Dr Bronwen Ackermann is a physiotherapist whose interest in performing arts health grew as a result of working with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra since 1995. She has worked extensively with performing artists since the 1990s, with her clinical and research work focussed on musicians' injuries. She received a Churchill fellowship in 2002 allowing her to spend time with international colleagues involved in both research and clinical work in the field of music medicine. Her PhD was completed in 2003 looking at performance-related musculoskeletal injuries in violinists. Since then she has been involved with students conducting research into musicians injuries including a study of finger movement discrimination and focal hand dystonia in cellists, the effects of anxiety on EMG and physiological variables in flute performance, performance-related injuries in flute players and bassoonists, and is currently involved in a project looking at loads imposed on the right shoulder during cello performance. She joined academia in mid 2006 at the school of physiotherapy with the goal of being better be able to pursue research, and while there re-wrote and ran the upper limb curriculum. he rmain current projects include 2 large national grant funded research works. One project is an ARC linkage grant investigation developing evidence-based guidelines for best management of occupational injuries occurring in musicians. Her other major project is an ALTC national music health curriculum initiative in collaboration with colleague Associate Professor Suzanne Wijsman from the University of Western Australia. In addition, she has been working on a smaller grant-funded intitiative invsetigating postural effects on breathing and facial muscle activity patterns in student and professional wind and brass musicians. [More...]

Dr Bronwen Ackermann is a physiotherapist whose interest in performing arts health grew as a result of working with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra since 1995. She has worked extensively with performing artists since the 1990s, with her clinical and research work focussed on musicians' injuries. She received a Churchill fellowship in 2002 allowing her to spend time with international colleagues involved in both research and clinical work in the field of music medicine. Her PhD was completed in 2003 looking at performance-related musculoskeletal injuries in violinists. Since then she has been involved with students conducting research into musicians injuries including a study of finger movement discrimination and focal hand dystonia in cellists, the effects of anxiety on EMG and physiological variables in flute performance, performance-related injuries in flute players and bassoonists, and is currently involved in a project looking at loads imposed on the right shoulder during cello performance. She joined academia in mid 2006 at the school of physiotherapy with the goal of being better be able to pursue research, and while there re-wrote and ran the upper limb curriculum. he rmain current projects include 2 large national grant funded research works. One project is an ARC linkage grant investigation developing evidence-based guidelines for best management of occupational injuries occurring in musicians. Her other major project is an ALTC national music health curriculum initiative in collaboration with colleague Associate Professor Suzanne Wijsman from the University of Western Australia. In addition, she has been working on a smaller grant-funded intitiative invsetigating postural effects on breathing and facial muscle activity patterns in student and professional wind and brass musicians.

She is the president of the Australian Society for Performing Arts healthcare and the international liaison officer for the United-States based Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA). She has presented nationally and internationally to many orchestras, health and music organisations about evidence-based principles of injury prevention and management for musicians. Recent presentations included workshops at the 2008 Australian Hand Therapy National Conference, and she was the International Invited Speaker at the American Hand Therapy Association National Conference in 2007. She is an invited speaker at the 9th Australasian piano pedagogy conference in July 2009 and is organising the 2010 Medical Problems of Performing Artists conference in Aspen USA.

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