Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and her longtime collaborator, pianist Lambert Orkis are good friends of mine. Last weekend, we had a lovely dinner at Bar Boulud in NYC immediately following their recital at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. It was the last performance of Anne-Sophie’s year-long residency with the New York Philharmonic.

Leo, Chiara Vogel, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Steve Cohen, composer Sebastian Currier -- Photo (C) Lambert Orkis

As dessert was served, Lambert casually mentioned something that instantly caught my attention – his rules on how to always give a perfect performance. He called these rules “The Seven C’s.” Coming from a Grammy award-winning veteran performer, I knew that his rules would be worth memorizing, and recording here on my blog for others to learn from.

He was kind enough to write up a summary of our conversation, and I’m honored to present his rules on my blog.

Here are Lambert Orkis’ Seven C’s:

CALM, CONCENTRATE, COUNT, COMMAS, COURAGE, CHOICE, CONSISTENCY

Lambert Orkis

Stay CALM:  Your higher mental functions are blocked when you are emotionally charged.

CONCENTRATE: Practice thinking the right thoughts and focus your mind on what you’ve practiced while performing.

COUNT:  Music exists in and is organized by time.  Anxiety disrupts your timing, usually through compression (rushing). Therefore, you must re-establish your timing equilibrium through mechanical means (counting) in performance.

COMMAS:  As anxiety causes rushing, it also removes the punctuation which gives music its coherence. The punctuation is symbolized by “commas.” Mentally establishing punctuation through prior preparation gives you the ability to reacquire or maintain equilibrium by having a reference point in performance.

COURAGE:  Mental control does not come naturally to everyone. It can require a degree of courage to take responsibility for your thoughts, leading up to and during the performance.

CHOICE:  Mental laziness is easy.  We can choose whether or not to face ourselves and confront whatever intellectual or emotional issues we may have.

CONSISTENCY (of purpose):  Don’t give up before or during a performance until the performance is complete.  Constantly strive to make conditions as perfect as possible for an excellent performance and maintain a positive, engaged, and creative approach throughout the process until you have finally left the stage and have finished greeting the audience after the performance.

I’m certain that you can find inspiration in these words, whether you’re a musician, magician, public speaker or business presenter in any field.