This dissertation focuses on burnout and engagement in music performance
students. While involvement in music can be detrimental to the health of those
involved, it can also foster their well-being. There has been a growing interest in
the experiences of music students but there is very little research on aspects of
their music-related well-being such as burnout and engagement.1 Not so much is
known about the degrees to which students feel burned-out and engaged, and
whether their demographic characteristics influence their burnout and engagement.
A quantitative study was therefore undertaken to establish the levels of burnout and
engagement in this population, and explore potential differences with respect to
them between music performance students in Australia, Poland and the UK, and
men and women (N=331). With a view to understanding why performance students
burn out or become engaged, and what characterises their experiences of burnout
or engagement, the mixed-method approach was employed. The results from a
quantitative longitudinal study carried out in Australia and the UK (N=124), and the
interviews with students classed as burned-out (N=7) or engaged (N=7) were
combined to identify the factors underpinning the development of burnout and
engagement, and to explore how they are experienced by music performance
students. The findings suggest that performance students display comparatively
low levels of burnout (although one in 10 could be at risk), and moderate degrees
of engagement. The study points to cross-national and sex differences in the levels
of music-related well-being experienced by performance students. Burnout
develops as a consequence of inadequate motivation underlying involvement in
music or limited personal and social resources to support learning. Burned-out
students experience problems with their physical health (but devaluation of music
may be a protective factor) and their overall psychological well-being is negatively
affected. Students are likely to become engaged when music represents their true
values, and when they have personal and social resources facilitating their selfactualisation
through music. Engagement further fuels students’ proactive
approach to learning and resultant progress. The findings form the basis for
practical advice for teachers, institutions and students themselves on how students’
music-related well-being could be protected and enhanced