I have a question for you...what do you tell young performers who get performance anxiety?  My amazing daughter absolutely is wonderful in ensembles; she's lost in the music and there's sheer joy on her face.  Solos are another thing.  It's odd because this is something that has developed as the ante has been upped with juries, etc.  She's such a perfectionist and so hard on herself, that at times she literally makes herself ill before juries. 

 

The last one (last week) actually turned out disastrous (circumstances colluded against her)...

 

Her piece was accompanied, and written for solo tuning.  I'm sure you're familiar with this, but in solo tuning, it's written a step up from the piano score.  She ordered her piece,  and it didn't arrive in time (she ordered it a long time ago too), so rather than transpose on the spot during a jury, she tuned up  a step.  Makes perfect sense, except that on her bass the action is really high...tuning up made the damn thing nearly unplayable.  When her private instructor heard what she did, he was shocked and said "You couldn't make a sound could you."  She said, "Well, I played the piece, but it the tone was awful."  He was impressed she got a sound out of it at all.

 

Her jurors were not bassists (2 pianists and a trumpet player), and though they saw her tuning up, it didn't send off any flags.  They had no clue that she was setting herself up for failure, and this jury is the one to decide if she gets upper division status for her performance major.  Well.  After the fact, her instructor said "If this ever happens again, you play unaccompanied.  DO NOT EVER tune up a step."  Half way through, she was so traumatized listening to what was coming out of her instrument that she nearly threw up on stage.  In fact, as soon as she was done, she laid her instrument down and fled to the bathroom.

 

This is so very uncharacteristic of her.  If you knew her, you'd know that she is one of the most confident young women...except for this situation.  I want to find a way to help her through this, for you know better than I that as a performance musician, there's nothing but solo auditions in her future.

 

Any advice?

Thanks for letting me pick your brain...

 

ps: she gets to rejury in January...the panel were quite understanding after her instructor informed them of the issues at hand...in fact...at first, during the jury, they were really concerned because what they heard was SO UNLIKE their experiences with my girl...