Orchestral Musicians' Hands

The Musicians’ Union and the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM) are delighted to share this webinar with you on Musicians’ Hands, presented by hand surgeon Mark Philips and concert pianist Penelope Roskell. Mark and Penelope, who run a regular hand clinic together at BAPAM, will take you through the common causes and conditions found in musicians’ hands, how to prevent getting an injury and the different types of treatments and approaches to getting back to playing after an injury or operation.

Mark Philips Biography

Mark began his medical training at Cambridge University. He then trained as a surgeon in south London. Before becoming a consultant, Mark did fellowships in hand and wrist surgery (Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead) and trauma in the University of Pisa, Italy.

Whilst the majority of his work is general hand and wrist surgery, much of which is related to sport and exercise, he has developed a particular interest in treating hand and wrist problems in musicians. He was very fortunate to inherit much of the hard work previously done by Mr John White and Mr Ian Winspur. Both of these surgeons had spent many years setting up specialist practices for looking after musicians.

As was their experience (and the experience of other hand surgeons in this field), surgical intervention is much less likely to be required in this subspecialty. Whilst many hand surgeons are happy to advise against surgery for about 80% of all their new patients and suggest other treatments, Mark found that for musicians in his practice this is more like 90% who are well advised to avoid surgery.

Mark is a keen amateur musician himself and plays trumpet and flugelhorn and performs in small jazz groups in South London.

Penelope Roskell Biography

Penelope Roskell is an international concert pianist and Professor of Piano and piano pedagogy at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. She has many years’ experience of helping injured pianists to resume healthy piano playing and is the Piano educator for the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine, where she conducts a multi-disciplinary pianists’ clinic with hand surgeon Mr Mark Phillips. Although a classical pianist herself, she works at the clinic with injured pianists from all genres, including rock and music theatre.

She has produced a DVD on “Yoga for Musicians” and a book on ‘The Art of Piano Fingering’. Her award-winning book on all aspects of healthy piano playing, The Complete Pianist: from healthy technique to natural artistry, was published in 2020 by Edition Peters.

Penelope recently produced a series of lessons on ‘The pillars of piano technique’ for Tonebase (USA) and is currently preparing online courses for teachers in teaching healthy technique as well as new books on piano technique for beginners, to be published by Peters Edition.