What are your goals for a performance?
Goals? Obviously, the goal is to perform your music well! What else?
Actually, there are a lot of different and overlapping goals you can have as a performer; some are audience-facing and some are performer-facing.
Audience-Facing
- Entertain the audience
- Educate the audience
- Inform the audeince
- Impress the audience
- Inspire the audience
- Bring an issue to the audience’s attention
- Make the audience feel good
- Make the audience think
- Recruit people
Performer-Facing
- Show your growth as a performer
- Receive praise
- Make a connection
- Prove to yourself that you can do something
- Learn lessons you can only learn in performance
- Win a prize
- Pass a test
- Get a good score at festival
- Please a mentor/teacher/parent
- Express your emotions
All of these and many more are valid, worthwhile goals to have for a performance. Different ensemble members don’t even need to share the same goals.
But it’s important to understand what your goals are, because that can impact (a) how you perform, (b) what you perform, and (c) whether you consider a performance successful.