V.com weekend vote: How do you feel after a recital or major performance?

May 18, 2025 at 09:28 PM · I have never cared much for performance. I think mainly I feel relief that it is finished. I know that the value of making music is certainly a lot about sharing it with others, but it is something that I never really learned to appreciate. I love to make music with other musicians but prefer to not perform.

May 18, 2025 at 10:24 PM · I usually feel inspired after a performance because I think about all the famous violinists and how they must be feeling after performing. It also makes me think about a different perspective. For example, if I perform and it is not so good, I start to understand how hard it is to perform even when it looks easy. If I perform and it is good, then I understand how it feels after a good performance. No matter how the performance goes, I always feel inspired.

May 18, 2025 at 10:38 PM · I voted “Inspired and ready to tackle a new project” - although this depends on the kind of repertoire I’m playing.

During my student years, orchestra concerts left me feeling happy for a break when they were over - partly because of the late evening hours. I found that chamber playing, one player to a part, better suited my free-spirited personality and gave me the post-performance “high” I wanted. Ditto for violin/piano and violin/guitar combos.

As a kid, I learned early to out-bully the nerves for recitals. This made me look forward to putting myself out there and performing again. Still, I can relate to what the cellist in the linked video said. I’m never 100 percent satisfied. There’s always room for improvement.

Now, no longer a student with recitals to plan, I keep “performing” early evenings in the garage during warm weather - about 8 months a year - before I have to move indoors for winter. I don’t know right away who my audiences are - unless a neighbor or passer-by knocks on the garage door and wants to sit in on part of the session. Whatever - having these audiences gives me added incentive to keep in shape and make the sessions as musical as I can, right from the first warm-up notes.

May 18, 2025 at 11:08 PM · As from ~ 'Apostle' of Jascha Heifetz and Nathan Milstein ~ {#4}

Firstly, this again shadowed Subject is now being brought into the Open in a forum created by Editor of Violinist.com, Laurie Niles & it seems to me the Day After or Period Following a Major Musical Violin Teaching Project with pupil's participating in the Annual and I suspect this, End of School Year Violin Recital, may have inspired Laurie to share some of her own after- thoughts and varied emotions which have been expressed to her by various pupil's just following their own Period's of truly focused concentration on the violin recital repertoire they Had to Play and In Public, working more tenaciously perhaps than ever before in their lives thus far, which brought a sense of Exact Purpose to prepare for and prepare seriously as never before gifting each pupil a disciplined Routine of Daily Practise & also engaging a Pianist to accompany violin concert repertoire and mandating a Pianist Must Be a part of The Year End Recital Concert and to add to this, if in a School of Music, i.e., at USC's School of Music when I was attending there or at the Colburn School for end of year grading termed Final Exams, based heavily on the advancement or lack thereof and displayed in public performance of given pupil's it places much more emotional/ professional Nerve Pressure on each pupil and certainly on many unused to performing anything on the violin and publicly! This Is an Unarguable Fact! Much of the 'pressure' varies depending on The Goals aspired to by each individual pupil as earlier here above expressed by a gentleman playing the violin, Lawrence Price {#1} and I do congratulate him for being so candid and on this website truly honest about his preference to Not Play In Public!!! Obviously, his resistance 'inside' himself, had to be overcome to some degree and he Had to Practise to self-protect "himself" From Himself Afterward! And as is quite often the case, Family Members wish to come to hear their relative to lend their moral support to boost the confidence or as many in this situation Families Think!! If we add up all of these factors herein described thus far, imagine other factors such as the Main Event which focuses on the Actual Playing Level/s of the pupil now on Centre Stage with an audience made up of friends well meaning & Family Members so proud of a Violinist Relative yet expecting fellow family member, the Violinist, to sound (and inwardly a hoped for} like Jascha Heifetz if those of younger generations than all of We Baby Boomers all know of!!! If anyone in a Family Is musical that person will likely be a bit more 'realistic' about the public playing of a said relative who is performing music before an audience and in Schools of Music, Professor's of Strings or if from a private Violin Teaching Studio, for The Professor/Teacher whom the pupil knows and trusts, which is much less stressful that what I have described above re performing on a Final Exam in a Recital or a mini concert playing specific violin repertoire before a String Music Faculty with Colleagues of a Violin Professor unknown which does add to Performance Stress and can affect the outcome of said public performance if many Faculty are in the audience.

Much of the Above Focus centers on the specific individual person & the inner attitude toward playing music before an audience! This is again highlighted by Lawrence Price just above who explains his own stance of public performance concluding at the end of his Reply "I love to make music with other musicians but prefer to Not Perform." This I find to be a very truthful via self-explanation which may apply to more violin pupil's than less ...

As for myself, now a Veteran Concert Artist of the Violin, and globally known, having toured many countries throughout the World and playing major violin concerti and giving many Violin & Piano Recitals & with many different Pianist's if touring specific Countries far away from both my residences in London, UK > and in America which certainly required my being pliable and willing to try out various piano accompanists & once in a while, circumstantial situations requiring me to play in public and including Live Television and a filmed performance plus a major International Violin Competition (The 1st Sibelius Int'l Violin Competition in Helsinki, FI, honouring Finnish Composer Hero, Jean Sibelius, performing various violin competition repertoire with a pianist in Finland I'd never met nor made music with publicly and under immense pressure being at the time the Only Jascha Heifetz Violin Pupil in The Sibelius and First International Violin Competition ... It came out more than well, yet one's nerves did have a role in performance Competition Nerves due my representing our country, the USA and knowing I was one of Only 7 Jascha Heifetz Violin Pupil's and that We 7 had been filmed for Release shortly prior to the First Sibelius International Violin Competition held in Helsinki, FI, in 1965 to also honour the Centenery of The Master Composer and whom my mentor, Jascha Heifetz, had championed in playing The Sibelius Violin Concerto across The World loving it so and 'Owning' this magnificent Epic Work for Violin and Orchestra! This Is True Pressure for any who might read this Reply, yet one by then was as prepared for a Global Violin Competition due playing across All of Continental Europe and throughout the UK, and also in America in concert prior to moving to London! My feelings after playing either as a violin soloist with orchestra or in Violin Recital with Piano, vary but if one had to make a "Mostly This" or 'Mostly That' Statement, I would say one comes off the stage exhilirated If one knows one played at my EM Very Best due to the audience response of truly and sincerely enthusiastic applause which gages one's own opinion based not only on the amount of applause but of the 'Vibes' being felt by a said audience and depending on the specific Venue if in Vienna and in the Musikverein, Marvellous with a Full Viennese House Audience applauding and not politely but with Verve and asking for Encore's plus the reality of performing just down the hallway from the Main Concert Hall and home to the Vienna Philharmonic and in Vienna, home of The Grandest Composers of The World over Centuries of Music! Then one will feel fantastic if honoured playing a major violin concerto close to one's heart knowing Everything difficult technically was smooth and felt so good being in masterful control of all technical issues finally overcome in public performance and to major applause yet if not in a major Concert City Venue, a bit remorseful due it not being in a Vienna or Berlin or Zurich! Yet one has had Immense Joy in both Vienna and Zurich and on several occasions knowing I was in Good Concert Form and was welcomed (and a huge factor violin concert soloists sense immediately when walking onto Centre Stage prior to even playing 1 Note!) And when beginning a Tutti Opening by the City Orchestra, again depending on Which City one is performing in, one's nerves calm down or Rev Up but if the Violin Concerto is a major well known favourite, one knows It Is 'A Must' to play at one's Best Top Olympic Level technically to then share the Story Line of the Violin Concerto hidden messages of untold emotional content and to have the orchestral Support of colleagues and The Conductor, and This is Paramount to Greatest Violinist's offerings of say The Brahms; Mozart's; Tchaikovsky; Mendelssohn; The Sibelius and So So Important to be on "Same Page" with All involved emotionally/spiritually for The Sibelius Violin "Monument!" And I termed it "Monument" after a number of performances once one fully realised the significance of being a pupil of Heifetz, trying to represent the Highest Violinistic Standards of Jascha Heifetz, or knowing one Had to Play in a faultless manner and project the very emotional "Prayer" Movement in the Slow Movement of this very Iconic Violin Concerto and Globally Beloved by Audiences world wide ... It is difficult to describe all after the concert feelings of one & myself, after decades of global touring and many performances around the world in various culture's which contribute to one's pre-Concert nerves or lack thereof and one's sensitive concert manners onstage which reflect respect for an audience in Hong Kong far different from an audience in USA's Baltimore, Maryland, more relaxed and knowing the Conductor, Arthur Fiedler, and Always 'On My Side' Musically also with fellow American Colleagues in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra ~

It seems appropriate to conclude my Reply which could go on for a very long time recalling many responses personally & violinistically from an Artist's point of view competing with myself and previous performances on the Same Violin Concerto hopefully making the One just walked off stage from was much more to one's own perception in the mind and heart than that which I projected This Time yet a sort of excitement about Next Time when speaking to a Family Member whom I trusted with my Violinist Life to offer a valued highly Opinion!!

The Only other issue I would mention is being told by a supposed friend in Music just after giving one's All and for a Royal Family Performance globally known about and via TV Attended which came at the invitation to have a meal yet when starting to enjoy a good meal an outburst of rigid criticism about the Chaconne of Bach offered and to Honour the Groom marrying the Bride whilst even publicly dedicating this performance being Live Broadcast, but the person pontificating and almost knocking one down hurt me to the inner core of my own soul and being as a person not just musician ... This is a Risk All Artists and pupil's take when walking onto a Stage with a violin or another string cousin to perform for whatever the occasion and one must know 'Thyself' to take faith and/or decide to avoid situation's which most know after having experienced many performances pre-deciding When and When Not to Perform on the Violin and Publicly ...

~ ~ ~ Thank You, Laurie Niles for This! ~ ~ ~

............. Elisabeth Matesky .............

Fwd ~ dmg {#4} 18th of May, 2025

May 19, 2025 at 07:50 AM · Jim: I'm interested in the the techniques you use "to out-bully the nerves for recitals".

May 19, 2025 at 08:38 AM · It doesn't happen very often these days but I get a huge boost being part of a "major performance", as long as the focus isn't all on me.

May 19, 2025 at 10:30 AM · No idea not a classical player

May 19, 2025 at 10:48 AM · A lot depends on how it went! The traditional way to decompress and perhaps commiserate or celebrate is the afterglow. For your Suzuki studio that might take the form of a slice of cake.

I performed "Meditation from Thais" a week ago with my community orchestra and a nice group went out for margaritas afterward.

May 19, 2025 at 06:37 PM · There is a nice reception afterwards, and a big courtyard where the little ones can run around!

May 19, 2025 at 06:37 PM · There is a nice reception afterwards, and a big courtyard where the little ones can run around while the parents and older kids chat!

May 19, 2025 at 08:11 PM · @Richard - About techniques to out-bully the nerves: One trick I learned early was to play aggressive material first, e.g., something with a series of vigorous attacks and aggressive chords, like the ones you get in the Kreisler “Praeludium and Allegro.” This burned off a lot of adrenaline right at the beginning. Then I could follow with more lyrical rep - like the above-mentioned “Meditation” from Thais - and do justice to it. This method of burning off adrenaline right at the start also helped during auditions.

Additionally, I found that frequent performing was a definite aid.

May 19, 2025 at 11:31 PM · Partly I'm happy to have shared music with people I know or people I don't know but people who enjoyed it.

I'm also freshly aware of where I need to work so that the next time I perform will be better. It's a seesaw and the violin (or viola) is the fulcrum.

May 20, 2025 at 02:11 PM · Usually at the end of the season, I'm ready for the break and looking forward for some personal growth and increased focus on fundamental technique. By August I'm usually antsy to start again. This season was a bit different. We had some cool extra performances, including a once in a lifetime type of experience. I was a bit sad when it was over.

There's were also some new and incredibly talented members. When I first joined, I was younger than the majority and while everyone was always very nice and we've built wonderful relationships, there was little socializing outside of rehearsals. Over the past two years, the demographics have shifted a bit (let's just blow past being 15+ years older than previously LOL). Now there's friendships that extend beyond rehearsals. So now I'm a bit bummed.

May 20, 2025 at 07:53 PM · In my less-than -remarkable career there was one moment when I actually succeeded at achieving a major goal. After the initial excitement there was a strange let-down:-- OK, did that, now what?