Advancing Health, Education, and Accountability in Tertiary Music Institutions
July 9, 2025
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Join us in Washington D.C. as scholars justify the pressing need for health promotion, health education, research, and professional accountability within tertiary music institutions. Experts will also highlight the need for healthcare professionals supporting tertiary music institutions to undergo specialized training, develop tailored care protocols, and adopt measurable outcomes to address the unique challenges musicians face. Offered as a Pre-Conference Event to the Performing Arts Medicine Assocaition’s International Symposium, our goal of this Global Summit is to advocate for tertiary music institutions to own the responsibility for ensuring a safe learning environment and that occupational health is recognized as an essential area of knowledge and competency for all musicians.
Our Goal
At the 1st Global Summit on Occupational Health in Music, scholars will justify the pressing need for health promotion, health education, research, and professional accountability within tertiary music schools.
Experts will also highlight the need for healthcare professionals supporting tertiary music schools to undergo specialized training, develop tailored care protocols, and adopt measurable outcomes to address the unique challenges musicians face.
Our goal of this Global Summit is to advocate for tertiary music institutions to own the responsibility for ensuring a safe learning environment and that occupational health is recognized as an essential area of knowledge and competency for all musicians.
auditory
Overexposure to music can cause music-induced hearing disorders.
mental health
The culture of tertiary music schools and the music discipline impacts the mental health of all musicians.
vocal
When teaching, learning, and performing music, singers and music educators can experience voice problems.
musculoskeletal
Learning and performing musical instruments can lead to musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction.
Join Us at the First Global Summit on Occupational Health in Music
When: July 9th, 2025, from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Where: Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C., or Watch the Proceedings Virtually
Address: 555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20001
What to Expect:
The First Global Summit on Occupational Health in Music will bring together global experts, educators, musicians, and healthcare providers to advocate for tertiary music schools to own the responsibility for ensuring a safe learning environment and that occupational health is recognized as an essential area of knowledge and competency for all musicians. Presentations will be split into four core themes and will culminate in inviting participants to sign a declaration designed to catalyze change among tertiary music schools.
Conference Schedule*
7:45 a.m. Registration
8:15 a.m. Welcome
8:30 – 10 a.m. Theme 1: The Big Picture
Objective: Discuss the bidirectional influence of music on health, the culture of tertiary music institutions, responsibility and ethics, and a conceptual framework for advancing change.
Presentations include:
- Music as a two-edged sword
- Occupational health in tertiary music institutions
- Health Promotion in Tertiary Music Institutions: A Philosophical Perspective
- Rationale for roles and responsibilities: Professionalization
10 – 10:20 a.m. Break
10:20 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Theme 2: Examining the Structure, Organization, and Culture of Tertiary Music Institutions
Objective: Identify the unique and essential roles of faculty, staff, and administrators and provide an overview of necessary changes in educational offerings to ensure that tertiary music institutions, 1. embed health promotion agenda, 2. create healthy learning environments, and 3. develop musicians who are aware, knowledgeable, and competent to manage music-specific occupational health concerns on behalf of their own health and the health of people they serve.
12:15 – 12:30 p.m. Performance: Ergonomically Modified Piano
12:30 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch Break
1:30 – 1:50 p.m. Performance: Mental Health
2 – 3:45 p.m. Theme 3: Clinicians
Objective: Respond to the need to train healthcare professionals who work with musicians, discuss the need for discipline-specific specialization, define a set of consensus-based cross-disciplinary competencies for healthcare professionals, and address the need to identify and measure musician-centered clinical outcomes to enhance clinical effectiveness.
Presentations include:
- Clinical outcomes
- Musculoskeletal competencies
- Mental Health competencies
- Call for other competencies
3:45 – 4 p.m. Break
4 – 4:45 p.m. Theme 4: Call for Action
Objective: Call for recognition and support from national and international organizations
Presentations include:
- TEMPO Declaration
- Call for action
- Association endorsement
4:45 – 5 p.m. Closing Remarks
*Schedule Subject to Change
Register for the Summit
Secure your spot at the Occupational Health in Music Global Summit by filling out our registration form. Join us in Washington D.C. to engage with experts and peers in the field of music and health.
Organizing Committee
Executive Director
Kris Chesky
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Johns Hopkins University
Chair, Department of Performing Arts and Health, Peabody Institute
Professor, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
Conference Project Management
Jennifer Harris-Ebelugwu, Sr. Administrative Coordinator, Office of the Vice Provost of Research, Johns Hopkins University
Meghan S. Taylor, Program Manager, Colorado State University
Hollie Dzierzanowski, Program Manager, Professional Violist and Movement Educator
Conference Organizing Committee
Amyn Amlani, President, Academy of Doctors of Audiology
Kourtney Austin, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Serap Bastepe-Grey, Assistant Professor, Peabody Institute
Karissa Chesky, Baylor College of Medicine
James Ford, Associate Dean, Professor of Trumpet and Jazz Studies, California State University
Jennifer Grau, Research Professor, University School of Nursing and Occupational Therapy of Terrassa
Raluca Matei, Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University
Hilary Moss, Professor of Music Therapy, University of Limerick
Judy Palac, Associate Professor Emeritus, Michigan State University
Giulia Ripani, Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University
Sajid Surve, Senior Associate Dean, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine
Michael Thrasher, Dean of College of Communication and Fine Arts, Troy University
Muneeb Zaidi, Johns Hopkins University
Nabeel Zuhdi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University
Student Organizing Committee, Johns Hopkins University
Jiaxing Brisbois, Melvin Cheng, Anton Sackley, Sarah Son
Funding Acknowledgement:
The First Global Summit on Occupational Health in Music would like to thank the Johns Hopkins University Nexus Awards for its funding in support of our endeavor.
Johns Hopkins Divisional Representatives
Sarah Hoover, Associate Dean for Innovation in the Arts and Health, Peabody Institute
Michael Kessler, Louis M. Sardella Head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Whiting School of Engineering
Preeti Raghavan, Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, School of Medicine
Ram Ramachandran, Professor and Co-deputy Chair of the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, and Director of the Johns Hopkins Education and Research Center for Occupational Safety and Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Yvonne Commodore-Mensah, Associate Professor, Associate Dean of Research, Director for Local/Global Reciprocal Innovation, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, School of Nursing
Introduction to the Oxford Handbook and it’s connection to the summit:
Convergence, transdisciplinary, etc.
Oxford Handbook Editors
Judy Palac, Michigan State University
Kris Chesky, Johns Hopkins University
Sarah Hoover, Johns Hopkins University
Bridget Rennie-Salonen, Stellenbosch University
For more information about the people involved in this project click the button below.
Register for the Summit
Secure your spot at the Occupational Health in Music Global Summit by filling out our registration form. Join us in Washington D.C. to engage with experts and peers in the field of music and health.
Occupational Health in Music Global Summit
Join us in Washington D.C. as scholars justify the pressing need for health promotion, health education, research, and professional accountability within tertiary music institutions.