ep05 - Career as lyric singer, overcame post traumatic depression to re-invent herself - Ulla Munch

Conversations That Inspire

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