July 2026. “Come ON, Kristine! We don’t have time for this! It’s not that hard!” our exasperated mom barked from the piano bench, frustration boiling over. I was about 8 at the time, and had been playing violin for 4 years. My sisters and I were rehearsing for a concert, with Mom accompanying us at the piano. It wasn’t going great. Everyone was on their last nerve, and I wanted to throw my violin out the window. We had train wrecked mid-phrase in the Rosenmueller, because I h

June 2026. Just a brief announcement before we talk about this month's topic; I've moved my monthly newsletter to Substack. You will still receive emails as usual, and you can always unsubscribe at any time. Anxiety is a hot topic in my coaching practice, and it’s played a big part in my own back story. In my early years with the LA Philharmonic, I struggled regularly with panic attacks and performance anxiety. I even had a revolving playlist of anxiety dreams. The recurring

May 2026. For this post, I'm sharing an excerpt from my upcoming book, Onstage: A Journey From Fear to Faith. (working title). This is from the chapter called Rule Your Mind. It starts while I’m having a panic attack during a Los Angeles Philharmonic concert, many years ago, while on tour in Salzburg, Austria. I’m counting the measures until the 2nd violin solo entrance. Two bars to go. My body feels like jelly. I know I won’t be able to do this. But I pretend, and lift the

April 2026. Celebrations of Passover and Easter are getting underway this week, and it’s a great time to pause and reflect on their significance. Both holidays commemorate God bringing deliverance from slavery for His people. Passover was a foretelling of the ultimate deliverance that would come through Christ. In the Passover, it was deliverance for the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. In the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it was deliverance from