTIU: As much as possible, and ideally to be ready with a piece so early in advance that one has the chance to perform the same piece many, many times. Because with each performance we learn what we should be nervous about in that piece.
DINGMAN: Right. There's the 150% in terms of learning and mastery in the music at the level of technique and interpretation. ... And then there is another layer of preparation in terms of preparing for the circumstance in which you have to deliver that technique and interpretation.
NEGRUTIU: Correct.
DINGMAN: So, Silvan, one of the reasons this is very interesting to me is because at a somewhat deeper level in my mind, and please, tell me if you disagree. This also gets at what the intention of learning the music and learning the instrument is in the first place.
NEGRUTIU: Of course. I mean, being a performer implies sharing music with others. There are musicians. They tend to be mostly amateur musicians who want to master their skills, to be able to play for themselves and to just enjoy the process of sitting at the piano or picking up another instrument and playing at home, alone. But, if we are performing musicians, playing in front of an audience is just, in a way, the ultimate goal.
DINGMAN: I would have to imagine that in teaching these classes and workshops with students, you might suddenly find yourself in very emotionally volatile territory.
NEGRUTIU: Yes, it does happen. But, I always mention this to my students in one of their first lessons: I will be like your doctor. Nobody else will know all your issues and weaknesses, but I will. And in order to get better at anything we need, we need to address those head on.
The word education comes from educere, which in its original form, basically means to draw something out of someone rather than to put something into someone. And every individual has something special about themselves. And I make it my goal as a teacher to draw that special, unique aspect out of each student because anything that makes us unique is a strength. ... And, is important to developing their individual voice.
DINGMAN: Well, Silvan Negrutiu is artistic director at Flagstaff Piano Festival and the director of piano studies at the Kitt School of Music at Northern Arizona University. Silvan, thank you for this conversation.
NEGRUTIU: My pleasure, Sam.
