Musicians' medicine in Austria
Among other things, the 18th SMM symposium will allow you to meet our Austrian sister company. It is characterized by a high degree of interdisciplinarity.
SMM - At this year's symposium, we are delighted to welcome Geneva-based music psychology pioneer Klaus Scherer and Salzburg-based pain specialist Günther Bernatzky as keynote speakers. He is a member of the presidium of the ÖGfMM (Austrian Society for Music and Medicine). The society is younger than the SMM, having been founded in 2009. In our eastern neighbor, however, the subject of musician's medicine has been embedded in rich interdisciplinary activities since the 1970s. These were initiated by Herbert von Karajan in 1969. The conductor came from a family of doctors in Salzburg and initiated work on music psychology, music physiology and music therapy at an early stage.
Interdisciplinarity has characterized Austrian research into the effects and consequences of music ever since. In 1973, the physicist Juan G. Roederer began organizing seminars on the interaction between the brain and music in Ossiach in the province of Carinthia, and in 2001 the Research Network Man and Music was founded at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. The "Mozart & Science" conference series launched by the International Music and Art Research Association Austria (I.M.A.R.A.A) in 2006, which brought together music psychology, neuromusicology, music therapy, music medicine and numerous other disciplines, also contributed greatly to the dialog between the specialist fields. In 2004, music psychologist Richard Parncutt also founded the "Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology" (CIM) conference series in Graz, which has since gained worldwide recognition.
The ÖGfMM also looks beyond the boundaries of individual disciplines. It explicitly promotes the "interdisciplinary cooperation of those involved in the training and professional support of musicians, such as instrumental and vocal teachers, occupational scientists, natural scientists, instrument manufacturers, doctors, dentists, physiotherapists and related areas of the higher medical-technical specialist service, sports and musicologists, music psychologists, Alexander teachers, Feldenkrais teachers, music therapists, occupational therapists and mediators of other similar forms of therapy".
Günther Benatzky's research and teaching is also highly interdisciplinary. He is a specialist in pain physiology and therapy for various diseases (migraine, renal colic, back pain, tumor pain and others), has studied the effect of music and singing on various diseases (pain, Parkinson's, dementia, depression, old age), as well as its effect on animals. He has also helped to develop user-friendly music playback devices for the elderly and teaches musician's medicine at the Mozarteum Salzburg. We are delighted to welcome him to Switzerland.
Body-oriented work in music
The motto of the 18th SMM symposium is "One goal - many paths", body-oriented approaches in music. The keynotes by Günther Bernatzky and Klaus Scherer will provide insights into bodywork and its various methods. The range of body therapies in music is almost unmanageable. It can therefore be difficult to find out which method might be the most suitable for those seeking help. The symposium offers the unique opportunity to get to know numerous forms of bodywork in everyday musical life in the form of short lectures and presentations as well as in personal discussions at a table fair. More information can be found in this music magazine on page 39 of the SMPV.
The 18th SMM Symposium will take place on October 23 at the Stapferhaus Lenzburg. Details and a registration form can be found at:
