Ms Katrina Rivera

BMus (Hons), MTeach (Sec)
PhD Scholar, ANU School of Medicine and Psychology

Katrina Rivera is a PhD candidate at the ANU Medical School. Her thesis will interrogate disciplinary assumptions and examine the relationship between music performance anxiety and music education. Katrina holds a Bachelor of Music (Hons) in piano performance from the Australian National University (2013), and a Master of Teaching in secondary music from the University of New England (2018). Outside her studies, Katrina works in Canberra as a piano teacher and an accompanist.

Research interests

Music Performance Anxiety, do we need it? Misconceptions in research and the role of pedagogy in its prevention and treatment

A transdisciplinary and mixed method approach to interrogating current assumptions within music performance and music psychology and their influence on current research and treatment around music performance anxiety (MPA). The thesis will also examine the relationship between MPA and music education. While grounded in music, the work has clear applications for examining the educational contributions to performance anxiety across contexts, including in training for clinical interactions.