Injury and the Orchestral Environment: Part III. The Role of Psychosocial Factors in the Experience of Musicians Undertaking Rehabilitation

Abstract

Workplace rehabilitation in the orchestral setting poses a number of challenges that arise in part due to a poor fit between generic injury insurance and medical care and the elite performance requirements of professional musicians. Currently, the orchestral profession lacks information and strategies to best deal with the unique challenges of this complex rehabilitation environment. In order to inform future directions for research and suggest possible changes of practice, the researchers conducted a qualitative case-study aimed at understanding the injury and rehabilitation experiences of professional musicians. In-depth semi-structured interviews were undertaken with three chronically injured professional cellists from a single Australian orchestra. After initial data analysis, further interviews were undertaken with a set of five orchestral management staff as a means of data triangulation. All data were analysed using a themes-based analysis-of-narrative approach. The findings indicate that injury concealment played a considerable role in the development of chronic injuries for these musicians, and management staff felt that this concealment may be the norm amongst orchestral musicians. The musicians in this study suffered emotional and psychological trauma as the result of their injuries, and two participants felt socially marginalised. During rehabilitation, the musicians in this study encountered difficulties with medical staff not understanding the elite performance requirements of orchestral work. The article proposes recommendations that may assist in dealing with the complex challenges of injury rehabilitation in the orchestral environment.

Have musicians’ musculoskeletal symptoms been thoroughly addressed? A systematic mapping review

“…Some appeared to be collections of instruments where there were small numbers of participants (e.g., keyboards, or harps in orchestras) [46,54,93], while others grouped instruments according to their biomechanical exposures; namely, symmetrical or asymmetrical playing postures [93]; whether their musical activity (e.g., instrument or singing) was thought by the researchers to place Where there were duplicate reports of a study, the oldest publication was counted. This classification refers to the target population that was not necessarily the same as those from whom data were collected (e.g., Rickert et al [61][62][63]151], Ackermann and Driscoll [175], Ajidahun and Phillips [186], and McKechnie and Jacobs [177]). , and university orchestral students with those who had not played any music for at least the past year [116].…”

“…A wide range of outcomes were reported, including the lived experience of MSS, illness perceptions, and perceived risk factors for musicians in general, not necessarily their own symptoms ( Table 7). With regards to these outcomes, Rickert et al's [61][62][63] qualitative study of professional orchestral musicians also involved collecting data from orchestral managers in addition to musicians, while their study of university music students involved collecting data from students, as well as professional orchestral musicians and orchestral managers [151]. All musicians in these studies were cellists; hence, the generalizability of these findings to the population of interest is questionable.…”

Exploring Professional Circus Artists’ Experience of Performance-Related Injury and Management: A Qualitative Study

“…Similarly, it was recognized that injured musicians are deeply affected by their environments, the organisational culture, behavioural norms and psychosocial factors (15,18,19).…”

“…Injuries disrupt musicians' perception of time, space, social relations and body (16,17) and is considered a sign of weakness, failure, and poor musicianship within orchestras (18,19).…”

“…Consequently, this culture encourages musicians to play through considerable pain and conceal injuries (18,19).…”