TY - BOOK
T1 - The twenty-first century concert pianist: a study of performance demands in Australian and European context-free and context-specific environments
AU - Hlinka, Suzanna
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Professional concert piano performance is a highly demanding and unstable profession, yet it permits those committed to it to experience high levels of achievement and satisfaction. By asking about the daily lived experience of emergent concert pianists, the current project adds to and develops the growing area of research, focusing on the demands of the contemporary lifestyle, training and concert conditions – as well as performance expectations and realities – which face the pianist in our times. Drawing on survey data it investigates, through a psychological framework, an understanding of how the young pianist works to achieve a performance and, as part of this process, studies what factors – both contextual and non-contextual – influence the pianist’s progression on a more day-by-day basis. It also investigates the achievements of a highly practised young professional pianist assessing the researcher’s own performances as someone who has studied for 22 years, from three years of age. As well as focusing on reflective practitioner research in a case study on the researcher herself as she prepares Carl Vine’s Rash for performance, empirical study of a cohort of young professional pianists from Europe and Australia was undertaken utilising three surveys of qualitative and quantitative design, to delve into many aspects of their musical life. Data analysis reveals strategic approaches to the preparation and rehearsal of combined acoustic and electro-acoustic music. Also, research confirms the high stress levels found in young pianists, along with acute signs of worry, low health satisfaction and strong desires for a broader knowledge of the marketing/business aspect for the pianist. Relief from work-related stressors included the happiness associated with eating and socialising. These results reflect the researcher’s initial hypothesis in that the contextfree and context-specific environments complement each other to maintain good mental health in the pianist. A Hierarchal Model of Needs Satisfaction for the Pianist is proposed to portray and explain the factors required in order to become a competent and confident pianist in the 21st Century.
AB - Professional concert piano performance is a highly demanding and unstable profession, yet it permits those committed to it to experience high levels of achievement and satisfaction. By asking about the daily lived experience of emergent concert pianists, the current project adds to and develops the growing area of research, focusing on the demands of the contemporary lifestyle, training and concert conditions – as well as performance expectations and realities – which face the pianist in our times. Drawing on survey data it investigates, through a psychological framework, an understanding of how the young pianist works to achieve a performance and, as part of this process, studies what factors – both contextual and non-contextual – influence the pianist’s progression on a more day-by-day basis. It also investigates the achievements of a highly practised young professional pianist assessing the researcher’s own performances as someone who has studied for 22 years, from three years of age. As well as focusing on reflective practitioner research in a case study on the researcher herself as she prepares Carl Vine’s Rash for performance, empirical study of a cohort of young professional pianists from Europe and Australia was undertaken utilising three surveys of qualitative and quantitative design, to delve into many aspects of their musical life. Data analysis reveals strategic approaches to the preparation and rehearsal of combined acoustic and electro-acoustic music. Also, research confirms the high stress levels found in young pianists, along with acute signs of worry, low health satisfaction and strong desires for a broader knowledge of the marketing/business aspect for the pianist. Relief from work-related stressors included the happiness associated with eating and socialising. These results reflect the researcher’s initial hypothesis in that the contextfree and context-specific environments complement each other to maintain good mental health in the pianist. A Hierarchal Model of Needs Satisfaction for the Pianist is proposed to portray and explain the factors required in order to become a competent and confident pianist in the 21st Century.
KW - Piano reflective practice
KW - Performance lifestyle
KW - Concert pianist
M3 - Doctoral Thesis
ER -