First certificate awarded
The Knonaueramt music school has been awarded the title of the first health-promoting music school. The Center for Continuing Education of the Zurich University of the Arts in collaboration with the Association of Zurich Music Schools awarded it the corresponding certificate on November 7, 2014.
A health-promoting music school is aware of possible psycho-physical stress and health problems caused by making music. It promotes prevention and health promotion among its music teachers and their music students and offers music physiology training events at regular intervals. Certification is preceded by the following music physiology training events for teachers:
- Basics presentation
- General practical basic course
- Instrument-specific advanced course
- Introductory course on performance training, stage skills and dealing constructively with excessive stage fright
Furthermore, a certified music school offers its teachers the opportunity to receive free music physiology consultations with specialists from the ZHdK's Department of Music Physiology / Music and Preventive Medicine.
Interested music schools should contact horst.hildebrandt@zhdk.ch or elisabeth.danuser@zhdk.ch.
MAS in Music Physiology
The Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in Music Physiology at the Zurich University of the Arts, which is supported by the Swiss University Center for Music Physiology (SHZM) and integrated into the everyday life of a music university, is still unique in the world. Since 2002, the participating music teachers have been trained to become multipliers of music physiology content and the next generation of music physiology teachers at conservatoires and music schools in the semester-long structured course. The focus is on physiological strategies for the prevention and solution of music-medical problems. The training takes place in close cooperation with existing courses for music students as well as other music education and practical music courses. It covers a broad spectrum of topics such as prevention, learning physiology, mental training, stage skills, methodology and didactics as well as physiologically based (self-)instruction styles. Furthermore, introductions are offered to various schools of body (perception), training methods and forms of self-awareness as well as opportunities to observe music physiology consultations. Individual lessons in applied music physiology with the student's own instrument or vocal subject and a supervised teaching practicum with individual work on case studies are an essential part of the course. After a project management course, the course concludes with the implementation and evaluation of an institutionally relevant music physiology project in conjunction with a dissertation.
The graduates of this further education course are themselves active as artists and music teachers at universities, conservatories and music schools and are now part of the pool of lecturers who provide various music education and physiology courses such as lectures, courses, workshops and individual consultations. In the meantime, several music schools and conservatories have incorporated music physiology teaching and counseling courses into their curriculum. The number of continuing education courses given by graduates already totals over 170. Including the courses given by lecturers, over 300 music physiology continuing education courses have taken place in the last twelve years.
