This is the 2nd in a 3-part interview I did with pianist Emily Trapp Jenkins. If you haven’t listened to Part 1, you may do so here.
Ms. Jenkins is a collaborative pianist at Arkansas State University, the worship leader at First United Methodist Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and is the host of the Gaining Proficiency podcast where she interviews other musicians about their personal stories.
In Part 2 Emily Trapp Jenkins discusses her experiences during her masters degree and shares her honest feelings about failure. We talk about the stigma that often comes with admitting to experiencing Musical Performance Anxiety, especially to our fellow peers. We discuss the pervasive use of coping tools—good and bad—that musicians use to help them deal with this anxiety. Emily vulnerably shares her lowest point in her musical career: her injury. Warning: this episode includes a discussion of suicide.