Music performance anxiety in Portuguese higher education: contextual factors, perceptions, and strategies

Abstract

Music performance anxiety (MPA) affects health, wellbeing, and performance quality. The characteristics of MPA are multifaceted and mainly caused by psychophysiological factors that generate a sense of loss of control. The aims of the present study were to understand MPA in the context of higher music education in Portugal through the individual and collective thoughts and perceptions reported by teachers and students; identify the strategies employed both by teachers during the teaching-learning process for students to cope with the effects of MPA and by the students themselves; and portray the extent of institutional support for students experiencing MPA. We carried out semistructured interviews with 24 students and 12 teachers from four higher education institutions in Portugal and analyzed the data thematically. We identified four overarching themes (perceptions of MPA, strategies, contextual factors, and institutional support) from which 10 subthemes emerged. In addition to confirming the presence of psychophysiological factors experienced before, during, and after performances, the findings suggest that MPA may decrease with years of experience and that teachers’ strategies to counter MPA are limited. Contextual factors, institutional culture, teaching methodology, and lack of institutional support all contribute to the high levels of MPA that continue to be found in higher education institutions. One implication of the study is that there is a clear need for MPA to be discussed in educational institutions with teachers, students, and psychologists.