Ithaca, NY—“Musician, heal thyself,” could be one of the slogans of the annual workshops that bring together two of the academic disciplines for which Ithaca College is well known: music and health care. Learning how to manage and prevent music-related aches and pains as well as becoming aware of the mental factors affecting musicians and their performance will be among the lessons taught to the participants at the Healthy Musician workshops, scheduled for June 16–18 and June 19–20.

 

The Healthy Musician workshops are designed for professional musicians—both instrumentalists and singers—music educators who wish to receive personal attention regarding their own music-related injuries and gain an understanding in the management of student ailments and disability prevention, and health-care professionals interested in developing a performing-arts medicine program or expanding their strategies for the treatment of music-related injuries.

 

The workshops feature a comprehensive series of seminars and hands-on sessions that focus on such music-related injuries as carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive stress injury, and back pains. Areas of instruction in the first session will include basic physiology, biofeedback, stress management techniques, and an introduction to the Alexander Technique. The second session will go into these issues in greater depth, and will present Feldenkrais exercises, breathing techniques, and physical therapy examination. Introductory sessions and demonstrations on therapeutic massage, yoga, developmental optometry, and pharmacology will also be presented. Musicians are invited to bring their instruments every day.

 

Instructors will include faculty members from Ithaca College’s music, psychology, and physical and occupational therapy departments as well as an optometrist, massage therapist, yoga instructor, and other practitioners and clinicians.

 

For more information visit the Healthy Musician website at www.ithaca.edu/cess/healthymusician. For questions about program content, contact workshop director Nicholas Quarrier, clinical associate professor of physical therapy, at (607) 274-3716 or nquarrie@ithaca.edu. Questions regarding registration should be addressed to the Division of Continuing Education Summer Sessions at (607) 274-3143 or cess@ithaca.edu.