Page 111 - How to Shine on Stage

sitions among occupational roles (Bennett, 2009; Throsby & Zednik,
2011). Being a self-employed musician in culture is especially stressful
(Mills, 2004). The multifaceted nature of professional identity challeng-
es music performers with a number of professional demands in the or-
ganizational, interpersonal, and personal domains (van Selms et al.,
2023).
The impact of physical demands on the physical health of perform-
ing musicians has been extensively studied (Ackermann et al., 2012;
Gembris et al., 2018; Kok et al., 2016; Rickert et al., 2013). It has been 109
found that the musical performer profession is extremely demanding and
that the fear of physical injury and actual physical injuries resulting from
occupational overstrain are significant sources of stress.
Interpersonal relationships, which are many and varied (with col-
leagues, management, the audience, the media, etc.), also significantly
contribute to these musicians’ experience of stress. A harmonious work
environment has been found to have a significant impact on job satisfac-
tion in musicians (Dobson & Gaunt, 2015; Lim, 2014), thereby reducing
stress. In the personal domain, the main sources of stress tend to be per-
fectionism and coping with performance anxiety (Kenny, 2011).
Most of the research that has examined stress in musicians has fo-
cused on stress in orchestral musicians (Bartel & Thompson, 2021;
Gembris et al., 2018; Lipovšek, 2017; Parasuraman & Nachman, 1987;
Persson, 1994; Piperek, 1981; Schmale & Schmidtke, 1985; van Selms
et al., 2023; Steptoe, 1989); Steptoe (1989) has found that as many as
21 of 65 members of British orchestras experienced high levels of per-
formance anxiety. Persson (1994) observed in his research on the occu-
pational stress in orchestral musicians that the most frequent reported
stressors were concert performances, group and individual practices,
playing in small ensembles, irregular working hours which often conflict
with family life, teaching, and high concentration during concerts which
consequently causes sleep disturbances.
Piperek (1981) and Steptoe (1989) have concluded that musicians re-
ported among the stressors they experience in their profession the fear
of making mistakes, the fear of a decline in their musical skills with age,
anonymity in a group of people, tensions between orchestra members,
conductor’s incompetence, and the inability to influence the choice of a
musical programme. Schmale and Schmidtke (1985) report that among
1,800 German orchestral musicians, 28% experience sleep disturbanc-
es, 52% are sensitive to weather changes, and 58% experience various
problems related to the music profession. Often, various personality dis-