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The Performer Prepares: Lighting Up the Audience

Additional Information

Authors Robert Caldwell
ISBN 1877761265
Length 226
Price $41.95
Carolyn Jones Campbell

“The Performer Prepares by Robert Caldwell completely opens up that area of performance that every musician must face regardless of age – just how much they are going to commit to the recital or audition, how much they can manage their personal fears, doubts of their ability. And, when teachers work with Caldwell’s ideas as a regular part of each student’s learning process, gratifying and amazing things will happen in their studios.”
Carolyn Jones Campbell
12 reviews

book for stage fright, performance anxiety, and stage presence

Customer Reviews

Wilma Machover

“The Performer Prepares Video —“Milner is a most articulate subject, making the tape a worthy adjunct to the book.”
Wilma Machover
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Carolyn Jones Campbell

“The Performer Prepares by Robert Caldwell completely opens up that area of performance that every musician must face regardless of age – just how much they are going to commit to the recital or audition, how much they can manage their personal fears, doubts of their ability. And, when teachers work with Caldwell’s ideas as a regular part of each student’s learning process, gratifying and amazing things will happen in their studios.”
Carolyn Jones Campbell
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Alice Walker

“When is a performance beautiful? Probing this important question, Caldwell illuminates the subtleties of managing musicianship, technique, interpretation, and imagination for the time on stage. This book is warm, supportive, and, most importantly, pragmatic: it belongs in every musician’s library.”
Alice Walker
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Jean Herzberg

“The Performer Prepares is the most complete and significant work on the inner preparation of a musical performance I have yet to encounter. This book begins where The Inner Game of Tennis ends. He gently and thoroughly leads the reader through the process of separation and re-integration of the different parts of the inner performer and of the performance. One feels the author is a warm and supportive teacher/friend who accompanies and encourages the reader at every step. The chapter on Stage Fright alone is worth the price of the book. This publication deserves a place on the bookshelf of every performer and studio teacher.”
Jean Herzberg
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Joan Wall

“The Performer Prepares is an exciting, insightful book that shows performers how to attain ‘inspired performance’. Musicians who are interested in self-mastery can reach expanded levels of performance by using the practical, convincing, and encouraging suggestions offered by Robert Caldwell.”
Joan Wall
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Academic Library Book Review

“Robert Caldwell offers a pragmatic approach to help musicians develop and master performance skills. Based on the author’s conviction that performance charisma can be learned and perfected, the strategies involve considerable material of value to musicians preparing for performance…could be adapted to other performing artists.”
Academic Library Book Review
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Frances Brooker

“After I worked through the exercises, I cannot tell you the fine feelings I had on stage – I didn’t want to stop. I felt that I knew what I was doing, that I had something to express. Afterwards, people were telling me that they were surprised. They didn’t think I had that in me. It’s just that I had prepared in my own style, in my own way. I heartily recommend this book. It will help you get on top of your performances and create something special on stage.”
Frances Brooker
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The Discriminating Librarian

“I was in a piano recital in seventh grade and that’s as close as I’ve ever gotten—or wanted to get—to giving a performance. And while, like most people, I believe that I can “recognize” a “great performance” when I see or hear one, I have no idea what it takes to be a great performer. Robert Caldwell addresses this issue in a new book called The Performer Prepares. Rather than follow a vague admonition “be more creative,” his new book discusses several practical techniques to develop imagination so that it is in line with the performer’s personality.”
The Discriminating Librarian
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The American Music Teacher

“Creating a convincing and inspired performance is the goal of the techniques Robert Caldwell describes in The Performer Prepares…we are provided with a unique hands-on approach to the subjective aspects of musical study: charisma, presence, nerves, stage fright tension and conviction. He has carefully laid out a map for traveling a treacherous road. This book is recommended as a useful resource for students and professionals.”
The American Music Teacher
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The American Music Teacher

“The Performer Prepares: 100% Commitment videotape is a worthy adjunct to the book that will be of great interest to those who have read the book, and will encourage those who have not yet read it to do so.”
Oberlin College Conservatory of Music
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Vladimir Ashkenazy

“The Performer Prepares is well-researched and well-meant and servers recognition and a lot of attention. I think the book can and should be of definite help to many musicians who either aspire to perform or, having started to appear on stage, want to excel, be it through psychological exploration or just simply practical help.”
Conductor, Pianist
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Music Educators Journal

“If you or one of your students are dissatisfied with your performance, and at a loss as to how to bring all your skill to the fore when playing, singing, or speaking before an audience, you will benefit from Robert Caldwell’s book The Performer Prepares. In fact, anyone who is involved in performing should have a copy of this publication to enhance his or her performance. Although that statement may seem to be an exaggeration, there is considerable justification for it in this comprehensive, well-conceived, and thorough manual….Beginning with the question, ‘What specifically is different about powerful performers?” Caldwell has compiled a large amount of helpful information to assist readers…this book’s value is demonstrated when the reader can open it to any page and discover a nugget of wisdom that can immediately be transferred into his or her own repertoire of performance skills. Read it, learn from it, and use it, and your (and your students’) performances will certainly improve significantly.”
Music Educators Journal
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  • Excellent depiction of the inner ear mechanism; the use of narrative with the background music and the visual effects held my undergraduates students captive and gave them a better understanding of our phenomenal sense of hearing. This is an incredible r
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