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I<\/span>t is the best of vocations, it is the worst of vocations.<\/p>\n The paraphrase of a Dickens quote sums up the realities of being a classical musician aptly. Studies show that, out of all professions, musicians report the highest job satisfaction. At the same time, it\u2019s one of the top five professions likely to report mental illnesses.<\/p>\n Classical musicians are subject to their own set of particular challenges. \u201cIn a sense, the classical musician has a unique burden,\u201d says Toronto composer and pianist Frank Horvat<\/a>.<\/p>\n The pressures often begin early. \u201cI grew up with the very disciplined training,\u201d Frank says, noting that he began his musical education at age five. \u201cYou have to adhere to this strict tradition.\u201d As he notes, it is a tradition that developed centuries ago, without any care or concern at all for the mental health of its practitioners. As Frank completed his studies, he kept silent about his growing problems with depression and anxiety \u2014 issues that have affected his work at various points in his career. \u201cWhen I was in school, we never talked about that kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n In previous eras, mental health issues were hidden, something to be ashamed of and even shunned because of. Luckily, our collective understanding of the deep connections between physical and mental health, and music, has improved considerably, albeit relatively recently.<\/p>\n Support is the crucial difference.<\/p>\n Today, music educators are very aware of the unique pressures that music \u2014 particularly performance study \u2014 can impose on students. At the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, the curriculum incorporates two specific courses that focus on health and wellness practices for musicians, including coping strategies for performance anxiety. The studio instructors who work directly with students are trained on how to recognize the signs of mental health problems, as well as direct students to the resources available to them. Once a week, a Health and Wellness Counselor visits the Faculty of Music, and specific workshops help students deal with issues that are particular to their discipline \u2014 such as the unique mental health challenges that vocalists face.\u00a0 A therapy dog also visits with music students during ultra-stressful exam times.<\/p>\n Students may be referred to the Al & Malka Green Artists\u2019 Health Centre at Toronto Western Hospital. The Centre holds workshops on a variety of issues facing artists in all disciplines, from managing stress to eating to improve mood, in a friendly environment. The sessions are PWYC (pay what you can) and do not require a referral from a physician.<\/p>\n Acknowledging mental health issues in the context of classical music is a big first step. Frank Horvat has shared his stories along with his music in the hopes of both raising awareness and making is easier for others to come forward about their own struggles without shame. In the fall of 2018, on World Mental Health Day, he played a solo piano recital of his own compositions, many of them inspired by his battles with depression. In between the music, he shared the stories behind the compositions.<\/p>\n He\u2019s open about his struggles, and shares a personal perspective on living and working as a musician\/composer with mental health issues. \u201cI grew up in a very loving family. I wasn\u2019t abused or cast aside.\u201d He describes a comfortable middle-class upbringing in a family that understood what it took to become a musician. \u201cThe expectation is that you\u2019re going to practice.\u201d He took to the discipline readily. \u201cI loved it. I was passionate about it. I had visions of grandeur about my life.\u201d<\/p>\n His optimism was fragile, however. \u201cAnytime something didn\u2019t come my way, I was plunged into doldrums,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s so competitive \u2014 especially the world of art music.\u201d He describes a growing vicious cycle, a downward spiral that eventually brought on a sense of despair over his musical career. \u201cWhere would I be without it? I still sometimes fall into this funk.\u201d<\/p>\n The good news he has to share is that those struggles can be managed with healthy coping strategies \u2013 and without the use of medication. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m cured, but in the last ten years, I\u2019ve made a lot of headway.\u201d He says it was hitting a crisis point about 15 years ago that led him to psychotherapy, and eventually a number of everyday lifestyle changes, including improving his physical condition. \u201cThat really helped,\u201d he says. Meditation is another key coping technique. \u201cThat has been a great, great blessing. It takes off the pressure.\u201d Add good nutrition, and support from his wife and family, and his symptoms began to subside. \u201cIt made it manageable,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Horvat also talks about techniques for managing the usual emotions involved in a high level performing and composing career \u2014 including jealousy. \u201cIt\u2019s a negative energy,\u201d he says. A conscious decision to celebrate other\u2019s successes counteracted his own tendencies. Unchecked, jealousy can lead to poor decision making and have real consequences to a performing career. Emotional balance can be hard to achieve.<\/p>\n All the goodwill in the world can\u2019t help overcome the classical music world\u2019s general anxieties over money and revenues, including competing for government grants and other funding. Classical music is itself a somewhat divisive field in the modern era, with a lot of uncertainty as the old ways of making a living through a regular gig or full-time job dwindle.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the kind of pressure that would shake even the most balanced psyche. Where there are existing propensities towards mental instability or illness, the pressure-filled life of a classical musician or composer is only fuel for the fire.<\/p>\n When it comes to music and mental health, there is something of a paradox at work. Performance anxiety can add more energy to performances if it remains at a manageable level. At worst, however, it can be crippling to a performing career.<\/p>\n Many studies have shown that music practice, whether instrumental or vocal, has a range of mental and physical health benefits. A good chunk of the research into the working conditions and links to mental health among musicians comes from the UK. In a study by researchers from the Royal College of Music, the Faculty of Medicine at the Imperial College, London, and other UK-based institutions, the data showed that singing was typically associated with increases in cytokines, and reductions in cortisol, beta-endorphin, and oxytocin levels \u2014 all physiological indications of lower levels of stress.<\/p>\n Likewise, mental health issues linked to the stresses of music practice \u2014 like performance anxiety \u2014 aren\u2019t all in your head. Levels of cortisol and cortisone (stress hormones)\u00a0 increased when subjects sang in front of an audience, as opposed to when singing alone. Further study indicated that even a virtual audience triggers a raised heartbeat.<\/p>\n A 2015 study looked at the links between performance anxiety and other issues from physical pain triggered by the anxiety \u2013 PRMD or performance-related musculoskeletal pain disorder \u2014 to social phobia and depression. In a survey of 377 professional orchestral musicians, 84% said they had experience physical symptoms, with a relationship that emerged between PRMD and depression.<\/p>\n The stresses of a performing career can show up in a number of ways. A 2017 study in the UK found high levels of eating disorders among musicians, with about a third of respondents saying they\u2019d experienced symptoms at some point during their careers.<\/p>\n Help Musicians UK, a non-profit devoted to issues around musicians and their working conditions in the UK, commissioned a study into musician\u2019s work in 2016. With over 2,200 respondents, it was the larges study of its kind at the time. More than 71% of the musicians who responded said they had experienced anxiety and even panic attacks, and more than 68% said they\u2019d suffered from depression.<\/p>\n The struggle is definitely real. It\u2019s no wonder that many composers throughout history have struggled with mental health issues.<\/p>\n Modest Mussorgsky was a civil servant as well as a composer. We\u2019re not sure which to blame for the many stories of his out of control alcoholism. Add an era that saw excessive drinking as a kind of rebellion against the bourgeoisie, and it was a recipe for disaster. By 1880, friends tried to help out, but his addiction was out of control. \u201cDipsomania\u201d was the name given to his condition at the time. He was dismissed from his government gig in 1880, and died in poverty a year later at the age of 42.<\/p>\n The list of composers who lived with depression, sometimes suffering from severe episodes, is long, and includes some of the classical world\u2019s luminaries: Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninov, Hector Berlioz, Mikhail Glinka, Anton Bruckner, and many more. Berlioz, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, and Hugo Wolf were known to have attempted suicide. Bruckner also exhibited the symptoms of OCD or obsessive-compulsive disorder, with a compulsion to count everything he came across.<\/p>\n Alexander Scriabin is thought to have suffered from mental illness late in his life as a result of syphilis, an ailment that plagued many other composers. In Scriabin, it manifested itself as a kind of megalomania, (some believe it to be simply an aggravation of existing narcissistic personality disorder,) where he believed that if he composed a work he was calling Mysterium<\/em>, it would change the world and usher in a new era of history. He died of septicemia before he could attempt the composition at the age of 42.<\/p>\n Arnold Schoenberg, who founded the twelve-tone or dodecaphonic system, suffered from a phobia known as triskaidekaphobia \u2014 or fear of the number 13. He avoided addresses and floors bearing the feared number, and named his opera Moses und Aron<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 dropping the second a from the name \u2014 to avoid a title with 13 letters.<\/p>\n Erik Satie had a specific food obsession that he detailed in his book, Memoirs of an Amnesiac<\/em>. He wrote, \u201cMy only nourishment consists of food that is white: eggs, sugar, shredded bones, the fat of dead animals, veal, salt, coconuts, chicken cooked in white water, moldy fruit, rice, turnips, sausages in camphor, pastry, cheese (white varieties), cotton salad and certain varieties of fish.\u201d<\/p>\n The myth of the tortured genius still \u2014 unfortunately \u2014 looms large in the public imagination. Some would point out the splendid output of all those brilliant composers who worked while suffering their various mental health issues.<\/p>\n More pertinent, however, would be to wonder how many more masterpieces they would have bestowed on musical history if their illnesses had been understood, and treated rather than ignored.<\/p>\n Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and reviews? Follow us on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/i>Twitter<\/span><\/i><\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>for all the latest.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Studies show that, out of all professions, musicians report the highest job satisfaction. 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