Collaborative Resilience

Abstract

Collaborative Resilience Erika Switzer (bio) COLLAB CORNER As caretakers within the ecosystem of music performance and education, collaborative pianists bear the deep responsibility of meeting the diverse needs of colleagues, students, and institutions. We are witness to the inner workings of our communities' fragile infrastructures, our powerful influence fostering connection and communication at the foundational level. If we are well resourced and skilled at maintaining healthy professional relationships within our collaborations, our ecosystem can sustainably flourish. However, if we deplete our resources to the point of exhaustion or injury, our vast ecosystem begins to reflect our own collapse of care. Many years ago, as an undergraduate pianist interested in collaboration, I participated in a staged pastiche-style vocal recital. It was a satirical operatic audition situation in which I explored the character of an old (male), downtrodden, curmudgeonly, vaguely lecherous, and begrudging accompanist. Rudely exposing his impatience and boredom, he drank whiskey between arias, muttered judgments under his breath, and eventually slouched off the stage without a backward glance. It strikes me now that even as a beginning collaborator, I was intuitively aware of the stereotypes and professional hazards of our field, if only to poke fun. In the context of my current efforts to experience and encourage collaborative resilience, this memory resurfaced as a comedic warning against the path of depletion. Basically: Do not do what that guy did. As our culture becomes skilled at acknowledging historic and systemic barriers within classical music hierarchies, the audition satire takes on more layers. It wasn't individual or personal failings that led to stereotypes of the exhausted accompanist, it was the system that undervalued this work to the point of inequitable compensation, unrealistic expectations of service, and exclusion from the higher echelons of the performance world. While there are many rewarding elements in a collaborative career, success at the highest level, especially for those who do not identify as white males, requires perseverance against a rigid system of rank and privilege with seemingly scarce opportunities for advancement. That sense of scarcity tends to promote behaviors that can further alienate us from our colleagues and from community support. In reorienting our systems toward diversity, equity, and inclusion, we inherently acknowledge that it takes more than perseverance to overcome such obstacles. Whereas the internal fortitude of perseverance costs energy, such that we may acquire emotional debt, systemic change universally invests in its [End Page 401] constituents through equitable treatment and compensation, making resilience an institutionally supported commodity. In the meantime, as we persevere, resilience must be cultivated by individuals and within communities. In my own work, the essential elements of collaborative resilience are restorative piano practice, socially conscious communication habits, and regular celebration of accomplishments. Taken together, these elements express a global respect for ourselves and for others. RESTORATIVE PRACTICE Learning to practice well has required me to unlearn some basic assumptions about what it means to be a good pianist. Primarily, I had to release the notion that talent equals success. This mistaken belief had long restricted me from a self-compassionate approach to pianistic development. If I could not immediately play something well, I subconsciously assumed I was not talented enough and, to avoid that painful thought, quickly distracted myself with other tasks rather than engage with curiosity and problem solving skills. Restorative piano practice has taught me to suspend judgment while seeking physical comfort and the enjoyment of efficient solutions at the keyboard. After noticing that it took me an average of three days (not three minutes!) to integrate the basic coordination of a new piece in such a way that it felt comfortable in my body, I consciously began adapting my practice schedule. Basic coordination, for me, encompasses an overall sense of comfort and release in the keys, a clear mental map of the technical landscape (melody, figuration, counterpoint), and a basic awareness of phrasing and text structures. When these elements are integrated without immediate time pressure and with the inclusion of sleep cycles for the ingraining of information in the brain, a healthy and robust foundation for complex choreography is laid. If the foundation of physical coordination is free from anxiety, trust can take root in our...