Tune up and tone up

Very often, the education and training of musicians fails to incorporate advice on care of the body, injury prevention, stress management and hearing protection. The Royal College of Music (RCM) has launched an integrated package of initiatives designed to lead the way in tackling these issues and optimising musicians’ health and well-being. Stemming from eight years of research led by the RCM’s Centre for Performance Science, musicians at the College now have access to fitness assessments, health seminars, and hands-on workshops on topics ranging from injury prevention and anxiety management to exercise adherence. This package, thought to be the first of its kind in a music conservatoire anywhere in the world, aims to provide students with an informed backdrop against which they can make the most of their educational and professional opportunities.

RCM students will be offered free physical fitness assessments, in which their current levels of physical activity and fitness are profiled, and they receive advice on how their exercise and diet may be changed to optimise performance. Exercise psychologists and physiologists, medics and biomedical engineers will administer submaximal cardiovascular fitness tests and work to develop new technology for capturing physiological data that are relevant to practising and performing. Musicians and non-musicians alike are susceptible to work-related hearing damage from sound. Unlike other professions, however, the sound musicians create is not a by-product of their work – it is their work. Following two years of research into musicians’ hearing with University College London’s Ear Institute, the RCM is extending its successful hearing assessment scheme by offering a comprehensive range of tests to all students and staff. The RCM’s peak performance workshops are tailored to address the physical, mental, and musical demands of high-level practising and performing. Past workshops have offered hands-on training in yoga, Tai Chi, exercise, and stress management. An expanded suite of two-week ‘taster’ workshops will be offered to students on these topics and more, including Pilates, Feldenkrais (an educational method focusing on learning and movement) and healthy eating.

Bringing the whole programme together are the RCM’s long-running health seminar series and Alexander Technique provision. The seminar series, which forms part of the Year 1 Professional Skills course unit, introduces students to fundamental principles of health and well-being that are integral to the healthy musician initiative. The RCM also offers opportunities to experience and learn the Alexander Technique throughout its undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. The strength of our programme lies in the assembled team of international experts. Scientists from Imperial College and University College London, as well as healthcare professionals from the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine, have contributed to the development of our initiatives, and will play an active role in their delivery. Working in the music profession can be rewarding but also hugely demanding. Through this scheme, we aim to give RCM musicians the tools to be physically, emotionally and mentally fit to achieve the highest levels of performance, throughout long careers.