Q&A with Wilma Smith

A long and distinguished career in New Zealand, Australia, and around the world, Wilma Smith has spent a lot of time in perhaps the most pressure seat in the orchestra, the Concertmaster's chair. I got to ask her about how she has dealt with the expectations in such a high-profile position.

Can you tell us a bit about your career path – where did you start playing professionally, and what are you up to now?

My first professional gig was with the Auckland Symphonia (now called Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra),

my home town band. I started playing casually with them when I was a student at Auckland University. Next came a full-time job in the 2nd violin section of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for about 18 months, until I left NZ for further study at the New England Conservatory in Boston.

In a nutshell, my professional career from that point consisted mainly of two string quartet positions – the Lydian Quartet in residence at Brandeis University in Boston, and then the New Zealand String Quartet at Victoria University in Wellington, followed by two Concertmaster positions – 9 years with NZSO and

12 years with MSO in Melbourne.

Since the end of 2014 I’ve been liberated from full-time institutional employment for the first time

since my early 20s and I’m loving the freedom and variety. I’m still doing the same sort of things but in different proportions and with a few newer additions. Orchestral playing occupies much less of my time than it used to, and occasionally it includes making myself useful as guest leader for community orchestras.

I still really enjoy working with excellent conductors, soloists and colleagues in the orchestral setting, most often these days with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in Hobart; a chance to experience more of the chamber orchestra vibe than I had in my previous life in big symphony orchestras. But more often, my current playing schedule involves chamber music of various kinds with fabulous colleagues in Australia and NZ.

I am even about to embark on a “back to my roots” experience by joining the Flinders Quartet in Melbourne. Newer additions to my work include being Artistic Director of chamber music competitions for Musica Viva, and teaching chamber music and violin at the secondary school level.

I’m also studying online towards a Bachelor of Behavioural Studies (Psychology) with a view to possibly working in that field one day.

Who or what inspires you as a musician?

As a teenager, I was inspired by David Oistrakh’s Brahms Violin Concerto recording and certain other recordings that I listened to obsessively such as Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring played by one of the great Russian orchestras. I don’t remember the details of which one and which conductor, but I was taken by the Russian sound or what I perceived it to be.

Jessye Norman’s recording of Four Last Songs of Strauss was another obsession. I was in awe when I got to play with her and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, and later, my first daughter was named after her.

I was also inspired by my Romantic notion of who Beethoven was. My first violin teacher had given me a small cardboard-backed picture of him at his brooding best with wild hair and it was on my bedroom wall for years. He was my teen idol - what a geek! I still feel a special affinity for his music as though we’re related somehow.

I was lucky to have had some exceptional teachers and they have been a great inspiration throughout my life. I am very aware that in my own teaching, I am simply passing on what I’ve had the good fortune to absorb from them.

What are some of the specific pressures associated with the work that you do, in particular your work as a concertmaster, soloist, and chamber musician?

The specific pressures I have sometimes felt as Concertmaster, soloist and even occasionally as chamber musician, have arisen in situations where I have felt particularly in the spotlight or that I was being judged. These specific situations may be when playing one of the difficult, famous violin solos in the orchestral repertoire, when stepping out of my comfort zone to stand up in front of an orchestra to play a solo work, or in my earlier years, taking part in international chamber music competitions. These pressure moments were not always predictable and sometimes surprised me.

Has performance anxiety or nerves been something that you have had to consciously manage throughout your career? If so, what have you done to keep on top of them?

Performance anxiety was occasionally an issue in my early career, for example when taking part in international competitions or in auditions. In one competition, I experimented with taking a low dose of a beta-blocker in common usage at the time and probably still. I don’t know if it helped or whether it was partly placebo effect, but in any case, that was a short-lived experiment. I was not completely convinced, and I was suspicious about its total effect on me so I didn’t continue that practice.

I also practised conscious breathing exercises before such high-stress situations in order to slow heart rate and induce a more relaxed state. I found this helpful and still do.

I became aware of a more debilitating performance anxiety towards the end of my MSO tenure; not very often, but when it did surface, the manifestation of it in my lack of bow and vibrato control was alarming. That prompted me to volunteer for Dianna Kenny’s study of professional musicians and whether Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy is an effective treatment for their performance anxiety. I found the therapy extremely helpful for life in general but also specifically for my physical manifestations of performance anxiety.

In the early days of therapy, I perceived my therapist to be my partner in the work of looking after myself (as indeed he was) and I could achieve a calmer state just by visualising his face. Later, I realised that looking after myself as I had learned in therapy i.e. allowing my genuine feelings to be recognised and experienced and if necessary, taking some action in real life that validated them and dealt with them rather than repressing them, was my best protection against performance anxiety, as well as being a healthier way to live in general.

It simply was not a big issue anymore because the self-love involved in recognising and accepting and actually feeling one’s own feelings somehow makes those old ideas of being judged melt away like snow in the sun.

These days, and particularly with more of an emphasis on the friendly medium of chamber music and less of the solo pressures, I rarely experience any physical manifestations of performance anxiety. But if I’m feeling a little delicate, I still practise some slow and deep breathing with particular focus on the relaxing effect of complete exhalation. In the past, I found this to be useful even in the moment as a calming influence. It was my experience of therapy that was the catalyst for wanting to do the psychology study.

If fear, self-doubt, or negativity creeps in during a concert, what do you do to get into a more positive frame of mind?

During a concert, a focus on staying in the moment and in the music, in addition to the conscious breathing mentioned previously, can help calm the mind and body. In bad old times when I was experiencing physical manifestations of anxiety such as muscle spasm in the bow arm, I would just use only the upper part of the bow where the large upper arm muscles are not so much in active play until they calmed down.

How do you prepare for a concert, both physically and mentally?

There’s no substitute for being well prepared for a performance and I’m still trying to manage life to enable me to do enough practice! Maybe I’ll figure it out in time for the next life... But apart from that obviously helpful strategy, I try to be physically at my best by not having a whole lot of caffeine or sugar during the day before a performance, by having regular massages to help the poor old body recover from the rigours of playing, and by trying to have enough sleep so I can be alert during the performance.

Needs immediately before a performance will vary depending on the specific concert. But if I can generalise, if it’s a stressful concert, I like to have calm time right beforehand, to be physically and mentally calm and already focusing on the present; mindfulness, I suppose.

What advice would you give to students today in regards to the mental side of performing?

I would advise students to look after their emotional and mental health, to pay attention to their feelings and to treat them with the respect they deserve, to make time for close friendships/relationships that can nurture and encourage emotional wellbeing. We are ourselves the most important instrument of our performance.

Of course, playing most instruments is an athletic pursuit and therefore looking after our physical health, strength, how we use our bodies and general wellbeing is important too. So practise intelligently, and a lot!

If you would like to see Wilma in action, find out when her next chamber music concert is at www.wilmaandfriends.com.au.

Lydian Quartet, Prussia Cove in Cornwall 1985