This master project addresses the problem of stage fright in a musical performance context. To meet my personal, uncomfortable feelings of stage fright, I decided to “prepare” my body for such situations by doing breathing exercises developed by Ilse Middendorf (The Perceptible Breath). With help and support of the Berliner Centrum für Musikermedizin at the Charité the project became a pilot study about how Ilse Middendorf's breathing exercises could minimize bodily stress of a non-wind instrument player in a stress situation.

Following method was applied. I did breathing exercises over a period of six weeks. I made three recordings of the same cello piece that I know well (Josef Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D-major, 1. movement, exposition): before the six-week period, in the middle of it and at the end. The recordings represent the stress situations. The impact of breathing exercises on my cello practice and recordings were evaluated in three ways. I documented my subjective perceptions of my personal development with a questionnaire and a report. The objective results were then documented in two ways. The three recordings were sent out to professional audience members who did not know in which order recordings were done. They listened and rated them in order of their quality. Finally, I measured a series of body parameters which indicate the level of stage fright (e.g. heart rate, finger temperature, blood pressure) before and after the recordings.

The results of my project are quite encouraging. On the subjective level, I felt less stress, more musicality and a new body awareness. The recordings were rated by audience members in exactly the order in which I recorded them which indicates a musical quality improvement. The body measurements showed that breathing exercises lead to a decrease in bodily stress symptoms (blood pressure and heart rate).