Playing (Less) Hurt

Making music at any level is a powerful gift. While musicians have endless resources for learning the basics of their instruments and the theory of music, few books have explored the other subtleties and complexities that musicians face in their quest to play with ease and skill. The demands of solitary practice, hectic rehearsal schedules, challenging repertoire, performance pressures, awkward postures, and other physical strains have left a trail of injured, hearing-impaired, and frustrated musicians who have had few resources to guide them. “Playing (Less) Hurt” addresses this need with specific tools to avoid and alleviate injury. Impressively researched, the book is invaluable not only to musicians, but also to the coaches and medical professionals who work with them. Everyone from dentists to orthopaedists, audiologists to neurologists, massage therapists and trainers will benefit from Janet Horvath’s coherent account of the physiology and psyche of a practicing musician. Writing with knowledge, sympathetic insight, humour, and aplomb, Horvath has created an essential resource for all musicians who want to play better and feel better.

Author Biography

Janet Horvath (Minneapolis MN’), ‘associate principal cello of the Minnesota Orchestra for three decades, is also a soloist, writer, and award-winning advocate for injury prevention. A trailblazer in speaking and writing about the physical stresses experienced by musicians, she received the 2001 Performing Arts Medical Association’s, Richard Lederman Award at the nineteenth Annual Symposium on Medical Problems of Musicians and Dancers, Aspen, Colorado.