Anthony Plog on Music

Conversations with performers, composers, and entrepreneurs

Bill Williams: International Trumpeter, Former Dean of the New World Symphony, and Optimal Performance Coach!

Anthony Plog, host
Eddie Ludema, producer
Date posted: Dec 11, 2023

Bill Williams is a musician who has had a stellar career as a symphony musician, chamber musician, and soloist. But in addition to his performing, he is also a consultant with a wide range of clients, including elite performers and institutions, focusing on the tools needed to perform well consistently. On his website The Path to Optimal Performance, Bill deals with subjects such as stress and performance, practice, centering, and mental rehearsal. A great deal of our conversation revolves around the concept of how to deal with the vitally important mental aspects of performance.

Part 1

We begin with Bill talking about how he got involved in the area of performance psychology and how he combines his own performing with his coaching and teaching. I then ask Bill how he would coach me as a 19-year old student and which techniques he would use. We discuss how fight or flight response enters the performance arena, using a bear and a rattlesnake to demonstrate these two tendencies (you don't want to miss these stories!) We end with Bill talking about how to relax muscle tension and the concept of centering and being grounded.

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In bonus room, we discuss a great many subjects, beginning with the subject of auditions and Bill's 8-week program detailing a way to prepare for an audition. We then discuss cultural differences in dealing with performance challenges and the process of learning from different perspectives. In addition to his work with Optimal Performance, Bill was also the Dean of the New World Symphony for three years, and he discusses many innovations coming out of New World, including the YouTube Symphony. We end with Bill talking about his career as a trumpet player, and what it was like to record Mahler with the San Francisco Symphony as principal trumpet.



The podcast theme music, Four Sierra Scenes, written by Anthony Plog, is taken from Crystal Records S205, copyright ©1980 Crystal Records Inc., and is used by permission. Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.