Theresa Rudolph: Learning to Trust Yourself Again

S2 Ep #6: This episode felt like a conversation I'd been wanting to have for a long time — one that goes beyond the highlight reel and into the real, sometimes messy, always human experience of building a sustainable life as a professional musician. Theresa and I talk about injuries, burnout, rejection, perfectionism, and the surprisingly beautiful things that can grow out of our hardest professional moments. Theresa Rudolph is in her 15th season as Assistant Principal Viola of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and she's also on faculty at the University of Toronto and the Taylor Academy at the Royal Conservatory of Music — the gifted high school program at the RCM. She's a chamber musician, a mother of three, and someone whose depth of self-knowledge and body awareness genuinely stopped me in my tracks more than once during this conversation. What Theresa shares here is hard-earned. From recovering from a fractured bow arm early in her career, to navigating the emotional complexity of taking auditions while already holding a wonderful job, to learning what it actually means to practice smarter instead of harder — she brings honesty and warmth to all of it. And her perspective on professional disappointment and rejection as a pathway to self-trust? I wasn't expecting to get a little emotional, but here we are. You'll Discover: -Why breaking her bow arm became a turning point in how Theresa listens to and cares for her body -How stress and emotional strain can show up as physical pain in the same spot as a past injury — and what to do about it -What it really means to give your all when you're a working orchestral musician, teacher, and parent -The role that professional disappointment and rejection played in building Theresa's sense of self-trust -Why excellence over perfection isn't just a nice idea — it's a practice that changes how you play and how you feel -How strategic scheduling protects your body and your playing — and why rest days deserve to be treated as sacred -What the inner critic sounds like for both of us, and how to stop fighting it and start hosting it instead Timestamps: (00:00) welcome and introducing theresa rudolph, violist and educator (02:00) musician parents, growing up in vancouver, and how theresa found the viola (05:30) studying with gerald stanek, being pushed with kindness, and falling in love with the inner voice (08:30) winning detroit symphony at 21, the freedom of not knowing how hard it was (11:00) the fractured bow arm in 2007, ignoring the signals for 18 hours, and what she had to learn (16:00) finding a smaller instrument, having babies, and eight years of zero injury (19:30) the push push push culture, people pleasing on the front stand, and redefining giving it your all (23:00) playing schubert 9 in cleveland, less is more, and learning not to muscle your sound (27:00) body care mid rehearsal, athletic taping, bouncy balls backstage, and normalizing the small things (31:30) when stress shows up as physical pain, breathwork and alexander technique as tools (36:00) professional disappointment and rejection as the unexpected path to self trust (40:30) excellence over perfection, working with the same coach as her dad, and why perfect auditions don't exist (44:00) the inner critic, who do you think you are, and giving anxiety an armchair and a blanket (47:30) scheduling as a body care tool, keeping days off sacred, and listening before you practice (50:00) rapid fire, favorite moments on and off stage, spaghetti bolognese, and the gift of sunshine Learrn more about Therersa: https://www.tso.ca/about/orchestra/members-of-the-orchestra/theresa-rudolph Interested in diving deeper into this work with me? Visit mindfulopus.com to learn how we can work together. MindfulOpus has a video podcast! Visit our YouTube channel to watch: youtube.com/@mindfulopus Come say hi over on Instagram @mindfulopus