The main theme of the conference organized by MUW together with the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music was issues at the intersection of art and science, primarily the so-called medicine of artists and the use of new technologies to improve artistic training. The conference was prepared with funds from the Excellent Science grant program with substantive support from the Royal College of Music in London and the creator of this conference series, Professor Aaron Williamon.
The event was initiated and organized, on the part of MUW, by Dr. Krzysztof Dąbrowski of the Department of Normal and Clinical Anatomy.
The theme of the conference
The theme of the symposium is particularly important because it is not possible to invest in the cultural and artistic development of the world and Poland without investing in the health, safety and well-being of the artists themselves. Both at the level of their education and care - in terms of injuries and occupational diseases. This is a natural step. After all, no one is surprised by the investment in the health and safety of high-class athletes, with all the disciplines of sports medicine. Meanwhile, achieving mastery in the arts often requires a greater investment of time and resources, is a much more complex neurological process, and carries a similar risk of overload and career-ending injury - not because of a one-time heavy load, such as in sports competitions, but because of the many thousands of years of repetition of small loads that playing an instrument requires.
Who organized it and for whom
The conference was addressed to people from the artistic world - teachers, students and active artists who want to deepen their knowledge of occupational risks and how to prevent them. The symposium was also addressed to people from the medical community - doctors, phoniatrists, physiotherapists, psychologists etc. who deal with artists and want to help them effectively.
The main organizer and host on the part of MUW was the Department of Descriptive and Clinical Anatomy. It is a unit that brings together medical professionals of various specialties in its ranks. They have been conducting research and other scientific and didactic activities in the field of performing arts medicine since 2017. This has resulted in numerous publications, training courses and formal scientific and didactic cooperation with the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music.
What happened during the symposium
The conference lasted from August 17 to 20 this year. It was attended by 190 delegates from more than 30 different countries around the world. 150 papers were presented, including lectures by such notables of the scientific scene as Prof. Hans-Christian Jabusch of the University of Music in Dresden, Prof. Isabelle Heroux of the University of Montreal, Prof. Clorinda Panebianco of the University of Pretoria, Prof. Kris Chesky of Johns Hopkins University, Prof. Jian Yang of the Shanghai Conservatory, Prof. Hara Trouli of the University College London and numerous other award-winning scientists and artists. There were also two thematic panels, one organized by the Department of Descriptive Anatomy MUW, led by Prof. Bogdan Ciszek, and one featuring Maciej Kwiatkowski, actor, stuntman, choreographer and world-renowned Motion Capture specialist.
