Orchestra Musicians' Work Environment and Health Versus General Workforce

Our cross-sectional epidemiological study compared the work-environment harms and job uncertainties of orchestral musicians to those of the general population and their impact on health, work, and quality of life.

Musicians of all the Finnish domestic symphony orchestras and a population sample from the Finnish work force completed questionnaires, each group answering the same questions on their work environment and on health, ability to work, and quality of life.

Noise disturbed the musicians 8 and poor lighting 22 times as often as these problems disturbed the controls. Musicians experienced mental violence or bullying considerably more often than did controls, with an odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 3.0 (2.0-4.7).

Noise issues and poor lighting are well-known problems for orchestra musicians, but mental violence or bullying are less well known. Research should focus on such areas.