Understanding the mechanisms that underpin well-being in musicians is essential, particularly concerning how motivation can be sustained throughout their careers. The goal of nearly every classical music student is to become a professional performer. However, only a small percentage achieve this goal, with even fewer women reaching this level (Alberge, 2024). Those who achieve top-level success have invested thousands of hours in focused practice (e.g., Ericsson et al., 1993). Achieving such an elite musical status requires considerable motivation (Hatfield, 2024). One theory of human motivation frequently used to study musicians is SDT (Deci and Ryan, 1985; Ryan and Deci, 2017). SDT, as a theory of human motivation, focuses not only on the amount of motivation but mostly on the quality of that motivation. At its core, SDT distinguishes between intrinsic (driven by the sheer enjoyment and interest of doing an activity) and extrinsic forms of motivation (driven by internal or external outcomes, such as rewards or punishments), with intrinsic motivation fostering the highest quality of motivation. This theory has had profound implications in various fields, including music, where understanding the motivational dynamics can significantly influence career success among professional musicians (Evans, 2015; Evans and Ryan, 2022). For instance, Evans and Bonneville-Roussy (2016) and Bonneville-Roussy and Evans (2024) found that higher levels of autonomous motivation (in which intrinsic motivation is included) predicted greater practice frequency and higher levels of psychological well-being in student musicians. Most SDT research in music has focused on these types of motivation and how they relate to musicians’ achievement, persistence and well-being, especially in music students (Bonneville-Roussy et al., 2020; Evans, 2015; Evans and Bonneville-Roussy, 2016). This aspect may also be crucial for professional musicians, particularly in ensuring that their motivation is sustainable in the short term and throughout their musical lifespan (Evans, 2015) (Deci and Ryan, 1985; Ryan, 2023; Ryan and Deci, 2000, 2017).

SDT also posits that humans have three fundamental psychological needs—autonomy, relatedness, and competence (Deci and Ryan, 1985; Ryan, 2023; Ryan and Deci, 2017). The fulfillment of these needs fosters intrinsic motivation, growth, and well-being (Ryan and Deci, 2017). These needs align with key concepts of well-being, such as fostering positive emotions, engagement, and relationships (Seligman, 2011). While these three psychological needs are well understood in music students (Evans, 2015), their roles in the lives of professional musicians remain largely unexplored. SDT links the spectrum of extrinsic to intrinsic motivation with psychological needs by suggesting that the more the needs are satisfied within a given activity, the more intrinsically motivated a person is likely to be in that activity and the more they are likely to derive well-being from it (Cerasoli et al., 2016; Ryan, 2023; Ryan and Deci, 2017; Slemp et al., 2024). For elite performers, such as athletes, musicians, and experts in the workplace, satisfying these needs is critical to achieving peak performance and well-being. Nevertheless, most research on psychological needs satisfaction has been done with students or young athletes (Cerasoli et al., 2016).

Autonomy refers to the need to feel in control of one’s actions and decisions. In the context of elite performance, autonomy is crucial for fostering intrinsic motivation. Studies have shown that when elite performers feel they have a choice in their decisions, they are more likely to feel intrinsically motivated and experience enjoyment, leading to enhanced performance (Bonneville-Roussy et al., 2020; Lonsdale et al., 2009; Lundqvist and Raglin, 2015). Moreover, autonomy-supportive environments that provide options and encourage input have been linked to higher satisfaction levels (Adie et al., 2012; Bonneville-Roussy et al., 2013, 2020).

Competence involves feeling effective and capable of achieving desired outcomes. For elite performers, continuous improvement and mastery are vital (Cerasoli et al., 2016). The sense of competence is reinforced through clear feedback and achievable challenge levels. In high-stakes environments, feedback that emphasizes skill development rather than outcomes helps sustain motivation in the long run. Research highlights that athletes who perceive their environments as supportive of skill development report higher levels of sustained engagement and performance (Cerasoli et al., 2016; Verner-Filion and Vallerand, 2018).

Relatedness is the need to feel connected to others. Fulfilling the need for relatedness can be particularly challenging for elite performers, including orchestral musicians. While orchestral musicians work in ensemble settings, the competitive and high-performance nature of their roles can still lead to a sense of isolation. Research has shown that a robust support system can significantly impact performers’ psychological well-being, particularly in long-cycle domains like orchestral music and competitive sports (Evans, 2015; Larson et al., 2019; Reis et al., 2000). For example, research by Williamon and Antonini Philippe (2020) has found that musicians and athletes both benefit significantly from a strong social support system to mitigate stress and enhance performance. Satisfying the basic psychological needs outlined by SDT is crucial for elite performers across various domains. Ensuring that these needs are met promotes higher performance levels and well-being.

Prior studies have underscored the critical role of fulfilling psychological needs in music. Freer and Evans (2019) have demonstrated that the satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness directly influences the decision to continue in music. Research has shown that autonomy support is linked with musicians’ achievement, persistence and well-being (Bonneville-Roussy et al., 2013, 2020; Krause et al., 2019). Further supporting these findings, research has identified a positive relationship between fulfilling these needs and musicians’ persistence, higher levels of internal motivation, practice, and challenge-seeking. In contrast, frustration of these needs had the opposite effect, with less effective stress management skills and less ongoing commitment to a music career (Ascenso et al., 2017, 2018, 2022; McCready and Reid, 2007). Alessandri et al. (2020) have found that perceptions of competence among musicians are closely linked to their well-being. In professional musicians, creating a sense of belonging and feeling that they are part of a musical community is especially important. Although these studies mainly cater to music education contexts, they highlight outcomes relevant to the professional music setting. These findings collectively suggest that the satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs plays a pivotal role in the musical lives and well-being of musicians.

Women in the professional music industry face numerous challenges rooted in historical biases and contemporary societal norms (Smith and Hendricks, 2022). Research has shown that highly qualified music listeners are unable to distinguish between male and female performers when presented with auditory information alone (without visual information; Davidson and Edgar, 2003; Sergeant and Himonides, 2014). In spite of this, women remain disproportionately underrepresented in the classical music industry despite often having equal or greater representation in music education (Goldin and Rouse, 1997; Smith and Hendricks, 2022). Sergeant and Himonides (2023) have found that under 40% of musicians are women in the top 40 orchestras internationally. Men predominantly hold higher-level positions like conductors, soloists, principal musicians, and artistic directors (Scharff, 2018; Sergeant and Himonides, 2014, 2019). Women, on the other hand, are disproportionately more likely to become music teachers. While hiring practices have improved over recent years, discrepancies in gender pay persist (Smith and Hendricks, 2022). These structural challenges likely have significant psychological impacts on female musicians, yet their effects on well-being remain underexplored. While existing research has largely focused on issues such as representation and pay equity, it has often neglected the lived experiences of women in these professional contexts.

The primary challenge women face in Western classical music may no longer be overt sexism. Instead, a variety of factors may hinder the careers of female musicians. In a qualitative study that investigated the challenges of professional female musicians in Australia, Green and Mitchell (2023) have found that women face issues such as bias in the audition process, isolation, lack of support, stereotyping within male-dominated cultures, and a scarcity of female role models within orchestras. In addition, the greater caregiving responsibilities women typically assume may deter them from pursuing top-tier roles in the field (Hruska and Bonneville-Roussy, 2022). Moreover, women often encounter challenges related to work-life balance, particularly concerning ongoing family responsibilities. The need for touring and irregular hours can be particularly unforgiving for women seeking to balance family life (Cohen and Ginsborg, 2021). Many female musicians postpone or opt out of motherhood, fearing that taking parental leave might jeopardize their careers. Moreover, secure positions in music are scarce, with most being temporary contracts. This precarity is exacerbated for women returning from extended parental leave, who face the significant risk of being overlooked for rehire. Although women face these challenges, there is a lack of evidence of their impact on their daily lives and whether they affect their well-being.

The present study aims to answer these two research questions through the lens of SDT:

A qualitative interview study was used to explore these questions. This method allowed for a detailed and nuanced understanding of the participants’ lived experiences, providing rich, contextual data that quantitative methods might not capture (Braun and Clarke, 2006).

As part of a larger research project involving two quantitative research surveys and an interview on the links between motivation, performance and well-being in high-achieving domains, such as sports, high-skilled careers and music, over 200 high-achieving individuals were recruited to take part in the quantitative section of the project, of which 16 female musicians agreed to participate in the qualitative interviews. The participants were recruited by word-of-mouth and snowballing in professional classical orchestras in Canada. Therefore, they were all professional, active classical musicians. The participants had a mean age of 40.44 years (25–58 years, SD = 10.84). Participants had, on average, 31.31 years of experience with their instrument. Their musical instruments included woodwind, brass, strings and keyboard. Descriptive statistics for each of the participants are found in Table 1.

Two postgraduate students in music psychology interviewed the participants. The interviews lasted on average 37.25 min, and were recorded using the interviewers’ phones, then password-protected, anonymized, and transferred to a university-protected cloud account.

To minimize bias, the interviewers were trained to ask questions, prompts, and follow-up questions consistently across all study participants. One interviewer was a classical musician herself. Therefore, to minimize interviewers’ bias, we ensured that the researcher did not interview participants who had a working or close relationship with her.

Ethical approval was granted by the authors’ institution (2022-4224). All participants signed a consent form and were sent the interview questions beforehand.

The study employed an inductive-deductive thematic analysis following a structured methodological approach (Braun and Clarke, 2006; Fereday and Muir-Cochrane, 2006). Firstly, recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim by two interviewers and a research assistant. This technique was selected for its methodical organization of qualitative data. The study initially used deductive thematic analysis by drawing on the established theoretical frameworks of SDT and well-being. These existing frameworks drove the research questions and preliminary data coding. Themes such as autonomy, competence, and relatedness were derived from this theory to answer the research questions about the well-being of female professional musicians. The analytic framework also incorporated women’s experiences to explore how the professional female musicians in our sample discussed gendered issues such as caregiving responsibilities and work-life balance. The questions were not gendered per se, allowing the codes to naturally emerge without being prompted.

We followed a procedure for coding themes applied to SDT based on Raabe and Readdy (2016). First, after familiarizing themselves with the transcripts, all authors (serving as coders) independently highlighted relevant sections and assigned initial descriptive codes aligned with existing SDT literature. Next, each author independently grouped related data into 28 lower-order themes. The authors reviewed these preliminary themes independently, offering perspectives and making adjustments as necessary. Through an iterative process involving feedback from all authors, consensus was reached on the themes and codes that best represented participant experiences. In the first meeting, the 28 themes were consolidated into 19 based on their importance and how well they captured key participant ideas. In a second meeting, the 19 themes were either merged due to similarity, kept unchanged, or eliminated if they were mentioned by fewer than 30% of the sample. Saturation was achieved when no new themes emerged, resulting in a final set of 10 unique and significant themes. Subsequently, all authors independently confirmed that the themes accurately reflected the participants’ experiences. Finally, the authors selected participant quotes that best illustrated each theme and their experiences.

Then, the themes were refined inductively according to the participants’ narratives and experiences (Fereday and Muir-Cochrane, 2006). The inductive approach became prominent when refining the broad themes. As participants’ narratives were analyzed, new insights and themes emerged directly from the data rather than being strictly aligned with the predefined theory. This iterative process involved reviewing the participants’ experiences, allowing new codes and themes to emerge, which were not necessarily predicted by the theory.

In sum, this research used a rigorous inductive-deductive approach. Transcripts were coded for themes and sub-themes based on the participants’ narratives. These codes were organized to reflect both the prevalence (number of participants) and the depth of discussion surrounding each theme. While Table 2 provides a summary of the frequency of participants who mentioned each theme, the narrative analysis presents the contextual richness of the data.

Psychological needs were identified as one of the overarching themes. As highlighted in the first section of Table 2, psychological needs encompassed six sub-themes: autonomy satisfaction and thwarting, competence autonomy satisfaction and thwarting, and relatedness autonomy satisfaction and thwarting.

Intrinsic motivation refers to engaging in an activity for the inherent satisfaction and pleasure derived from the activity, rather than for external rewards or pressures (Evans, 2015, 2023). All musicians mentioned forms of intrinsic motivation in their interviews, highlighting that being intrinsically motivated was a major source of well-being. Two sub-themes were prevalent with regards to intrinsic motivation: the inner love for music, reported by 69% of the sample, and a transcendental experience (31%, see section 3.2 of Table 2).

Although we did not specifically inquire about the challenges faced by female musicians, most women in the study highlighted them. The primary sub-theme identified was the difficulty maintaining a work-life balance, stated by 81% of the sample (section 3.3.1 of Table 2), negatively impacting their well-being. Interestingly, another sub-theme that emerged was that, for some women, these challenges fostered personal growth and resilience, ultimately enhancing their well-being over time (reported by 69%, section 3.3.2 of Table 2).

This study provides valuable insights into the well-being of professional female musicians, but several limitations should be noted. The small sample size of 16 participants from Canadian classical orchestras may limit the generalizability of the findings. Future research should involve larger and more diverse samples. Additional data collection methods, such as direct observations or longitudinal studies, could help validate the results of this study. Additionally, the study did not explore external factors like institutional policies, cultural differences, or socioeconomic status. Finally, the cross-sectional design captures experiences at a single point in time, limiting insights into causality or changes over time. Longitudinal studies could offer more robust insights into how well-being and psychological needs evolve throughout musicians’ careers.

In sum, professional musicians, particularly women in this field and other performance domains, would benefit from environments that satisfy the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Although the industry has made significant progress in addressing systemic well-being issues, these psychological needs are still not fully met. Since satisfying these needs is a crucial predictor of intrinsic motivation and well-being, greater awareness of these issues is necessary. Ensuring that environments within the music industry support the psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness can significantly enhance musicians’ well-being and professional satisfaction. Additionally, female musicians face gender-specific challenges and often bear the primary responsibility for childcare, further constraining their well-being. Addressing these unique challenges female musicians face, such as work-life balance and the need for career stability, is crucial. Future research should address these concerns.