My parents were both musicians, but their approach was different. My father was someone who always played from memory. It just came naturally to him. Just by practicing it became wedged in his head. Even after years of not touching a piece, he just went over it a few times and it was back in his active memory. He felt it allowed him to be free from the "handcuffs" of reading, and expressing himself more freely.
My mother played from the score, always, 100%. Somehow she didn't have the ability to commit the music to memory, so to her, she could concentrate on expressing herself without the added stress of trying to remember the notes. Not to mention the potential panic of a blackout on crucial moments.
For me I found that as old age keeps creeping up on me, memorizing is harder now. When I was a child, my mother would play something for me once, and I could copy it after watching her fingers a few times. Same with the spoken word: after hearing a story a few times, I would be able to repeat it word for word. I can no longer do that, and when I restarted piano, I found out the ability to memorize music has gone too. So I'm finally learning to read for myself, which I consider a good thing because I no longer have someone to lazily copy 😆
So, truthfully, I don't think it makes much of a difference whether you are a reader or a memorizer. Whatever causes the least stress I guess 🙂
