"I grew up in Poland where we have "special" music schools. That means that when you're seven years old and you're supposed to go to a regular school, you can choose the music school instead. You attend two schools in the same building: you have normal school subjects like literature, history, math, etc., and music school subjects like cello lessons, piano lessons, music history, music literature, rhythmic, ear training, and orchestra. So I started my adventure fully - 100% in :) ... and I completely felt in love.

At the end of primary school (when I was 10?), the school orchestra was not enough, so I started to join a youth orchestra in the city. If I remember correctly, we rehearsed twice a week and on Saturdays. We had concerts almost every month. My parents drove me there and back, which probably made them crazy... I should say thank you for that because it was worth it.

When I was 12, I went to high music school, which was the same in the morning for normal lessons and in the afternoon for all the music lessons, chamber music, and orchestra. So I was 12 when I left for my first orchestra international tour to France (for two weeks). I was the youngest in the orchestra, and stress was extremely high, but I was with my best friend - she played viola - so we enjoyed ourselves a lot. A year later, I went on a two-week tour to France again and later on to Germany. I came back to regular school classes 2.5 months after the year started because I got sick after and during traveling with orchestras, and the teachers from biology told me I would not pass the year because I had too much backlog. So, for the next six months, I studied, practiced, and slept for 3-4 hours per day... and I passed the year. I was also attending this youth city orchestra. I had amazing chamber music - a string quartet with which we had lots of concerts. But it was not enough for me. Every summer, I went to the Orchestra Summer Course in Pulawy in Poland, where the main focus was an orchestra, chamber music, and English. The first time I was younger, and in the orchestra, we played Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings. For chamber music, I had Mendelssohn's Octet. I was freaking out, practicing for nine hours per day, which, as a 12-year-old kid, was a lot and very hard to play. But all the advice from a cellist coacher stayed with me until today when I need to play excerpts on an audition.

 

During high school, we went on international orchestra tours every year or twice a year when I was graduating high school at 18 years old. I had 12 years of experience in the orchestra at school with nine international tours, tons of chamber music, city youth orchestra, thousands of concerts, exams from chamber music, and solo cello.

My favorite place in the orchestra? Leader of the group. I always loved this - a little bit more exciting pressure on me during the rehearsal and performance. I started my study at the Academy of Music in Cracow, where the orchestra was a study subject as well. We had concerts every month. That was a time when I went to the International Youth Orchestra for the first time, and I met young people from Europe who loved to play in the section as much as I did. Berlin Philharmonic, Beyrouth, and many more places were where I played, learned from international coaches, and followed more and more.

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Throughout my life, I have been taught by principal cellists from major orchestras around the world. After my cello lessons, I would attend concerts to see them perform, leading their sections and playing everything they had taught me. For most orchestra projects, I served as the leader of the group. However, studying in Sweden taught me how important and difficult it is to sit in the last chair of the section. This new experience made me realize that while it's a pleasure to sit in the first chair, it's even more important to sit in the last. During five years of study, I spent most of my time sitting in the back chairs or in the middle of the section, which gave me a better understanding of the entire section structure. In the last year of my Master's degree in Orchestra Symphony Performance in Gothenburg, I was the leader for almost every project. The very hard work of preparation helped me understand that the first chair cellist's responsibility is to help the entire section play better.

My love for playing in orchestras has never waned. In 2015, I received a scholarship to the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra in the USA. One month in New York, preparing for the final concert at Carnegie Hall with musicians from over 100 countries, made me realize how many different playing and practicing styles there are, which inspired my Master's Thesis. As part of that experience, I attended the National Orchestra Institute at the University of Maryland in Washington, D.C. in 2018, where I learned more about American methods of practicing and mental training. I knew right away that this would change my life.

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And that is what happened...

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I started to study, read, and do research about the American method of practice and the mental method of practice. Suddenly, I discovered that during 20 years of my music education, I always practiced and learned how to play the cello, but no one ever taught me how to perform.

I discovered that in some major music schools around the world, they actually have classes where the student has an opportunity to learn how to perform on stage, and how to perform under pressure. It is not about anxiety or fright, which of course most musicians feel or have experienced those feelings, but they teach how to show their best, full potential, and full engagement during the performance. They were so smart that they took all their knowledge from sports, coaches, athletes, and trainers who focus on how to get prepared for the Olympic Games. How smart was that! They practice for 4 years or more, and then during one day, one hour, or one moment, they have an opportunity to win the gold medal. So Performance Science has been created naturally by the sports department, but the music world is taking that knowledge, transforming it, and using it to teach musicians how to show their best during a short time on the stage, under pressure, when it counts the most.

It has been fascinating to see the results in my own playing and seeing my new colleagues doing that, getting to know all the community and international networks created by people who are into it as much as I am. It has been a quite new thing, and there are not so many trainers around, not so many institutes, teachers, and researchers. Most of them, the same as I am, are doing their own practice, searching for new methods, trying to apply them to musicians, and finding what brings the best results. But after 7 years of researching this topic, I know that this is the future for musicians and orchestras. I would say European orchestras have to hurry up because Americans have done that in the last 10 years, which means they will run away, and we need to catch them before they run too far. Otherwise, we will soon notice the same gap that exists between American athletes in the Olympics and the rest of the world.

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That is why I created Performing Mind.

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I would like to share my knowledge and experience with mental training and how to perform under pressure to help individual musicians and the entire orchestra group. These methods not only support each other in the group but also raise the level of the orchestra, allowing musicians to develop and perform even better. I found coaches in Australia who are conducting research and training, and after seeing their methods, I am impressed and see the future of orchestra playing changing and opening new possibilities

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