Today I talk with Ulla Munch, Danish lyric mezzo-soprano. I first got to know about Ulla as a strong women who overcame a terrible accident and found a new career, new meaning in life.

We talk about many aspects of being a professional performer, her career, current projects and general life advice.

Ulla today runs a coaching business in the area of public performance.

• Her first time singing in front of a large audience
• Using sport psychology in art performance
• “You sing beautifully, but you look so boring!” and how she solved that
• The components of a good performance
• Passing emotions from the singer to the audience (including worry)
• An audience also can get very stressed
• Smiling cheats the brain
• Book “Upward Spiral” by Alex Korb PhD
• Research “The Benefit of Power Posing Before a High-Stakes Social Evaluation” by Amy Cuddy
• Body language
• Practicing owning your personal space in the street
• Being an introvert/being an extrovert
• A week in the life of a musician
• Practicing alone with one’s instrument
• Being on stage in from of a large audience
• Building the bridge from being alone to being the center of attention at a concert
• The pressures for musicians at key points of their career
• Strategies for mental training
• The role of talent
• Talent and competition
• How winning an audition is different from winning at sports
• Artists are judged on some subjective criteria
• Being in the moment Vs being with your phone at a concert
• “You are lucky as a musician if you love to practice”
• The purpose of deadlines and concerts as motivators
• How she got into music. Her family wanted something else for her.
• Living in the USA
• Her first auditions
• The role of practicing in community
• The role of mentors
• The compatibility between mentor and singer
• The American approach to being a professional performer
• Her whiplash accident, an how it changed her life
• How whiplash limited her capabilities
• Identity crisis when she could not sing anymore
• Low points, depression
• Her strive to being an independent worker
• What practical steps she took to get out of depression
• The benefits of walking and cycling
• How walking enabled successes in her life
• Meditation
• Power naps
• Calming her “electric” body and the mind
• Deliberate practice: look back and identify things to improve for the future
• Using mentors, hiring mentors
• Benefits of working with younger professionals
• Finding middle grounds, not be black an white
• Getting back control on life
• Improve a little every day goes a long way
• Doing now what she thought she would do at 60 years old