NEWS

If you have missed seeing Mark Bain, trumpet, onstage this year, it is because he and his family packed up their Tassie life to head north for 12 months, taking an opportunity to spend time together as well as giving Mark the opportunity to focus on another passion - studies into peak performance psychology and performance anxiety. Having recently launched facebook page, Performance Under Pressure, he has generously taken time to give us an update on his busy life where it turns out a sabbatical can be just as action packed as a standard working year!

Our Philanthropy team member, Cath Adams asked Mark a few quick questions to find out more…

Mark, what have you been up to since you left the TSO?

My family and I have been having a great year up in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales. We based ourselves in Lennox Head, after a road trip to get up here, exploring the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, over to Adelaide to visit my family, through country N.S.W. and then up the east coast.

My wife, Jillian, and I have been running toddler music classes in Byron Bay each week, which have been great fun, and our own girls are keeping us on our toes! We have given masterclasses at the regional conservatoriums around here, helped out local community orchestras and I was invited to tutor at the Australian Youth Orchestra’s Young Symphonists program in Melbourne in April. I also attended a week-long International Symposium on Performance Science in Melbourne in July, which was one of the most inspiring and interesting weeks of learning I’ve had.

Tell us about why you formed Performance Under Pressure, why it is important and what you want to achieve moving forward.

Performance Under Pressure aims to help musicians overcome their nerves, anxiety, and fear associated with performance situations. It has been something that I’ve been working on for the past few years, and this year has given me the opportunity to get everything up and running. I think it is an incredibly important area that isn’t widely covered in music education, especially at the high school age group when performance anxiety starts to become an issue.

Are you still getting a chance to play Trumpet very much?

I started the year taking a few months off playing completely, probably the first time I’ve had more than a couple of weeks break in around 25 years! Having a bit of time away from daily practice has been great and given me the time to pursue other interests for a while.  But I’ll have to get back into a more regular practice schedule soon in preparation for next year.

What are you looking forward to next year?

Next year I look forward to building on my work from this year and continue to reach out to as many people in the music community as possible.

Whilst I am enjoying the lovely warm weather up here, I do miss looking at the mountain every day, the smell of wood smoke in winter, and being able to walk everywhere in Hobart, so I am looking forward to getting back to Tassie soon, and onstage with the TSO!

 

For more information on Performance Under Pressure visit: www.performanceUP.com.au