Abstract

"Should musical success be the only source of self-worth?"

Abstract:
Musicians are exposed to extreme stress in many situations in their professional lives and have to deal with performance anxiety and stage fright in a special way. Performance coaching, boosting self-esteem or even yoga, for example, are popular and successful strategies to enable joyful, easier and creative music-making despite stage fright.
However, beta-blockers are also repeatedly recommended and prescribed by doctors and teachers for performance anxiety. In 2018, Berlin psychoanalyst Helmut Möller estimated that between 30 and 50 percent of all musicians in the orchestras use tranquilizers. It must therefore be assumed that every second or third professional musician in Germany has taken beta-blockers at some point.

Vita:
Prof. Dr. Daniel S. Scholz - Professor of Musicians' Health, Psychologist, Behavioral Psychotherapist
Since winter semester 2022/23, Daniel Sebastian Scholz occupies the new position jointly established by both universities, namely University of Music and the University of Lübeck (Germany), for research, teaching, and consultation purposes, with a focus on the mental health of musicians. Daniel Sebastian Scholz studied psychology and jazz composition in Marburg and Osnabrück. He obtained his doctorate at the Center for Systems Neuroscience in Hannover. Since 2011, he has worked as a research associate at the Institute of Music Physiology and Musicians' Medicine at the University of Music, Theater, and Media in Hannover, and since 2021, Prof. Dr. Scholz has been practicing as a licensed clinical psychotherapist, specializing in behavioral therapy with a focus on the mental health of music professionals.