Concert pianist, piano teacher, part-time anaesthetist and author Dr Cameron Roberts is a world expert on using scientific principles to optimise learning in elite musicians. He performs and records internationally, and his coaching strives to help pianists achieve “technical excellence and expressive originality”.
Cameron studied Medicine and Music at the University of Melbourne, then trained at the Australian National Academy of Music, and privately in London and Moscow. He taught chamber music for many years at the prestigious Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid while completing his PhD at UNE.
Now based in London, Cameron took a break from his busy schedule to give us a brief audience.
How did you come to complete your PhD at UNE?
Randomly, one day, I received an email from Dr Hayes, my primary school music teacher (and later supervisor), who had heard me perform on radio. I was working as a concert pianist in Australia and Europe, teaching at the Reina Sofia school of music, and doing my own private research on the pedagogical aspects of the pianist’s touch. He suggested I should turn these activities into a PhD.
The flexibility of studying at UNE by correspondence was a game-changer, as I could continue my itinerant and diverse musical life while managing the demands of the PhD.
How has your UNE qualification supported or enhanced your career?
My PhD research focussed on the physical and perceptual nature of the relationship between touch and tone. The skills I learned, to interrogate information better and, especially, how to write better, motivated me to write the book I have just published (Optimizing Pianism: Evidence-Based Perspectives). I hope it will, in turn, lead others to think more clearly about how they think and act when confronting the problems of ‘how to excel’ at any given activity. I use many of these skills daily as a doctor, teacher and musician.
What are the parallels between working as an intensive care anaesthetist and as a concert pianist?
Common skills that overlap are those pertaining to process optimisation and motor-skills acquisition. Both professions require expertise in maintaining clarity of thought and sequencing of motor skills under pressure. I occasionally need to ‘perform’ in the ICU setting, as when needing to execute a particular life-critical intervention under time pressure without mistake. The importance of improving ‘procedural’ memory – whereby practical and situational skills are accumulated over hundreds of iterations – is common to both. Musicians do it deliberately, but doctors do it, too, often without realising, when we repeat certain skills, behaviours and thought processes on the clinical frontline.
Your book applies research from physics, biomechanics and physiology to neuroscience and psychology to transform how pianists learn, practise and perform. How do these sciences relate to the psychology of music?
Exceptional performance outcomes can be achieved by employing the best ideas, the best tools and the best processes to reach them. In music, this involves iterations of improvement of Music conception, Mechanics and Mental skills (the 3 Ms described in my book) which, in turn, pertain to the worlds of Psychology, Physiology and Physics. Thus, what we need to improve is the expansion of such knowledge into the domain of instrumental learning. Humans, however, with their perception distortions and cognitive biases, try to cut corners in the processes of achieving excellence. Often, too, we deny ourselves the best version of ourselves by protecting the status quo of our own model of thinking. These are chain-weights to achieving excellence.
What, in your view, makes for a magical piano performance?
A magical performance requires that the pianist connects emotionally through sound with the listener. Understanding the expectations of each listener is key to success, as the art is found in manipulating the elements of music in ways that each listener can identify with but also in ways that they have not previously experienced. Like a chef, it requires technique, imagination and courage to try out new musical recipes. Risking failure while striving for miracles is a big part of it.
Do you often get back to Australia?
I usually visit Australia every year to perform and teach. This year I will give piano master classes at the Australian National Academy of Music, The Melbourne Conservatory, and a variety of schools in October. I hope I can one day find time to make another tour of northern NSW, as I did some years ago during my PhD.
