At the second - and last - festival I'll ever attend, I saw a ten-year old kid play the finale of a Haydn sonata. He was shaking visibly, and almost pushed onto the stage by a woman (I think it was his teacher). He started much too fast and was totally out of control, with clusters of wrong/missed notes everywhere, and he sped up even more as he desperately played on to the end. There was sympathetic applause from the audience and the judges, but I saw another woman (probably his mother) almost pull him by his ear out of the hall, and he was in tears.
There is a whole universe of difference between wanting to perform and being nervous about it when the time comes to do it and being forced to perform against your will.
I'm all for the first, totally opposed to the second. I have never EVER pushed someone to perform who did not want to do it.
However, we also need to find out what is causing the fear for those who potentially could enjoy it but are missing something that would make them successful.
I am totally opposed to ever playing in front of people from memory without having at least a handful of successful experiences playing in front of people with music.
When people read well, no matter what happens they can recover.
When they play from memory without experience and without training in how to do it, when things go wrong it can be an absolutely terrifying experience that stays with them for the rest of their lives.
My aunt had such a bad experience. My grandmother was a piano teacher, and my aunt had a memory lapse in a "recital" and was terrified ever after of playing in front of people.
My best adult student was forced to play in a recital - I call them "rectals" - and she developed a hate for performing even though she did not have a total wreck.
Even though I eventually learned to play from memory in front of large numbers of people, I hated it and still do.
So a huge amount of the fear comes from the absolute dictatorial and very stupid idea that only performance from memory count as valid performances. This thinking makes me absolutely furious and I have fought against it my entire life.
When you hear people talk about nerves, chances are about 95% that they are talking about performing from memory.
It was the most disheartening and humiliating scene I'd ever seen in my life.
I've seen that kind of thing too. I think teachers like that are utterly disgusting. What kind of heartless control freak does that to kids!!!!
