CF will host Nicholas Pallesen, mental performance specialist and Julliard-trained opera singer, for “Winning the Mental Game: The Simple Solution to Overcoming Performance Anxiety,” on Wednesday, March 8, 12:30-1:30 p.m. in the Webber Center.

Pallesen specializes in helping performing artists succeed, both onstage and off, and regularly offers workshops relating to the psychology of performance. Not just for performances and auditions, his strategies can help all attendees with everyday communication.

We’re often taught we must work as much on the mental side of performing as the technical side. And yet, despite the countless techniques, therapies, and methods out there and people’s best willpower and effort, many performers still suffer from crippling performance/audition anxiety.

This workshop explores some potentially radical questions: What if all the effort to “fix” performance anxiety is actually making it worse? And what if there’s a simpler solution to finding mental freedom in auditions and performances?

This simulcast workshop is free and open to the public. Light refreshments and event giveaways will be provided. Participants also may choose to join the workshop from anywhere via Zoom. Please visit www.CF.edu/workshop for registration and login details.

The lecture is funded by the Mr. and Mrs. Seymour B. Robinson Memorial Endowed Chair. Co-chairholders Dr. Sarah Satterfield and Associate Professor Lori Witkowich have used this chair to explore how music was used to reduce feelings of social isolation in the wake of COVID-19, and how music can be used to alleviate performance and test anxiety and improve reading comprehension.