The two-volume Oxford Handbook of Music Performance is the most important and authoritative overview of work within the areas of music psychology and performance science. Eighty experts from 13 countries prepared the 53 chapters in this handbook who are leaders in the fields of music psychology, performance science, musicology, psychology, education and music education.
The handbook is designed around eight distinct sections - Development and Learning, Proficiencies, Performance Practices, Psychology, Enhancements, Health & Wellbeing, Science, and Innovations - thus the range and scope of the handbook is much wider than other publications through the inclusion of chapters from related disciplines such as performance science (e.g., optimizing performance, mental techniques, talent development in non-music areas), and education (e.g., human development, motivation, learning and teaching styles)
In the first volume, I authored a chapter on Personality and Individual Differences of musicians with Canadian music psychologist Prof. Arielle Bonneville-Roussy, with whom I had previously worked at Roehampton University in London.
In our chapter we touched upon divergences concerning musicians' gender, and choices between musical genres and instruments. Also, we detailed practical suggestions for professional musicians, music teachers, parents, and students on how to deal with the more stable traits like personality and how to enhance the more malleable ones, such as perfectionism and anxiety, that considerably affect one’s musicianship.
The handbook has been published in April 2022. Buy your copy from the OUP* website.
* Oxford University Press (OUP) is the world's leading university publisher with the widest global presence. Their scientific publication program serves scientists, teachers and researchers, publishing decisive research and scholarships in topics from history to life sciences to economics.
The complete PhD thesis on classical musicians' perfectionism can be downloaded
If you would like to learn more about perfectionism and the research I conducted, you can download my PhD thesis from the British Library's EThOS e-theses service in which over 450,000 theses are listed, covering PhDs and other doctoral degrees awarded by every Higher Education institution in the UK.
