Music performance anxiety affects musicians across genres, skill levels, and stages of life.

While countless strategies have been proposed to address it, few resources bring together the full range of research, perspectives, and tools available to performers and educators today. Performance Anxiety Strategies: A Musician's Guide to Managing Stage Fright explores contemporary approaches to understanding and managing music performance anxiety, along with practical applications for individual musicians, studio teachers, and classroom educators. Drawing on current research and professional insights, this book examines both widely used and lesser-known interventions, including holistic, exposure-based, cognitive, behavioral, and pharmacological approaches.

New to this edition are expanded discussions of neurodiversity, learning differences, mental health, social media influences, and trauma-informed approaches to music teaching and learning. This 2nd edition also broadens its scope to reflect a wider range of musical styles, genres, educational settings, and performance experiences.

Each chapter includes reflective exercises, practical strategies, perspectives from performers and athletes, and recommendations for teachers. The authors also draw on their own experiences navigating music performance anxiety across a range of musical, educational, and professional contexts. Bringing together research, professional practice, and lived experience, this book offers a comprehensive resource for performing musicians and the teachers who support them.

Casey McGrath is a violinist, recording artist, writer, and educator whose career spans classical performance, contemporary music, and music education.

Karin S. Hendricks is Director of the School of Music and Professor of Music Education at Boston University, USA.

Tawnya D. Smith is Associate Professor of Music Education at Boston University, USA, and Senior Editor of the International Journal of Education and the Arts.

Charlene Ryan is Associate Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada.