Joy Guidry: Transforming Trauma through the Creative Process
Composer/Bassoonist Joy Guidry shares how they protect their own mental health while exploring personally traumatic content in their art.
Frank Ticheli: Overcoming Anxiety & Trusting the Subconscious
Composer Frank Ticheli shares his experience with Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
Sasha Cooke: Managing Imposter Syndrome & the Benefits of Couples Therapy
Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke shares her experience of imposter syndrome, a feeling that one is not worthy or deserving of one’s success.
Myroslava Khomik: Creativity as Spiritual Work in Times of War
Ukrainian-born violinist Dr. Myroslava Khomik shares how anyone with creativity and compassion can work as a spiritual leader during times of global crisis.
Creatives Care: How Therapy Enables Creativity & Finding Affordable Care
Psychiatrist Alana Mendelsohn, MD, PhD, Catherine Hancock, and Katya Gruzgliina share the mission of Creatives Care, which aims to partner artists with affordable mental health care providers and help individuals assess what kind of therapy might be right for their specific needs.
Andrew Norman: Anxiety & Creative Process
Composer Andrew Norman shares how his creative anxiety has led him into a current period of writer’s block.
Ryan McAdams: How Myths of Artistic Leadership Fuel Destructive Behaviors
Conductor Ryan McAdams shares how the myth of the “ideal” conductor, perpetuated at conservatory and within Western culture, glorifies destructive lifestyles such as living in isolation, excessive behaviors, constant striving for perfection, appearing omniscient, and hiding all human vulnerabilities.
Adjusting Creativity During Times of Crisis
Julia Adolphe shares her strategies for continuing to write during a time of personal hardship and discusses the pressures and myths surrounding creating art in response to moments of crisis.
Trusting Your Voice with a Mental Illness
You need to trust your voice in your personal life in order to fully trust your creative voice and vision as an artist.
Maia Jasper White: How Crisis Changes Artistry
Maia Jasper White shares how her relationship to music-making changed as she cared for her young daughter, who underwent surgery for craniosynostosis and a subsequent period of PTSD.
Letting Go Of Your Work
I reflect on why art is always imperfect and unpack a wave of anxiety that emerged for me while finishing a large-scale work.
Billy Childs: Creative Process, Internal Pressures & Racial Identity
Composer/pianist Billy Childs shares the impact of the pandemic and systemic racism in America on his creativity and how he returns to his writing process with practice and persistence.
Dale Trumbore: Recognizing Anxiety, Creating with Empathy
Composers and best friends Dale Trumbore and Julia Adolphe discuss living with anxiety disorders and writing during a pandemic.
Sidney Hopson: Resilience Through Music & Cultural Policy
Percussionist and arts policy consultant Sidney Hopson’s discovery of cultural policy enabled him to combat audition anxiety, a decade of depression, and the pervasive racism of the classical music industry.
Aiden K. Feltkamp: Transgender Identity, Neurodivergence & the Lens of Equity
Librettist & Singer Aiden K. Feltkamp, who serves as the Emerging Composers and Diversity Director at the American Composers Orchestra, speaks openly about their personal experience transitioning, the impact that Gender Dysphoria (experiencing discord between one’s gender identity & one’s assigned sex at birth) had on their mental health, & how writing helped their healing process.
Hila Plitmann: Healing through Creativity
Soprano Hila Plitman shares her thoughts on mantra singing, motherhood, and how “the mind is a playful instrument.”
Jessie Montgomery: Reclaiming Creative Play & the Process of Anti-Racism
Composer and Violinist Jessie Montgomery shares how she has shifted her creative process since the pandemic began to cultivate a sense of playful freedom and reconnect with her childhood love of diverse musical styles.
McQueen & Blankenship: Partnership, Power & Vulnerability
Co-hosts of the Trilloquy podcast Garrett McQueen and Scott Blankenship share their experiences with depression, therapy, medication, cannabis, creativity, and addiction.
Anxiety as an Editing Eye
The lingering anxiety that appears while I write can actually serve as a tool in the editing process, provided it remains in check and in direct dialogue with my work.
Christopher Trapani: Depression, Memory & Communication
Christopher Trapani evades and encodes the filter of depression into his music, as he tells Julia Adolphe in the latest episode of her LooseLeaf Notebook podcast. They also discuss myths about the tortured artist, medication, and therapy, and how mental health challenges can be better addressed in the workplace and in schools.
The Attraction of the Tortured Artist Myth
Julia Adolphe shares her thoughts on why the myth of the tortured artist has been attractive to society as well as to herself personally as she was struggling to come to terms with Anxiety Disorder.
Elena Urioste & Melissa White: Your Unique Body, Voice & Healing Process
Violinists and yoga instructors Melissa White & Elena Urioste discuss the impact of abusive or unsupportive teachers and methodologies in conservatory life that strip power from students instead of inspiring self-care and compassion.
Untangling Anxious Signals and Creative Impulses
There are stark differences between imaginative impulses and anxious physiological signals.
Daniela Candillari: Creative Blessings in Disguise
Conductor and composer Daniela Candillari reflects on her personal experience with performance anxiety, how emotion shapes our perception of time, and why her memories of living through the wars in the former Yugoslavia have returned to her during the pandemic.
