241 Beyond the Practice Room: What Four Top Experts Want You to Know About Performance
Release Date: 11/17/2025
263 What Winning The Audition Actually Took - My 90 Days of Preparation, Performance Training, And Building Trust Under Pressure
The Mind Over Finger Podcast
What does it actually take to win a major orchestra audition? In this deeply personal episode, I take you behind the scenes of my winning audition for the Lyric Opera Orchestra at 47 years old. I’m sharing the real preparation process, the mental work, the conditioning, and the mindset shifts that carried me through 90 days of intense preparation and into the audition room. In this episode: • How I prepared mentally, physically, and musically while working full time and raising a family • Why trust under pressure matters more than “feeling confident” • The surprising gap between...
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262 From Battling Doubt To Dancing With It -How Robert Sanders Learned To Trust Himself Under Pressure
The Mind Over Finger Podcast
What if confidence is not the absence of doubt? In this deeply honest conversation, violinist Robert Sanders shares what changed internally as he navigated auditions, pressure, comparison, and eventually won a full time position with the Bruckner Orchestra Linz. This episode is not about becoming fearless. It’s about learning how to stop fighting yourself so aggressively underneath the pressure. In this episode: • Why self doubt does not disappear even at a high level • How Robert shifted from battling doubt to “dancing” with it • The surprising mindset shift that changed his...
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261 You Can Play Better Than This - Why You Don’t Sound Like Yourself Under Pressure
The Mind Over Finger Podcast
You know that feeling when you walk off stage thinking, “I can play so much better than this”? In this episode, I unpack three powerful patterns I saw during the Musicians Edge Challenge with more than 300 musicians and why so many performers lose access to themselves under pressure even when they’ve prepared brilliantly. In this episode: • Why your best playing can feel impossible to recreate on demand • What really happens when a different version of you shows up on stage • Why many musicians keep trying to solve the wrong problem If you’re ready to close the gap between how...
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260 The Journey to Winning — How Marie-Michel Beauparlant Reclaimed Her Confidence and Her Career
The Mind Over Finger Podcast
If you've ever stood in the wings before a performance and wondered how you got there — not in a good way — this episode is for you. Marie-Michel Beauparlant is an accomplished cellist, a mom of twins, and one of the most honest guests we've had on the show. She talks about the years she spent hiding behind section playing because solo performing felt impossible, the guilt of chasing an audition with six-month-old twins at home, and what it actually took to go from dreading the spotlight to being, as she puts it herself, a little addicted to it. This is a real conversation about the...
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259 Why Trying Harder Makes It Worse - The Hidden Cognitive Habit That's Sabotaging Your Best Work
The Mind Over Finger Podcast
You know that feeling when you nail a passage in rehearsal, and then the harder you try to repeat it, the faster it falls apart? In this solo episode, Dr. Renée-Paule reveals why the desire to play well is often the very thing getting in your way. This one hits close to home for any musician who has ever spiraled mid-performance wondering why their preparation suddenly feels like it vanished. · The reason a passage that felt effortless on the first attempt can completely unravel by the third, and why it has nothing to do with your technique. ...
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258 The Audition You've Been Capable of All Along - The Missing Piece Most Audition Prep Completely Skips
The Mind Over Finger Podcast
You've prepared the excerpts. You've done the mock auditions. You've done everything right — and something still slips when it matters most. In this episode, Dr. Renée-Paule Gauthier gets to the heart of what's actually separating the players who walk off feeling like themselves from the ones who walk off wondering what just happened. The answer isn't what you think — and it's more within your reach than you realize. In this episode: · Why the problem is almost never the excerpts · The...
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257 The Practice Room Lie: Why Pressure Hijacks Your Performance, and What to Do About It
The Mind Over Finger Podcast
You practiced it a thousand times. You knew it cold. And then you walked on stage and something vanished. If that sounds familiar, this episode is for you. Renee breaks down one of the most frustrating and misunderstood experiences in a musician's life: the gap between how you play in the practice room and how you play under pressure. More importantly, she explains exactly why it happens and why practicing more is often not the answer. In this episode: · Why the practice room and the stage are literally different brain states, and what that...
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256 Strong Body, Fearless Stage - Shannon Kiewitt on How Movement Builds the Confidence to Perform at Your Best
The Mind Over Finger Podcast
What if the thing holding back your performance had nothing to do with how many hours you practice? Gunnery Sergeant Shannon Kiewitt, clarinetist with "The President's Own" United States Marine Band and fitness coach for musicians, has spent years performing at the highest level without a single performance-related injury. In this conversation, she shares exactly how fitness transforms not just your body, but your sound, your confidence, and your career. In this episode: · Why posture and physical imbalances affect the way you sound ...
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255 Working Hard and Going Nowhere? How to break the cycle that's keeping you stuck.
The Mind Over Finger Podcast
You're putting in the hours. You're showing up. So why does it still feel like nothing is moving? This episode gets right to the heart of that frustration and offers a way out. In this episode: · Why repetition without intention reinforces the problem, not the solution · The real difference between practicing notes and practicing performance · How the inner critic silently derails your practice session ...
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254 Finding Your Way Back to Playing - Gabriel Radford on rebuilding after fear, injury, and loss of control
The Mind Over Finger Podcast
If you've ever felt your body work against you in a performance, if tension, fear, or a loss of control has crept into your playing and you don't know why, and if you've wondered whether it can actually get better, this episode is for you. Gabriel Radford, Third Horn of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, was diagnosed with focal dystonia at the height of his career. He came back playing better than before, and co-founded the Embouchure Project to help other musicians do the same. This conversation is honest, practical, and full of things musicians rarely hear spoken out loud. What you'll take...
info_outlineIn this special episode, recorded live at New World Symphony’s Wellness Week, four leading voices in musician wellness come together to share powerful strategies for navigating the mental, physical, and emotional demands of a music career.
You’ll learn:
· How to recover from a tough performance without spiraling into shame or self-doubt
· The mindset shift that separates your identity from your results
· Why your body holds the key to emotional regulation and performance ease
· How to build self-trust by understanding your nervous system
· Tools to manage your inner critic and perfectionist tendencies
· Practical ways to bring more awareness and intention into your practice
· Why real growth requires both mental flexibility and physical freedom
· How collaborative wellness approaches are changing the future of classical music
Featuring insights from:
· Dr. Noa Kageyama – Performance psychologist, Juilliard faculty, and creator of The Bulletproof Musician - https://bulletproofmusician.com/
· Lori Schiff – Master Alexander Technique teacher and long-time Juilliard faculty member - https://www.lorischiff.com/
· Dr. Coree Levy – Performance medicine and recovery expert working with elite musicians and athletes - https://www.drcoreelevy.com/
· Renée-Paule Gauthier – Violinist, performance coach, and host of the Mind Over Finger Podcast - https://www.mindoverfinger.com/
This conversation is packed with tools and insights you can start using right away to show up with more freedom, confidence, and clarity in your musical life.
If you’re ready to step on stage with confidence, perform at your best, and finally feel secure in your playing, let’s talk! Book a free discovery call and let’s create a plan to get you there.
Are you ready to take your playing and career to the next level and create a life that feels purposeful and joyful? Let’s connect and explore how personalized coaching can support your journey. Click here to schedule your free consultation, and let’s start turning your goals into reality.
Book your FREE Music Mastery Experience Discovery call with Renée HERE
Book your free consultation with Renée HERE
Download the transcript from this episode HERE
Mind Over Finger
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THANK YOU:
Most sincere thank you to composer Jim Stephenson who graciously provided the show’s musical theme: Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra – Movement 2: Allegro con Brio, performed by Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and the Lake Forest Symphony, conducted by Jim Stephenson.