“Arriving at the ranch, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I have worked with Giorgia in the past — without horses — and was excited to see what new process she would take me through to help me open up and specifically tackle the stresses of performance. Since I had worked with her before, and I had a competition coming up, she agreed to “fast-track” our first session.

We started the main paddock inside which there were at least 7 rescued horses. Each large in stature and presence. We entered, and Giorgia led me through a series of challenges designed to focus on projecting your energy. Once they (the horses) accept you as a non-threat, they show what they feel remarkably well.

I could already sense the path Giorgia was leading me down; helping me refocus nervous energy and direct it in a productive way towards calmness and a sense of security.

Then, we walked by a one-horse-pen with my clarinet, and Giorgia asked me to play. We gradually made our way closer to where the horse was. The second she heard the instrument, you could tell that she was interested. Giorgia first had me start with some improv and at her signal, I switched to some prepared music that I had somewhat memorized. As we approached, and after I had switched to my prepared music, which admittedly I didn’t have all memorized, the horse apparently lost interest and turned to walk away (min. 1.14 in the video).

Giorgia coached me through it, and I switched again, this time to music that I was more comfortable with, where the music flowed much more organically. The horse then stopped in her tracks, turned and immediately came right up to the clarinet and placed her head as close as she could to the instrument.

Seeing this physical response after releasing all of the preparedness and perfection of the notes and focusing purely on the music was truly a shift of thought in my part. I have always practiced getting in the zone when preparing for stressful performance experiences, but visually seeing the horse’s reflection of the mood that I portrayed is something unique and unlike any other performance practice experience.

Taking this on stage with me is an interesting process. The comfort I have when I improvise is now easier to access, knowing the effect it had during my session  with the horses

Taking this on stage with me is an interesting process. The comfort I have when I improvise is now easier to access, knowing the effect it had during my session  with the horses”.

— Professional Clarinetist, San Francisco, CA

Cellist Gautier Capucon has been a standard of excellence in the music industry for over a decade. Success can often be a fleeting thing, but in Gautier’s case, his success has only grown since his rise to fame.

As Peak Performance is The Creative Way Around’s main focus, Gautier has definitely been on my interviewees list for a while. I seized the chance during his Dvorak tour in San Francisco to pick his brain about the thoughts, tricks and strategies that lead him — and keep him — at the top of the game.

Giorgia: What do you do to get yourself into a Peak Performance state when you are on stage?

Gautier: In my experience, the two most important factors in achieving a Peak Performance state are my mind and body.

If I am to perform at my best, I need to be physically well — which to me means rested and as healthy as possible. For instance, on concert days I won’t drink coffee, tea, wine or eat anything that can distract my body or mind.

As for my mind, I need to be completely focused on the concert, and in order to be focused my mind needs to be relaxed. Before I go on stage I make sure I give myself plenty of time to free myself from distracting thoughts. As the concert approaches, I’m always hit with adrenaline, which is only natural. If I have been able to prepare myself — both my body and mind — and I feel balanced, then I can tame the adrenaline, ride it, and use it as the extra kick, the extra fire to make a concert truly special. That is me in my optimal state.

If I wasn’t able to achieve this balance, if I was tired, or if during that day I drank, say 10 cups of coffee, I would head to the stage stressed. My arms would most likely be shaky and less responsive. My body and mind would be working against me, rather than for me, and I wouldn’t be able to enter that peaceful place where concerts can become magical.

Giorgia: Are there any specific disciplines or strategies you rely on, to get your mind to that optimal peaceful place?

Gautier: Being well rested is key.  Before an evening show, I’ll usually sleep for an hour, maybe two. It’s like a new day when I wake up, and my energy is recharged and at the level I need it to be.

Meditation is a big part of the process as well. It’s a fantastic tool for relaxing, focusing, learning to let go. It’s helped me learn a lot about myself.

Sports are also very important to me. I run. It helps me let things out, and it releases endorphins. When I run, there’s nothing to distract me — no phone, no emails, and that’s a very regenerating space to be.

I spend as much time as I can in contact with nature. It is the basis of everything; it is where everything comes from. The connection with animals — and horses in particular — is really extraordinary and cleansing for me.

All these things contribute to shaping the state of mind I’ll be in before a concert, a show or a big interview.

Giorgia: How much do the space and the environment influence your mood or state on stage?

Gautier: The environment affects me a lot, for better or worse. I am traveling all the time, and wherever I go there are some things I have a hard time living without.  A quiet hotel is definitely at the top of my list.

People make a difference, too. Sometimes I get to a venue and there are people from the orchestra welcoming me; sometimes there’s nobody. I’ve found that the difference is in the small things. A greeting, a smile. And sometimes there are things we can’t put words to: we might not know why, but we might not feel comfortable or at ease in a certain space, a certain room, or even a certain city.  

Maybe in 40 years the environment won’t make a difference at all for me. For the time being, I often find myself making a concerted effort to be comfortable wherever I am.

The life of a soloist can be very lonely. At the same time, as challenging as it is, it pushes me to get to know myself better every day.

Giorgia: Where do you find the strength to handle this life?

Gautier: I have to find it inside — nobody and nothing else can give it to me. It’s easy to point a finger at myself and say: “Hey, now you have to be happy because you have this, you accomplished that and you got here”. Sure, accomplishments, reaching goals and compliments can make it easier and brighter. But it’s easy to fall into a vicious circle in which your happiness depends on things or other people.

Strength and happiness don’t come from things — they come from within. Finding that strength and that happiness is practice for life itself. You don’t become a monk in a day; it takes an entire lifetime to get to know yourself. It’s very valuable to understand your own emotions, to know how and why they get triggered, and how to either embrace them, or move past them.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that when I feel something intensely, whatever or whoever triggered it is not what matters.  If it stays with me and if it affects me, then it’s my problem and nobody else’s. We are all so full of fears and they get triggered so easily!

Giorgia: So how do you handle the fear when it hits you backstage?

Gautier: I simply sit comfortably, breathe, and let it pass through me. It’s like meditation: you shouldn’t fight it — you can’t anyway, it’s impossible — but embrace it. You can’t decide that you won’t be stressed and that you won’t have a reaction, because you’ll have it anyway. So just let it come and let it go, and be at peace in knowing that’s all you can do.

When you’re on stage and suddenly your mind sets off an alarm, you can try to have a talk with the brain in the lines of a: “Hey man, I get it: this is difficult…but you got this!”. Many times it works, though there will be times when you’ll be up on stage, slip up and play a wrong note.  

Giorgia: And when that happens, how do you deal with it? What’s your relationship with mistakes and perfection?

Gautier: It’s one of my biggest struggles. I’m too demanding of myself and it’s only increasing. I’m trying to constantly improve, which is great, yet the risk is that I’ll do that at the expense of my happiness.

There are two competing voices within me: the artist, and the perfectionist. The artist in me shifted his definition of perfection long ago: if I go to someone else’s concert, I’m the first person to forgive and forget a wrong note–I want a story, I want a connection; that’s what I’m there for. But at my own concerts or practice it’s a different story. Even the tiniest of errors will bring out rage from the perfectionist within me. I’m always working on balancing those two voices.

Giorgia: Your life is full of rehearsals, interviews, performances, networking and traveling. Energetically speaking, are all of those things draining for you, or is there a giving-receiving balance?

Gautier: It is true that on stage while I play, I give. There is a lot of energy flowing outwards. But it’s not only giving — it’s sharing.

In fact, the most incredible magic happens when the energy is circulating between the soloist, the orchestra, the conductor and the audience. It doesn’t always happen, but when it does I cherish it, because I’ll never get tired of that incredible energy that I give and receive at the same time.

Giorgia: So is this your personal definition of Peak Performance? Meaning, how does a concert have to look, sound or feel so that you can be proud?

Gautier: “Good” as a descriptive adjective for a concert almost doesn’t mean anything to me.

Is a good concert one in which you didn’t play any wrong notes? Is a good concert one in which the audience loved you and you played three encores? Maybe a concert which received rave reviews? Of course all these things are great, but they’re not what makes a great concert.

A great concert is one in which something special is happening. And that’s why I make music: to communicate, to move others inside. And I get moved in return when someone comes to me after the concert and says: “You know, this is the first time I’ve been to a concert and you made me fall in love with music: I’m gonna come again!”. Or if someone tells me: “I’m going through a difficult period in my life, and for whatever reason your music tonight helped me”. That’s a great compliment.

Sound is undeniably important, but it’s the personal and emotional dimension that I’m afraid is being ignored in the classical music industry today..

Giorgia: I hope your multi-dimensional perspective, which I share, gets contagious!

Gautier: Me too. And that’s why I teach it to my students of the Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle de la Fondation Louis Vuitton. We still talk about technique and music theory of course, but on top of that I am developing a curriculum which includes the things that never get discussed.

Health, for instance. I had an outstanding hand surgeon come out and talk to the students about how important it is to listen to our body. If one little thing goes wrong, it’s over, and it’s incredible how little attention musicians pay to pain signals from their body.

I had managers and promoters come to the academy and talk about the commercial aspects of a career in music: how to perform well in an interview. How to speak on the radio. How to find a manager and talk to a promoter.

What music schools are doing is fantastic, and I didn’t start my Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle to compete with them, but rather to add my voice to what they are already doing.

Giorgia: It sounds like you learned about all these extra layers from personal experience, not from someone who guided you through them or warned you in advance about risks and challenges of the life of a soloist. In this sense, it seems like you guys have it particularly rough compared to, say, professional athletes from the major sports leagues. Just as intense physically, mentally and emotionally, but without the support of a coach, of a physiotherapist and of close team-mates.

Gautier: That’s a huge problem.  When I become a professional musician, I wasn’t given a coach who walked me through the ups and downs that come with the life. In general, it is up to us touring artists to figure that out.

Even in areas that are the most crucial to our long term success, like our health.  What we do is extremely physical. Between traveling, playing the cello, the plane, the suitcases, sleeping jetlag off in cars, this life can be rough on the body. But there’s no physiotherapist who follows us around constantly checking up on us. Again, it’s up to us to figure that out. I make sure I visit a physiotherapist at least three times a month, because if I don’t, I run the risk of waking up one morning and not being able to move my head.

Professional athletes have a big team around them, while we have to take care of these things on our own. I don’t know if it’s possible to fix this in the short term, but what we can do is create a platform for these conversations to come to the surface, so that the new generation is warned in advance and can really have a clear picture of what they are buying into. Which is why I think the work you are doing with The Creative Way Around is extremely important.

Giorgia: Any last word of advice to your young soloist colleagues, who are just starting their career?

Gautier: If you hear stories of injuries, burnouts, or great musicians quitting, it can be a bit scary.  But instead of ignoring these stories, consider looking deeper into them and finding out why they happened. It might be something you relate to, and you might be able to set yourself up to avoid something similar on your own path.

We are lucky to live in a sharing culture and time, so take advantage of the advice and support of professionals in the industry and of the experience of those who have been at this for a while!

Follow Gautier at:
Facebook @GautierCapucon.OfficialPage
Twitter @gautiercapucon
Instagram @gautiercapucon
www.gautiercapucon.com

When it comes to performing artists, it’s easy to think of peak performance as ‘being at the top of my game when on stage’. Truly, there’s a lot more to it: more dimensions than just the stage and more professionals involved in its definition. I asked Daniel Knapp, Managing Director of Production at the San Francisco opera, to  offer his point of view. 

Giorgia: You’ve worn many hats in the classical music industry. I imagine you’ve stored just as many lessons, and that’s why I invited you to have this interview: to share them with the new generations of classical musicians. Tell us about how you got to where you’re at.

Daniel: Many elements contributed to getting me where I am today. First of all, my dual cultural background — I grew up in Germany but my mother was Austrian. And second, during high school I was an exchange student in Indiana for one year – giving me familiarity with the U.S. culture.

I studied music in college. I wanted to be a musician — a tuba player. I was charmed by the idea of playing in the pit or in a symphony orchestra. My vision, on the other hand, was always broader than just making music, and I’ve always had fun not only taking the stage, but also making the stage for others.

I ended up backstage almost by accident, and worked as a stagehand for a while. As I realized how much I liked this, I started my own advertising agency: I worked on concerts, touring and a movie, and landed in the field of opera.

Fast forwarding, I am now the Managing Director of Production at the San Francisco Opera.

G: How is your current position similar to making your own music?

D: Just like a composer or an artist, I do have a creative voice, and more so than I initially thought. I have a voice with artists in creating new productions. At the same time, it’s completely different, in that I’m not being held artistically accountable for my ideas. This actually helps a lot with my ego. Let me explain.

I am emotionally attached to many ideas and concepts, but in the end the merits are not mine; I’m not being judged by critics and I don’t have to read my name in the papers — whether it’s good or bad. The fantastic thing about that is that I can detach myself from everyone’s expectations, while supporting the cast and crew with advice and tools, to create the best possible artistic outcome on budget and within the physical restraints.

That’s a dialogue I enjoy a lot. Making everyone’s dream come true, without spending more than we have.

G: Speaking of budget and physical restraints: what have you learned about the art of compromising?

D: Sometimes compromise is the first step towards a solution. Especially in financial times and circumstances like the current ones in the arts in the U.S. Ultimately, as a producer and an enabler, compromise is the best tool to achieve excellence.

I completely understand how I can make the artists furious, if I start chipping away their thoughts and ideas. Then again, compromise often triggers unexpected ideas, which lead to great results.

I stand by two pillars:

First, I try to remember that what I do is not about me, and never will it be. In fact, I am expendable. If I’m not here tomorrow, someone else will be. The company has worked without me for 92 years, very successfully. What matters is what I do — and what I do well — on behalf and for the better of the company.

Second: Even though I enjoy working in a harmonious environment, I am aware that I don’t have to be everyone’s friend. It’s not a popularity contest. That’s what allows me to set the bar rather high, and hold everyone accountable if I see that it’s not met.

G: About that. I am a firm believer that today, ‘How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice’ doesn’t hold anymore. There’s much more to the equation of Peak Performance. You have to play excellently AND you have to be so interesting, that presenters will know that if you show up, then the audience will show up as well. By means of all-round excellence — including music, showmanship, social media, PR, clear artistic identity and more — you need to attract the audience like a magnet. What’s your take about that?

D: An opera singer nowadays has to be much more than just a great voice. When you are an opera singer, you’re now asked to act like you were an actor, to be in shape like you were an athlete and to have a voice like a god. That’s a package that only a few can fulfill. And then you’re on the road for months on end; you don’t really have a home — you live out of your suitcase; you have a car here and a bike there, maybe a partner here and a girlfriend there. That has to be an emotional rollercoaster ride.

Making it to a stage of international reputation like ours takes a lot of dedication and effort. And like you said, it’s not enough to just practice: if you’re not convincing in your acting, if you haven’t been around the world and if you only rely on your talent, then the business may say “thank you and good bye”.

What I see is that the educational system is developing too many artists, and the industry is not able to support them all, so it gets really selective. And when it comes to a house of our standard, we’re even more selective. We only choose from the best. That’s subjective, to a certain degree, but it’s among our goals to put together a package that will keep the audience committed and returning.

G: You listed many challenges that come with a touring life. Your life right now must not be too different, with an intense work schedule and being an ocean away from your family. I imagine you must be a master of energy management. How do you make it sustainable for yourself to get to the end of the day, week, month, year?

I make a deliberate distinction between work and life. I treat my job here — and any job in the arts — as being on an oil rig. You’re on a platform somewhere, you’re being flown out every now and again, but when you’re on the platform you work for it head and heart. When you leave it, you can devote your time to something else.

Also, my job is not physically taxing — I’m not one of the stage crew downstairs, lifting and pushing — but it is energy draining, and a day at the beach goes a long way.

G: Thank you Daniel for sharing so many meaningful lessons today!

D: Thank you for taking charge in sharing important insights with new generations!

Cover photo credit: San Francisco Opera