An inverstigation into the choral singer’s experience of music performance anxiety

The purpose of this study was to examine the performance experiences of choral sing-ers with respect to music performance anxiety. Members of seven semiprofessional choirs (N = 201) completed questionnaires pertaining to their experience of perfor-mance anxiety in the context of their performance history, their experience with con-ductors, and their use of coping mechanisms. Results indicated that performance anxiety was a common experience for these choral singers. Solo performances were reported to be more anxiety inducing than ensemble experiences, but performing in instrumental ensembles induced greater anxiety than choral ensembles. Participants with college music training reported less frequent, although not less severe, episodes of performance anxiety than those without. The conductor emerged as one of the pri-mary factors in choral singers ’ experience of performance anxiety