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