How to handle mistakes in performance

What to do when you make a mistake? The first rule is to keep going! That moment is already passed; you cannot go back in time and fix it. It is overlaid with the beautiful sounds and phrases, or the intelligent content of your speech.
Don't let any fluster over small mishaps drag down the rest of your performance; put them behind you. Don't look back - or, like Lot's wife, you will be turned into a pillar of salt, or something that tastes equally bitter.
Remember, any mishaps are your secret. Don't move a muscle, flinch, pull faces, or in any other way wave a big placard announcing: 'Oops, I boo-booed!'
If you do make a mistake, flinching visibly will only give ammunition to your possible critics. Why draw attention to something they might otherwise have missed? Perhaps they were daydreaming in that alpha state that music induces, not hanging on your every note. Probably, most don't really know the score intimately. Even if they do, it is possible your mistake was not as obvious as you thought. They might just think you added an enterprising ad lib or ornament.
It's surprising how, even if we have played a piece many times ourselves, we hear it from a different perspective when sitting in the audience. Many people miss small mistakes unless they have a photographic memory. If you can't keep a poker face after a mistake, at least throw it off with a slight smile instead of a grimace.
(Excerpt from "Confident Music Performance" by Ruth Bonetti. Available at www.RuthBonetti.com )