Growing older in a symphony orchestra: The development of the age-related self-concept and the self-estimated performance of professional musicians in a lifespan perspective

Abstract

The use of the lifespan perspective as a reference point for analysing and researching the musical and artistic development of professional musicians has only recently begun to attract more attention amongst music researchers and educators and amongst musicians themselves. The knowledge about the processes of aging and their influences on making music is especially scarce. This study presents the results of a representative questionnaire on the issue of growing older in a symphony orchestra. A total of 2,536 professional musicians aged between 20 and 69 from 133 German Kulturorchester took part in the survey. The orchestral musicians were asked about a range of issues, including their own perception of their age, how the perks of being a musician change over time and how they manage declining performance caused by aging. The results show how the years between 40 and 50 are a time of change. During this period, musicians feel they leave their youth behind and join the older age group. This is also the time when they feel they have left behind their period of peak musical performance and are now on a downward slope. The majority of musicians notice that their performance is declining due to a range of age-related factors that can be divided into four categories: physical problems, cognitive problems, sensory organ problems and psychological problems. These findings confirm the inverted J-curve that was described in previous studies on the topic of peak musical performance.

Flow and music performance anxiety: The influence of contextual and background variables

“…The current study’s response rate was comparable with other studies (Fishbein et al, 1987; Gembris & Heye, 2014; Kenny et al, 2014), although the conclusions that can be drawn are limited by the absence of data for those musicians who chose not to participate. Furthermore, due to its cross-sectional nature, the current study was unable to provide information on the progression of flow and MPA across a lifetime of orchestral playing; longitudinal studies are necessary to provide this.…”

“…The current study found no evidence of an association between MPA and age, although there was evidence of a positive association between age and flow not observed in other domains (Riva et al, 2017). It is possible that older players’ higher flow may help to “protect” them from increasing concerns about a deterioration in skills with age (Gembris & Haye, 2014) and account for evidence of increasing job satisfaction with age (Gembris et al, 2014, 2018). There is evidence that orchestral musicians enjoy their work (Brodsky, 2006; Smith, 1989), a higher proportion of musicians retain active careers beyond retirement age than in the non-musician population (Brodsky, 2011), and it appears that older musicians are valued in the orchestral workplace (Brandfonbrener, 2003; Smith, 1989).…”

Computational elucidation of the effects induced by music making

“…This is in line with the well-known gradual personality changes throughout life, where personality in older age becomes quite different from personality in childhood [60,61]. Although research into musical development in a lifespan perspective has been accumulating in the past decade or so [62,63], more specific research is required to conclude whether improvisational abilities and expressiveness change from younger to older ages, and if so—why. Here, we also suggest a changed characteristic.…”

A Physiotherapeutic Approach to Musicians' Health – Data From 614 Patients From a Physiotherapy Clinic for Musicians (INAP/O)

“…In this article, the emphasis is put on the impact of physical therapy since epidemiology shows that the highest number of functional disorders in instrumentalists is from (neuro-) musculoskeletal (Fry, 1986;Fishbein and Middlestadt, 1988;Middlestadt and Fisbein, 1989;Brown, 1997;Dawson, 2002;Engquist et al, 2004;Bragge et al, 2005;Fjellman-Wiklund and Chesky, 2006;Abréu-Ramos and Micheo, 2007;Bruno et al, 2008;Hincapié et al, 2008;Ackermann et al, 2012;Gembris and Heye, 2014;Baadjou et al, 2016;Kok et al, 2016), a clinical field where physical therapists are acknowledged as skilled and autonomous practitioners for a long time (Chan et al, 2013a;.…”