Biography
Nery Borges is a researcher, teacher and performer. He is currently a PhD student in Music at the University of Aveiro (Portugal) in the field of Performance Studies / Performance Science and holds a master's degree in music (performance / guitar) from the Federal University of Goiás (Brazil). In his PhD research, he is dedicated to the expansion of resources that can contribute to the success and well-being of musicians suffering from the symptoms of Anxiety in Musical Performance, so his investigations are focused on the control of Anxiety in Musical Performance and propensity of the Flow Experience in Musical Performance. As a consequence, he has explored technological resources that may assist the physiological self-regulation of young performers, in the context of these two phenomena. In addition, he works as a Research Fellow in the project "Euterpe revealed: Women in Music Composition and Interpretation in Portugal in the 20th and 21st Centuries", PTDC / CPC-MMU / 3559/2014, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology / MCTES, working on the preservation and dissemination of the work of Elvira de Freitas, through collaboration in the process of cataloging the works and the critical edition of the work for Classical Guitar and Voice.
He has proven experience teaching classical guitar in different educational models: private in private schools and conservatories, and public in social projects and institutions of higher education. As a performer, he has played in venues of relevance of the musical scene in Brazil and Portugal, both solo repertoire for classical guitar and repertoire of chamber music.
Doctoral Project
Title
The experience of flow as a moderator of anxiety in musical performance
Advisor
Abstract
This project is based on the hypothesis that Anxiety and Flow are antithetic experiences, a relationship that has recently been discussed in the area of musical performance. With a mixed methodological approach, the present project aims to explore the potential of the Musical Performance Flow Experience (EFPM) as moderator of Musical Performance Anxiety (APM). 36 students of musical performance aged 18-36 enrolled at the University of Aveiro (UA) in Portugal will be recruited to perform two solo recitals. The data collection will be performed in three moments: (1) physical and psychic evaluations before and after the first recital. Soon after this collection the participants of the intervention group will be drawn; (2) intervention consisting of 8 weekly biofeedback training sessions; and finally, (3) a new evaluation in the second recital, which will follow the same protocols and conditions of the first one. The instruments of collection include questionnaires to measure state and trace anxiety and flow state in musical performance; physiological measures (cortisol, EDA and EEG) before the recital; and semi-structured interviews after the performances. Descriptive statistics will provide the physiological basis for the experiences of flow and anxiety, and the benchmarking of states in musical performance can be verified in correlational tests. At the end of this research we intend to achieve results that, in addition to contributing to the reduction of anxiety levels, are also generators of knowledge regarding the Flow Experience and its indicator dimensions, generated in light of the psychophysiological behaviour of the performer. Together, these may contribute to the prevention of problems related to MPA through the positive view present in the theory of flow.
