Workshop on Women Musicians Wellbeing

While making music has the profound ability to touch and heal the soul, the intense physical and psychological demands of a music career can significantly strain musicians' wellbeing. This is especially true for women performers, who continue to strive for gender equality in the music industry.

Our workshop aims to bring together scholars from the fields of music, psychology, and medical studies, alongside professional music performers, to explore the factors that enhance or hinder their wellbeing. Together, we will explore the unique challenges women face in their professional journeys and discuss strategies to support and improve their wellbeing in the demanding world of music.

The workshop will take place at the University of Oslo and will be streamed via Zoom.

Lunch and refreshments will be provided. The event is free of charge.

Programme (tentative)

Aaron Williamon

Aaron Williamon is Professor of Performance Science at the Royal College of Music (RCM), where he directs the Centre for Performance Science (CPS), a partnership of the RCM and Imperial College London. Aaron joined the RCM as Research Fellow in 2000 and was appointed Senior Research Fellow in 2004 and Professor of Performance Science in 2010. His research focuses on skilled performance and applied scientific initiatives that inform music learning and teaching, as well as the impact of music and the arts on society.

Aaron is the founder of the International Symposium on Performance Science, founding chief editor of Performance Science (a Frontiers journal), and the founding chair of Healthy Conservatoires, an international network constituted in 2015 to support health and wellbeing among student and professional performing artists. Aaron is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and the UK’s higher education academy, AdvanceHE (FHEA), and in 2008, he was elected an Honorary Member of the Royal College of Music (HonRCM).

Filipa M. B. L?

Filipa M. B. L? holds a PhD and master’s degree in music (Singing) (Shefield University, UK), a Licentiate in Biology (Education) (Coimbra University, Portugal) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Music (Singing) (Music Conservatoire, Portugal). The interdisciplinary nature of her background encouraged her to pursue interdisciplinary research in music-related sciences and education. Her main research interests include singing pedagogy, focused on the physiological aspects of female and male vocal performances and possible educational technological interfaces to optimise singers’ performances and their teaching-learning process across their lifespan developmental stages. Currently, she is an Associate Professor in Music Education at the Faculty of Education of the National University of Distance Education (UNED), in Madrid, Spain, where she runs the Laboratory for Voice, Music and Language and the UNEDVoice lab research group.

Ragnhild Bang Nes

Ragnhild Bang Nes works as Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo (UiO) and the lead on Wellbeing research at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health where Wellbeing is a strategic priority. She is also coordinating intervention research at the Promenta Research Center, UiO. Her research includes investigation of wellbeing, mental health, personality, resilience, and genetic and environmental influences. She is particularly interested in the interplay between causal influences unfolding over time and how to facilitate good health and wellbeing in individuals and populations. She collaborates closely with Ministries, governmental agencies, county councils, municipalities, and NGOs in the health and policy sector in Norway and abroad.

Clare Farr

Clare Farr has been Principal Bass Trombone of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra since 2013. Following bachelor's studies in Stavanger and Manchester, she graduated with a master’s degree from the Norwegian Academy of Music in 2001. In her subsequent years as a freelance musician, she held long-term positions with the Oslo Philharmonic and Norrk?ping Symphony Orchestras, and regularly worked with many Norwegian and European orchestras and ensembles. She is a founding member of the Norwegian Trombone Ensemble and is active as a conductor, teacher and adjudicator in the Norwegian brass and wind band community. Clare released her solo album, ?Loudmouthed Beauty?, in 2022.

Stacey Dixon

Stacey Dixon is originally from Christchurch, New Zealand. She holds a BMus(Hons) from Victoria University of Wellington and a Postgraduate Diploma in Orchestra Performance from the Royal College of Music. During her time in London, she was awarded Creative NZ’s Jack McGill scholarship and was a prizewinner at the Royal Overseas League competitions. Stacey moved to Norway in 2008 to take up her current position as an oboe and English horn player in the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (SSO) after eight years freelancing, working with orchestras in the UK, including the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, and RTE National Orchestra of Ireland. She guests on both oboe and English horn with most of the major orchestras in Norway, and since her first contract as a 20-year-old, has played frequently with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra throughout the past 28 years. In 2024, Stacey was awarded the Steensland Award by her colleagues in the Stavanger Symfoniorkester for her “unique contribution to the orchestra over 15 years, and for her efforts to recruit and promote young musicians both locally and nationally.

Funding

This workshop is partially funded by the European Union’s Horizon research and innovation program under the Marie Sk?odowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101108755 obtained by Sara D'Amario.