Music history major for conservatory student with focal dystonia

College Majors Music Major
1

My daughter received the terrible news this past semester: she has focal dystonia. She is a sophomore at a music conservatory playing a wind instrument. She cannot continue in her performance program as she cannot play her instrument. Her scholarship is tied to her performance major so she cannot continue at her current conservatory.

She would be interested in studying music history, but the degree cannot require performance since she cannot play. She also cannot explain to a music school that she has focal dystonia, as no one will hire her in the future, should she recover, if it is known she has had it.

I would really appreciate a list of music history degree programs, which don’t require performing or playing an instrument. Thank you.

2

First, here is a list of notables (sorry, source is Wikipedia!) with focal dystonia, from Wikipedia. Some have recovered. I only read about Leisner and Paraskevas, guitarists with long periods of disability who recovered through a program of their own invention:

Andrew Dawes, noted violinist and co-founder of the Orford String Quartet.[9]
Christian Münzner, lead guitar of progressive extreme metal band Obscura
Leon Fleisher, an international concert pianist, suffered from this affliction in his right hand beginning in the 1960s and switched to only left hand playing. In the 2000s, he regained use of his right hand and recommenced performing and recording with two hands.
Alex Klein, formerly the first oboist of the Chicago Symphony
Ernestine Whitman, former member of the Atlanta Symphony and currently a professor of flute at Lawrence University
Keith Emerson, pianist and keyboard player
Warren Deck, tubist and former member of the New York Philharmonic, was diagnosed with focal dystonia in his upper lip, which ended his playing career.
Dominic Frasca, Guitarist
Gary Graffman, pianist, who changed to performing only with his left hand.
Billy McLaughlin, guitarist, switched to playing left-handed when afflicted with dystonia.
Liona Boyd, Canadian classical guitarist, known as the “First Lady of the Guitar”, retired from the concert stage for six years in 2003, due to focal dystonia that affected her right hand. She worked to retrain her right hand and since 2009 she has been performing again as a guitarist, singer and songwriter.[10]
Andy Billups, bass guitarist with British rock group, The Hamsters, has made a partial recovery; he plays by using modified guitar plectrums.
David Leisner, classical guitarist, has recovered the full use of his hand after a decade of disability.
Badi Assad, Brazilian singer-guitarist, was diagnosed with focal dystonia in 1999; she eventually recovered and resumed her career.[11]
Tom Adams, bluegrass banjo player, has focal dystonia in his right hand, and has switched to the guitar.
Scott Adams, the writer of the Dilbert comics, has focal dystonia of the right hand, which impedes his artwork.[12]
Scott Devine, bass player and founder of Scott’s Bass Lessons has focal dystonia which requires him to wear a glove on his left hand when playing bass.
Stuart Cassells, founder of the bagpipe rock group Red Hot Chilli Pipers, announced focal dystonia in September 2011; he has left the band.[13]
Apostolos Paraskevas, Greek-American classical guitarist-composer, was struck by focal dystonia to his right hand in 2009. He fully recovered in 2013 after 7,000 hours of personal work in re-constructing his technique. He was able to decode the condition as an unconscious behavioral habit and returned to performing professionally again. His rehabilitation was based on reducing tension in his hand and retraining his brain through proper, relaxed hand movements, practiced extensively. His article A Classical Guitarist’s Story of Recovery from Focal Dystonia will be published in London on the Classical Guitar Magazine.
Steve Dilling, bluegrass banjo player and founding member of the group, IIIrd Tyme Out. He was forced to retire from the group due to focal dystonia.
Jang Jae-in, korean singer-songwriter and guitarist diagnosed with dystonia in her left hand in 2012. in 2015 in You Hee-yeol’s Sketchbook she announced that she quit playing guitar.

3

Second, to answer your main question, there are many, many schools with general music majors that don’t involve performance. If you can tell us a little more about what your daughter is looking for, we could help more. I would think she could pick a school based on a number of factors such as size, location, quality of program, and “vibe” and many of them would have good music history courses.

Is she working with anyone to retrain her neurological system? Or is it easier for her to leave performance behind? Is the dystonia in her hand(s) or lips? Does she view this as permanent?

Are there areas other than music that she might be interested in? Will being around musicians be painful for her in the short term, or a balm? Would she be interested in a music therapy or physical therapy type of program?

Would it be good for her to take a break to get her bearings?

4

I PM’ed you…

5

All she has wanted to be since she was 9 was a music performer. She won national high school competitions and was admitted to the leading conservatories in the US. We are aware of most of those performers you listed, but they are folks who have already established themselves. My daughter has spoken with several of them. She is working with Jan Kagarice, who works with many professional musicians with dystonia and she’s had very good results. The doctors have not been of much use and disagree with each other on this.

My daughter tried but cannot imagine any other career other than music. She works on the exercises Jan gave her several hours per day. But it’s no guarantee. She definitely needs to retrain herself to relax, but that will take a change of personality.

She already took a leave of absence after her freshman year, so she sees no point in asking for more. She is trying to transfer somewhere now, spring semester. she has a lot of withdrawals on her transcript. We know of two schools that have programs that might fit her situation, but would like to know about more. Since she will now lose her scholarship, we need an in-state school or one that is not exorbitant.

She has abdominal wall dystonia, something new for the neurologists.

6

I know very little about your daughters condition, but I do have a suggestion. You might want to select a university based on the city or school where your D can get the best treatment and care. For example, schools such as UCLA or Columbia that have strong Neurosurgery or Neuromodulation programs also have strong music history programs. What state are you in?

7

She has already seen the best neurosurgeons, and they disagree as to what she has. None of them, however, have a treatment program. She is already seeing the only person we know of who can actually give her occupational therapy. She prefers to stay near the east coast, to make it easier to fly to work with Jan Kagarice for sessions. My daughter has high grades (3.9 both in conservatory and high school) but low SATs, can’t get into schools such as Columbia. So far all schools we have inquired with require an audition, even those where people have told us don’t.

8

Will she qualify for financial aid? Bard has a fabulous musicology department, non audition. And they allow spring transfers and are SAT optional. A bit of a trek to NYC, but doable.
Lucy

9

She does not qualify for any financial aid, and we cannot afford to pay private school tuition rates. She is currently on a merit only scholarship. I thought of Bard.

10

Movingahead, I don’t have any advice, but I wanted to say how sorry I am that your daughter is struggling with this difficult situation.

11

Would it be possible that it might be painful being near a conservatory, as with Bard?

In our experience, many colleges and universities have non-audition general music majors. A BA music major is often an academic major not performance. Maybe one of the Colleges that Change Lives would fit. Two examples: http://www.goucher.edu/academics/music and http://www.clarku.edu/departments/clarkarts/music/ These are kind of random: again, there are a lot of programs without auditions where music is one of the liberal arts.

As for scores, http://fairtest.org/university/optional test optional colleges. Just under B’s alone you will find Bates, Bowdoin, Bennington, Brandeis, Beloit, Bryn Mawr and Bard- and Berklee, for C’s Colby, Connecticut College etc. etc. Though merit awards sometimes require scores. Your daughter could get into some pretty good schools, I would think, but maybe not for spring-?

This is so hard and sympathies go to you. We have been there. My daughter majored in music and has just started a PhD music program and hasn’t played her instrument in years for health reasons. She didn’t have the investment in performance your daughter has, and this is a huge transition for your daughter- though it sounds like there is some hope that with exercises she will be able to play again, at some level.