Musical Impact
A £1 million project sees the UK’s nine top music conservatoires leading the world’s largest-ever study into the health and wellbeing of performing musicians.
Musical Impact started in September 2013 and will run for four years until August 2017. It aims to generate new knowledge of the physical and mental demands of music making, to contribute new insight into chronic and acute health problems and their impact over time, and to examine effective strategies for health promotion.
While musicians typically have a long history of self-sufficiency in managing the challenges of performing, Musical Impact aspires to complement musicians’ own ingenuity by providing comprehensive, evidence-led resources to help maximise their educational and professional opportunities.
The project is led by Conservatoires UK (CUK) – the organisation which represents nine major UK conservatoires – and also involves scientists from Cardiff University and Cardiff Metropolitan University. Crucially, these centres of learning will be working with professional musicians and their employers – via the Musicians’ Union and the Association of British Orchestras (ABO) – as well as health practitioners and researchers linked to the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM) and the International Health Humanities Network.
This £1 million project is underpinned by a major £800,000 grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), with the remaining £200,000 coming from the participating institutions.
