The Bulletproof Musician

Cellist Yumi Kendall: On Becoming a More Positive (And Effective) Practicer

Noa Kageyama Episode 381

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 49:10

Cellist Yumi Kendall has been the assistant principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2004, serves on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music, co-hosts the Tacet No More podcast with bassist Joseph Conyers, and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Applied Positive Psychology program.

In this episode, we explore…

  • Yumi’s early musical influences
  • What effective practice really means (and looks like)
  • How Yumi balances competing demands and sets practice goals and intentions
  • When is something good enough, and it’s time to move on?
  • Biggest takeaways from her studies in the University of Pennsylvania’s positive psychology program
  • Self-compassion, positive teaching, overcoming negative self-talk
  • Identity and habit formation
  • Yumi’s experience with performance anxiety and how she learned to get past this in the early part of her career
  • Dealing with shaky bow
  • What change would she love to see in the music industry?

For the complete transcript and other notes and links, visit:

Cellist Yumi Kendall: On Becoming a More Positive (And Effective) Practicer

More from The Bulletproof Musician