Growing older in a symphony orchestra: The development of the age-related self-concept and the self-estimated performance of professional musicians in a lifespan perspective

Abstract

The use of the lifespan perspective as a reference point for analysing and researching the musical and artistic development of professional musicians has only recently begun to attract more attention amongst music researchers and educators and amongst musicians themselves. The knowledge about the processes of aging and their influences on making music is especially scarce. This study presents the results of a representative questionnaire on the issue of growing older in a symphony orchestra. A total of 2,536 professional musicians aged between 20 and 69 from 133 German Kulturorchester took part in the survey. The orchestral musicians were asked about a range of issues, including their own perception of their age, how the perks of being a musician change over time and how they manage declining performance caused by aging. The results show how the years between 40 and 50 are a time of change. During this period, musicians feel they leave their youth behind and join the older age group. This is also the time when they feel they have left behind their period of peak musical performance and are now on a downward slope. The majority of musicians notice that their performance is declining due to a range of age-related factors that can be divided into four categories: physical problems, cognitive problems, sensory organ problems and psychological problems. These findings confirm the inverted J-curve that was described in previous studies on the topic of peak musical performance.