Wishing you good health!(In Unison)

Whether 5, 25 or 75 years of age, we all strive to remain as healthy as possible to be able to enjoy life to the max! Musicians have found that taking steps to ensure good health and remaining physically and mentally active are also critical to being able to pursue a lifetime of music making. We use our bodies as we perform; our activity requires dedicated and consistent practice; we work hard to develop both our skills and our artistry; we have to produce our final product on cue and typically in front of others; and finally, the assessment of the quality of the final effort and product is often subjective, which can create stress. We could just as easily be describing an Olympic figure skater!

Athletes have long valued support from sports medicine professionals such as physicians, psychologists, physical therapists, athletic trainers and a cadre of others. As far back as the late 1800s, physicians had added musician's cramp to the list of other occupational injuries (writer's cramp and telegrapher's cramp) being treated at the time. However, the field of music medicine did not achieve significant visibility until 1981 when a New York Times article brought to light the hand problems of Leon Fleisher and Gary Graffman, spotlighting the issue of musician injuries.

Since then, growing interest in the field of arts medicine has resulted in the offerings of a range of conferences and seminars. The first Medical Problems of Musicians conference in conjunction with the Aspen, Colorado Music Festival, took place in 1983. A wide range of arts medicine events sponsored by universities and arts organizations have followed. In 1986, the quarterly journal Medical Problems of Performing Artists began publication.

I have been involved in the field of musician wellness for more than 20 years, attending my first music medicine conference at the Cleveland Clinic in 1988. Since then, my pursuit of wellness education has ranged from enrolling in an extended course at Northwestern University in 1991, participating in the International Arts Medicine Association's Conference in Tel-Aviv, Israel, in 1995 and attending countless wellness sessions at conferences across the country. Every MTNA president leaves his or her mark on this organization. As my legacy, I hope to leave office with a strong set of musician wellness education resources in place to further educate our members on this important subject.

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The National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) has strongly advocated that colleges integrate wellness education in every music student's curriculum. Organizations like MTNA consistently incorporate wellness sessions into our national conferences. This summer MTNA took a major step forward by co-sponsoring, with the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers Association, a three-day wellness seminar in New York City. "Empowering Musicians: Body, Mind and Spirit" featured three internationally acclaimed clinicians: Louise Montello, Alan Fraser and Carol Montparker.

Toward the end of June I attended the 26th annual symposium, ...