Mental Moment-Everyone Feels It
I went to see Barbara Streisand in concert on Sunday night. She was amazing. She’s been singing for over 50 years. Hard to believe. Here are some of my takeaways from the concert.
1964
During the concert Babs was telling the story about how in 1964 she was doing a concert and forgot the words to one of her songs. She talked about how embarrassed she was and this led to her not doing a concert for 27 years?
It was so nice to hear a very famous star talk of her humbling experiences to get to where she is today. These are not stories often told.
Chris Botti
As part of Babs concert she brought on famous trumpet player Chris Botti to play with her. Wow is he a great trumpet player. When Babs asked him how many concerts he plays a year he said 250. 250 concerts a year!!! What? Although he didn’t specifically say how many years he’s been playing 250 concerts a year, playing 250 concerts a year for one year would be a lot for most people.
It’s November so I am assuming that Chris has already played 248 of his 250 concerts and although he may be burnt out he didn’t show it. He was funny and his trumpet playing was fantastic but he’s human. I am sure he mentioned 250 concerts for the wow factor but if you look at it from the perspective of being an elite performer you begin to realize all that he has to go through to endure 250 concerts a year.
Caroline Campbell
One of the last lessons from Babs concert was this. Caroline was playing the violin as part of a duet with Chris Botti. Caroline has tremendous violin skills. She plays amazingly. Her and Chris together, even more amazing! Three minutes into their duet one of her strings broke. She is on stage at the Hollywood Bowl with Babs, Chris and18,000 people in the stands. Some people might crumble under that kind of pressure but she held it together. She found another violin and they started playing from the beginning. It was beautiful!
Pressure
Everyone feels it and it is not easy for anyone. We are all human and things happen. How do you want to deal with things when they happen? How do you want to deal with forgetting the words to a song (play or movie)? How do you want to deal with fame and burnout? How do you want to deal with a string (shoelace or goggle) breaking? You have a choice!
Happy Tuesday!
Dr. Michelle
Photo credit: kostrewards.kost1035.com
