When the great Pyotr Iliych Tchaikovsky composed his famous Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1874 (see below for a clip), he took it to Nicolas Rubinstein, a brilliant pianist, to get a virtuoso’s opinion. Unfortunately, all Mr Rubinstein could deliver was a torrent of words on how bad the composition was. Tchaikovsky was so offended by Rubinstein’s damming comments, he didn’t have the courage to perform the piece in public for another year, afraid that audiences would react in the same way.

Listen to a Newsline interview with Esther van Fenema:

This is every musician’s nightmare, being too afraid  to go on stage and do the things you are convinced of being good at. Stage fright comes in all shapes and sizes but its effects can be devastating for some musicians or other performing artists.
 

Clinic
Dutch psychiatrist Esther van Fenema – who also happens to be a professional classical violinist – has set up the Netherlands’ first out patient psychiatric clinic for performing artists. The clinic's purpose is to help them overcome any mental problems caused by the stress of their job. “Stage fright is the main problem which is connected to their profession”, she says. “I’ve also seen people suffering from depression, post traumatic stress and addiction”.
 

Identity
The fact that Ms Van Fenema is a musician herself led to the idea for the clinic, which is based in the Medical Academic Centre at Leiden University. “I think musicians are a very special group of people”, she says. “They start studying their art at a very young age,  so music becomes a major part of their identity. If they suffer from mental problems, it’s important for them to be treated by someone who knows what their professional life is like and the pressures that come with it”.
 

Perfect note
The pressures that musicians have to endure can be very high, Ms Van Fenema notes. “Just performing in front of a live audience is one thing, but if you want to reach that one perfect note, or play that very difficult piece flawlessly, then the pressure can be unbearable. Some musicians simply lose their confidence with dramatic results”.

She has seen musicians who have become incapable of performing, forced to abruptly end their careers. “Until now, most doctors simply suggested that they forget about music and do something else”.
 

Approach
Ms Van Fenema’s approach is different. “There are good treatments for these problems”, she says. “There’s medication, such as beta blockers,  but there’s also psychotherapy. In that, we try to attack the fatalistic thoughts that might inhibit one’s pleasure of performing”.

The new clinic has received praise from the music world but there are also critics who say it’s just a luxury problem, an approach which is not helped by many musicians, who tell themselves to just   ‘get over it’ and go on stage regardless.  “The music world is a tough world. It’s not usual to talk about it with your colleagues. Psychiatric problems are still a taboo, sadly”, Ms Van Fenema says.
 

Rock
Until now, the clinic has only seen classical musicians. Pop and rock musicians haven’t yet knocked on Ms Van Fenema’s door. “That’s something I’d like to do research about, to see if there are personality differences between classical musicians and rock musicians”, she says. “Perhaps the level of perfection in classical music is higher. When you play a Bach sonata and you make a mistake, that’s probably more obvious than when you’re playing a rock song”.
 

Despite the pressures, most musicians eventually overcome their stage fright and return to performing. Tchaikovsky managed this by asking a musician friend for a second opinion. That friend called it a masterpiece, after which Tchaikovsky finally had the courage to perform it in public to great response and his Piano Concerto No. 1 became his most revered work – despite Nicolas Rubinstein’s comments.

See a performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 as performed by Lang Lang - not suffering from stage fright!

Photo by Remo (at flickr.com)