Category: Gesundheitstag Musik

Can musicians’ medicine learn from sports medicine?

Healthy music pedagogy and prevention programmes are topics at the National Music Health Day on 9 November in Lucerne. Renowned rheumatologist Christoph Reich also builds a bridge to sports medicine. A short interview.

Christoph Reich is a member of Swissmedmusica and was head team doctor at Zurich Football Club for several years. He heads the medical service of the Swiss Paralympic Committee, is the association doctor of the Swiss Association for Disabled Sports Plusport and the doctor in charge of the Regional Performance Centre for Rhythmic Gymnastics.

What can sports medicine teach musicians?
Christoph Reich: In short: a sober look at the mechanics of movement and the state of training. Despite all the emotions involved and the importance of physical expression in individual sports, sport ultimately has many very factual aspects: Counting, measuring and direct comparison, and so it is not surprising that movement analysis, knowledge of the physical load-bearing capacity of tendons and a look at the state of training are very present in everyday sport.

What can musicians learn from sports medicine?
Thanks to musicians’ medicine and music physiology, this knowledge is now also very present in music education, and it has also reached musicians. Ultimately, it’s about being in close contact with your own body when organising exercise and working in partnership with it. Our bodies are very resilient, but only to the stresses for which they have been well prepared.

More about the National Music Health Day on 9 November 2024 in Lucerne: swissmedmusica.ch/gesundheitstag

Between mass panic and musicians’ medicine

Germany once honoured him for his care of the victims of the Duisburg Love Parade. Today, he teaches the basics of healthy music-making in Cologne. Peer Abilgaard can be seen at the National Music Health Day in Lucerne on 9 November.

Peer Abilgaard studied singing and trumpet at the Cologne University of Music and Dance and was a guest soloist as a countertenor at the Darmstadt State Theatre and at the opera houses in Halle, Gera, Altenburg and Bonn. After studying music, he went on to study medicine at the University of Bonn. Today, he is head physician at the Mental Health Clinic at the Evangelical Hospital in Gelsenkirchen and an examiner for various German medical associations.
In 2009, he founded the Peter Ostwald Institute for Musicians’ Health at the Cologne University of Music. He also founded the ‘Netzwerk Musikermedizin Nordrhein’, a loose association of therapists and doctors from a wide range of specialisms. As a founding member of the ‘German Society for Music Physiology and Musicians’ Medicine”, he has been involved in the interface between performing arts, music education and medicine for many years. Together with his colleagues, he pursues a resource-orientated further development of the still young discipline within the specialist society.
As an author, Abilaard deals with resilience- and dignity-orientated approaches in psychotherapy, the importance of non-verbal psychotherapy and ego-strengthening music education.

More about the National Music Health Day:
swissmedmusica.ch/en/gesundheitstag

Health day music – your offers

The National Music Health Day on 9 November 2024 in Lucerne will be held under the motto “Prevention and Musical Excellence” and will provide the most comprehensive information possible on prevention and therapy services in Switzerland. Providers will have the opportunity to present their services at a table-top exhibition.

The National Music Health Day on 9 November 2024 in Lucerne will be held under the motto “Prevention and Musical Excellence” and will provide the most comprehensive information possible on prevention and therapy services in Switzerland. High-calibre presentations will provide information on the latest developments in musicological research, while workshops will offer the opportunity to learn about healthy music-making techniques. A table-top exhibition with information material will provide an overview of therapy and prevention programmes throughout Switzerland. Experts will also be happy to answer questions about individual strategies for healthy music-making and how to improve well-being in everyday musical life. The presentations will be simultaneously translated. The members of the nationwide Swissmedmusica network will present themselves at the table fair. This ensures the high quality and seriousness of the offers.

Become a member and present offers

Interested parties who are not yet members of Swissmedmusica and would like to present their own music-medical services at the Health Day table fair can apply for membership with Swissmedmusica. Interested musicians can also become members. Swissmedmusica supports everyone on the path to healthy and emotionally fulfilling music-making. Members also benefit from networking platforms for all those active in music medicine in Switzerland and internationally, an exclusive, content-rich newsletter with information on media, events and current research in music medicine, as well as discounts on specialist journals and admission to the Music Health Day.

More information: swissmedmusica.ch/en/mitgliedschaft