This is the 1st in a 3-part interview I did with pianist Emily Trapp Jenkins. Ms. Jenkins is a collaborative pianist at Arkansas State University, is 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 this segment, we learn about Emily’s early musical experiences, her transition in high school to a high-demand teacher, her undergraduate experience, and we conclude this segment with the end of her first year of her masters program. As her story unfolds, we discuss Musical Performance Anxiety and spend some time considering the idea of timing: How do we as performers navigate performing on someone else’s timetable (school, juries, competitions, recitals)? Do we write ourselves off as performers if we don’t meet these goals? Do we as teachers sometimes write students off if they don’t meet certain goals?