Conducting a Safe Space with Rick Bertone
The Holistic Musicianship Podcast Episode 5
In today’s episode, pianist, conductor, and music director Rick Bertone shares about the importance of creating a safe space when working with or leading other musicians.
We also speak about the interplay between our emotions, our physical bodies, and our music, and we explore several tools for helping with musical perfectionism, comparison, and low self worth.
"I personally don’t believe you get top notch performance from your musicians by scowling at them every time they make a mistake or giving them a sense of a threat if they aren’t playing well that day.”
-Rick Bertone
Selected Takeaways:
Creating a safe space for musicians sets up the possibility for great performance
Aim to focus on how well we recover from our mistakes rather than the mistakes themselves
If a musician is already beating themselves up in the moment for making a mistake, our criticism will only make it worse
Artists never want to take compliments - Practice letting in the compliment
The Alexander Technique can be very beneficial for chronic tension and musician injuries - it involves learning how to use your body in a much healthier way while playing
There’s a give and take between your body and your instrument - practice allowing the energy to flow back and forth between the two
When we relax our excess playing tension our timing improves significantly
When we allow our emotions to be present without denying them, they can help our music take on a much deeper and more colorful quality
Search for a definition of what success as a musician means to you (not what it means to other people)
Aiming to keep the fun alive is paramount to longevity and success as a musician
Sometimes the best thing to do is step away from your instrument for a week or 2 to get a breather
About Rick:
Rick is a professional musician originally from the suburbs of Chicago. He studied piano performance at NYU and has been working as a pianist, conductor and music director for Broadway shows for over a decade.
He was the music director of Avenue Q for 5 years and last winter was the associate conductor for Jerry Springer the Opera. On Broadway, he has played keyboards for Mamma Mia, Spamalot, Porgy and Bess and If/Then. He has also worked on several Broadway tours including Next To Normal, Wicked and Chicago. Regionally, he has music directed productions of Jersey Boys and Little Shop of Horrors among others.
He has been fortunate enough to work with such talents as John Tartaglia, Alice Ripley, Will Swenson, Terrence Mann, Michael Greif, John Rando, Jerry Mitchell, Kate Rockwell, Ken Page, Mark Ballas and more.
After 20+ years of living in NYC, he recently decided to go bicoastal and is diving into the music scene in LA.
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