Introduction to Performing Arts Medicine

Undergraduate musicians experience a wide range of performance injuries that are connected to repetitive motions and inadequate technique. Despite the high prevalence of playing related pain, many undergraduate musicians lack knowledge of the resources that can help them. Performing Arts Medicine (PAM) is a discipline that bridges the gap between the physiological processes that cause injuries and the art forms that lead to them. Compared to other medical specialties, performing arts medicine is new. The first symposium for PAM was held in 1983 at the Aspen Music Festival, and the PAM association was formed in 1988. Despite this novelty, PAM is becoming a larger part of the sports medicine repertoire. This course seeks to introduce undergraduate students to this blossoming field, and to encourage them to think about their own performance related pain. In the first half of the class, lecturers will include the dean of a music conservatory, an audiologist, a vocal health specialist, a musculoskeletal health expert, and a flautist with Ehlers Danlos syndrome. The second half of the class will invite musicians to potentially perform, and to talk about the ways that they mitigate playing related pain. The goal of this class is to encourage students to think critically about movement, medicine, and performance.