Musician's Mental Health: Panelists Discuss the stress of musicianship
Written by Madison Duenkler for the Ā鶹AV Daily (Feb 20, 2017)
Visual by Madison Duenkler
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On Monday, February 13, Ā鶹AV students and members of Montrealās music community gathered at the Wirth Music building for a panel discussion, entitled āMusicianās Health Throughout a Performing Career.ā
Claire Motyer, the founder of the Schulich Musicianās Health Committee, which organized the event, started the discussion by saying, āI donāt think you can really separate emotional, physical, and mental health from each other. Weāre really just trying to get this conversation started, really just wanting to open up about musicianās health [and] bring some faculty, some alumni, and some current students [together] to share their stories so more people open up and feel comfortable talking about their stories.ā
Speaking with The Daily, Motyer said, āI really want students, and faculty as well, just to feel more comfortable talking about these issues, creating a dialogue between all of us as a community, and creating more of a sense of a community around these topics.ā
Motyer, a U3 Music student and violinist at Ā鶹AV, has experienced injury herself. āItās only now really that Iām realizing this is what I want to do, bring awareness to these issues, and to musiciansā health. At first I found it hard to talk about, but now I feel much better being open about it.ā
Panelists included Yolanda Bruno, a violinist, Isabelle Cossette, Director at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music, Media, and Technology, trumpet professor Russell Devuyst, and RenƩe Yoxon, a jazz vocalist. To start the discussion, each of the panelists introduced themselves.
āIām originally from Ottawa, and Iām a violinist,ā said Bruno. āIāll focus on the angle of injury: Iāve had an injury twice before. The first time, I was still young so I brushed over it quite quickly. The second time was quite traumatic. The second time I had to take a significant amount of time off, maybe three to four months off, which felt like an eternity.ā
āI had to cancel many concerts and I had to tell people that I was injured and then the word got out and people knew and that was really scary because as soon as one person knew, then more people knew,ā she continued.
Speaking about her recovery process, Bruno explained that she was uncertain how to move forward because she āreceived a lot of information from many different people.ā
āIt took a long time for me to find my route to recovery,ā she said, āwhich ended up being one-on-one sessions with a Hatha yoga instructor, and acupuncture after doing chiropracting, and lots of running and swimming and lots of different things.ā
Another panelist, Isabelle Cossette, the director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT), was trained as a flute player and got her doctorate in music performance, but decided ultimately to turn to a career in research, focusing on the respiratory mechanics of musicians. Throughout the discussion, she spoke about the importance of accepting and embracing change.
āIām not here to necessarily discuss a specific injury that I had while I was performing,ā Cossette said. āI can make a lot of parallels; I had to go through depressions and that is very similar to someone who gets injured and canāt play. You find ways to recover. Changes, in fact, can be seen as exciting.ā
Devuyst, who played for the Montreal Symphony for twenty-four years, focused on injury in terms of the effects it can have not only on a musicianās career, but also on their self-confidence.
āIn relation to performance injuries, Iāve been injured three times actually,ā he explained. āI never thought that I would, you know, you donāt think of being injured when youāre eighteen years, you think youāre infallible [ā¦] you just go crazy, and you just play.ā
The first injury Devuyst experienced was partial facial paralysis caused by Ramsay Hunt Syndrome.
āI couldnāt play,ā he said. āIt was like going to the dentist and getting novocaine and then trying to play. Thatās the way I felt for a couple of months.ā
āComing back from that was a very arduous thing,ā he elaborated, ābecause I had two kids, three and five years old, so I just figured okay, my lifeās over. What am I going to do now?ā
Outlining the difficulties of recovery, and his mental health during this time, Devuyst explained how he used new hobbies as a coping mechanism.
āInstead of getting all worried, I just started woodworking,ā he said. āI got this book on how to make toys [ā¦] I made them for my kids and I said, āHey, this is kind of fun.ā It took my mind of it.ā
Devuyst also spoke about his second accident. āThe second accident I had, I was riding my bike and [ā¦] I was carrying a bag from the supermarket and the bag got caught in the front wheel and I went over the front handlebars. Even though I had a helmet on, it didnāt help because I smashed my teeth.ā
āI did everything that a trumpet playerās not supposed to do and broke my front teeth,ā he continued. āMy teeth were broken, my lips were bleeding like crazy, I was looking at the cement and I saw chips of my teeth, so I took my teeth, put them in my pocket, and I went to the dentist and said, āglue them back,ā and theyāre still there actually.ā
Devuyst stressed the importance of accepting an injury and pacing your recovery. āThe difficulty in coming back after an injury is that your brain knows where you used to be, but your body doesnāt respond to that, so you can really hurt yourself if you try to get yourself back into the level [musically] that you were. You have to accept where you are and just start from there and donāt expect anythingā
Yoxon was the last panelist to introduce themselves. āIām a jazz vocalist. Iām studying currently in the undergraduate program here at Ā鶹AV and I have chronic pain. Iāve been dealing with chronic pain for about ten years; Iām almost thirty now and I started experiencing chronic pain symptoms when I was in my late teens and then I started identifying as someone with chronic pain when I was like twenty, twenty-one years old. [ā¦] For me, my pain threshold is much, much lower, so Iām just in pain all the time, even when thereās no injury.ā
Yoxon continued, āYour pain system is there to prevent injury, so you feel pain before you become injured, which is why you [are] supposed to stop playing [then]. However, in my case, Iām feeling pain all the time and I actually have to play through it a little bit. I would just be stopping all the time if I didnāt. So what Iām [ā¦] dealing with is how to adapt singing for me, even though Iām going to be injured forever.ā
In an interview with The Daily, Yoxon stressed the importance of making music accessible to those with disabilities, by ā[listing] what accessibility features are on their event information.ā
They also highlighted the benefits of live broadcasting. āI think live broadcasting can not only bring shows to disabled people, [ā¦] live broadcastings brings shows to people who have lower incomes, people who need childcare. Lots of people donāt have the privilege of going out.ā
NoĆ©mie Chemali, an attendee and music student at Ā鶹AV, has experienced both the physical and mental stress that the panelists discussed. āWhen I first came to Ā鶹AV, I was a violin student and there was definitely a huge leap of expectations from what I was used to. I come from a small town in the U.S. and coming here, itās a bigger city. I felt like a very small fish in a big pond basically.ā
āIām glad we have more dialogue going on about musicianās health, definitely to help people from struggling, the way I did, especially my first two years when I didnāt have the courage to stand up and say Iām in pain, Iām not going to play today,ā Chemali added.
The rest of the discussion focused mainly on methods of coping with the physical and emotional stresses of musicianship. The panelists all stressed focusing on oneās own progress as opposed to competition.
Yoxon said, āI feel like in order to succeed at Ā鶹AV, you need to be like an athlete, and we are, weāre athletes, but I think that thereās something to be gained by learning music and not approaching it from the point of athleticism.ā
Later in the discussion, they stated, āWe do have a lot of people who are playing from a place of fear. [ā¦] It helps your mental health to not worry about what other people are thinking.ā
Devuyst, similarly, expressed the importance of practicing to improve, not to avoid making mistakes. He also stressed the importance of āknowing your body, knowing what you can do with your body, how far you can go.ā