Reading and resources

BAPAM (bapam.org.uk) is a unique medical charity. Their mission is to enable student and professional performing artists throughout the UK to achieve optimal health for performing their art and participating in cultural life. They do this through direct provision of health assessments and information to individual performers in clinics and through broader education about best practice in performing arts medicine.

The ISME Musicians’ Health and Wellbeing Special Interest Group enables, promotes, facilitates, and supports cultures in which musicians of all disciplines and levels of proficiency can thrive. They believe that environments that foster joyous and sustainable relationships with music depend on the collaboration of all who both directly and indirectly affect the health and wellbeing of musicians. Dr Naomi Norton is currently convenor of this ISME group - get in touch to find out more!

• Flourish: Supporting musicians through research (podcast)
• The B-Side: Stories of education, health, and life in music: podcast hosted by Dr Marianna Cortesi and Dr Federico Pendenza
• Change Your Tune: podcast hosted by Susan Eldridge (Notable Values) and Ingrid Martin (Conducting Artistry)
• Action on Hearing Loss 
• ArtsMinds
• Athletes and the Arts
• British Tinnitus Association
• British Voice Association
• Help Musicians UK
• Healthy Conservatoires
• Healthy Performers
• Musicians’ hearing services
• Musical Impact
• Performing Arts Medicine Association
• Things Musicians Don’t Talk About
• Tonic Rider
• Voice Care Network UK

• BAPAM Factsheets
• Medical Problems of Performing Artists Journal (peer-reviewed journal)
• Musician’s Way Website
• Musician Health and Wellness from St Olaf College
• Samwell Community: A community of performers navigating the challenges of industry life, together.
• Overview of Results from the Help Musicians UK 2014 Health and Well-being Survey.
• Tonic Rider Zines: helpful range of zines with easy to use techniques and exercises

• BAPAM Healthy Practice Training for Creative Professionals: by BAPAM and the Royal Society of Musicians
• Healthy Performer Films: by the Healthy Conservatoires Network
• Elevate Music Podcasts: by Lucinda Heyman and guests (Help Musicians UK)
• Health and Wellbeing series with Incorporated Society for Musicians and BAPAM
• Health and Wellness Seminar Series: The Art and Science of Healthy Performance (Ralph Manchester, The Peabody Institute of the John Hopkins University)
• Health and Wellness Seminar Series: Putting it all together (Serape Bastepe-Grey, The Peabody Institute of the John Hopkins University)
• Performing WellCAST: Injury Prevention of the Performing Artist (Kristen Schutyen, University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance)
• Injury Prevention: What Musicians Can Do (Christine Guptill).
• Choral Chihuahua: Hormones 

Those who work in the arts and creative technologies are commonly affected by psychological, vocal, hearing, musculoskeletal and eye-related health concerns. As many of these problems are preventable, behaviour can play a large part in promoting healthy and sustainable engagement with music. This is a collated list of public access resources relating to these topics. There is lots of peer-reviewed literature about these topics that is rarely freely available other than through institutions, so hasn't been included here: if you're interested in any of these topics, contact naomi.norton@york.ac.uk. Below are two exceptions that are recently published open access papers providing valuable information for those working and studying in the performing arts at tertiary institutions:

• Lubert, V. J., Rose, D. C., & Alessandri, E. (2025) Toward a culture of care in music higher education: setting the scene for collective well-being with a salutogenic, whole-institution approach. Front. Psychol. 16:1729483. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1729483  
• Matei, R., Ackermann, B., Allen, J., Alpagut, U., Ananda-Owens, K., Araújo, L. S., … Young, B. (2026). Health promotion in tertiary music institutions: a position paper. Arts Education Policy Review, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2026.2720853 

Behaviour change

One of the key challenges when promoting health and wellness is applying information in real life. The following resources provide insights into why changing health-related behaviour is so difficult and how that can be addressed.

• Kelly, M. P., & Barker, M. (2016). Why is changing health-related behaviour so difficult? Public Health, 136, 109-116.
• Michie, S., Atkins, L., & West, R. (2014). The Behaviour Change Wheel: A guide to designing interventions. UK: Silverback Publishing. [Available via YorSearch].
• Norton, N. (2020). Considering musicians’ health and wellness literature through the lens of the Behaviour Change Wheel. Journal of Music, Health, and Wellbeing, Autumn, 1-25.
• West, R., & West, J. (2019). Energise: The secrets of motivation. UK: Silverback Publishing [Available via YorSearch].

Psychological

• Factsheets by BAPAM: for example, I Can’t Go On (information about music performance anxiety and how to manage it), Psychological Self-Care (enhancing mental health and well-being), and The Drinks Are On Me! (managing stress and identifying signs of a drink problem).
• Results of a pilot study conducted by Help Musicians UK investigating the mental health of musicians
• Letters to My Younger Self: Online blog attached to a research project at the University of Leeds in which conservatoire graduates write the advice that they'd have liked to receive whilst at conservatoire.
• Interlude: Paralyzed by Imposter Syndrome? – When Will I be Good Enough? (Janet Horvath, 2019).

Vocal

• The Virtual Voice from the British Voice Association.
• Factsheets by BAPAM: Fit to Sing (top tips for vocalists).
• Elevate Music: Providing ‘crisis-prevention tools and peak performance management for musicians of all career levels’, with particular emphasis on the popular music industry.
• Resources from the British Voice Association.
• Anthony F. Jahn (MD) website: Articles and Tips.
• How to prevent and repair vocal damage: Baylor University.

Musculoskeletal

• Factsheets by BAPAM: Fit to Play (top tips for instrumental musicians)
• Preventing Musculoskeletal Injuries for Musicians and Dancers by SHAPE: A resource outlining the musculoskeletal conditions that musicians and dancers can encounter
• NASM and PAMA Protecting your neuromusculoskeletal and vocal health every day: Information and recommendations for student musicians

• NASM and PAMA Protecting your neuromusculoskeletal health student information sheet

Hearing

• Music, Noise, and Hearing: How to play your part (A guide for musicians by the BBC).
• Singers, Musicians, and Hearing Loss: Blog post from BAPAM with useful links and further resources
• Online copy of the book ‘Hear the Music: Hearing Loss Prevention for Musicians’ by Dr Marshall Chasin.
• A Sound Ear II: Report published by the Association of British Orchestras outlining the Control of Noise at Work Regulations and their impact on orchestras. Contains key terms and data that are useful in understanding hearing problems.
• NASM and PAMA Protecting Your Hearing Health Student Information Sheet.
• NASM and PAMA Protect your hearing every day: Information and Recommendations for Student Musicians.
• Dangerous Decibels.

Vision

This is a relatively new area of research and there are limited resources available. However, research conducted so far indicates that eye problems are common among musicians and that it's important to consider this aspect of physical health. We are lucky to have one of the only specialist eye clinics for musicians in the UK relatively local to us in York: Performing Arts Vision Care are registered on BAPAM’s directory of practitioners. You may also find useful tips in the blog posts and video below:

• Promoting performers’ visual health (4BarsRest): This is a write-up of an event that took place at the University of York focusing on Visual Health in the Performing Arts. This event was hosted by Dr Naomi Norton in association with Sheryl Doe (Allegro Optical) and BAPAM (event report here) and made possible by the Place and Community Fund.
• Vision Protection: More than meets the eye from International Musician.
• Vision Protection from St. Olaf College.
• Is Music Production damaging your eyes? from ‘In the Mix’ (Mike Miavono).
• Don’t Overlook the Obvious: Keep an eye on your vision

The following books provide music-specific insights into a range of the topics above. 

• Loving music till it hurts (Cheng, 2020)
• Health, Wellness, and Wholeness in the Music Studio (Berenson, Cockey, and Turon, 2025)