ABOUT
Brass Injury & Embouchure Support was founded with the intention of sharing information on brass playing-related injuries, embouchure injuries, recovery, prevention, pedagogy, and integrative musician's health.
Brass playing-related injuries and embouchure support range from Musicians Dystonia, Overuse Injury, Motor Fatigue/Degration, Bells Palsy, Median/Ulner and Trigeminal Neuropathy in the upper lip (pinched nerve), Mouth Sores, Nerve Compression, TMJ/TMD, Trigeminal Neuralgia, jaw and/or neck problems (Bruxism, Arthritus, Lock Jaw, Jaw Dislocation, etc), Muscle Tear, Head and Neck Lesions, Abdominal/Chest Hernias, Valsalva Maneuver, Pneumoparotitis, to areas including dental work and partial/dentures, etc.
The methods of integrative medicine treatment and/or support include both traditional medicine, holistic, alternative, and supplemental care. This can include body movement therapies and techniques, to sleeping/eating habits, and general wellbeing of musicians and their lifestyle.
Music practitioners and medical practitioners will be highlighted.
Anyone is welcome to like/follow the facebook page and join the facebook support group; this includes musicians, music or medical educators and practitioners, researchers, and those who are interested in learning more about performance-art medicine and treatment of brass playing-related injuries.
Katie A. Berglof
Founder & CEO
Katie is a musician injury consultant and coach, an arts leader and administrator, and a former music educator and horn player. As a musician injury consultant and coach to brass players, she provides guidance, resources, referrals, advice on recovery, and health information. She has given webinars, lectures, and presentations over musician's dystonia and TMJ, and has been included in others dissertations, research, musician health projects, and has served on health panels.
Katie earned her bachelors in music on horn from the University of Northern Iowa in 2010. During her undergraduate studies she also attended the University of Northern Colorado. She started experiencing focal task-specific embouchure dystonia symptoms in 2008 and diagnosed in 2011. She went on to pursue graduate studies in instrumental music education at the University of Colorado Boulder leading to a teaching career in 2015. During her time living in Denver Colorado she also gained experience working in arts administration; first as a Program Assistant for El Sistema Colorado, and then in Community Outreach & Education at the University of Denver Newman Performing Arts Center as an Education Program Assistant.
During that time Katie also became an outspoken advocate for musician's with dystonia by starting her blog Living with Embouchure Dystonia where viewers followed her documented journal and recovery process. Her blog eventually turned into a YouTube channel. In 2020 she founding Musician's Dystonia & Injury Live Talk, and also created several support groups online.
With a determination to continue making a difference in the classical music field and musician's lives, in 2021 she enrolled in both a MFA degree program in Arts Leadership at Seattle University and a Nonprofit Fundraising Certification Program, while interning at the Seattle Symphony in Development Operations.
In May of 2022 she was hired onto the Seattle Symphony in People & Culture as their Office Administrator. During her time with the SSO she has stood in as Interim Executive Assistant to the CEO & President, and also as COVID Coordinator. Katie is certified in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) through the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI), and has earned professional development credits in HR. She is a passionate advocate for DEI in classical music and orchestras.
Katie has served on the Advisory Council for Arts Education Partnership (AEP), been a Young Professionals Committee member at the Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA), and interned as an Executive Assistant in Marketing for a chamber music organization called Byron Schenkman & Friends (BS&F). Katie was recently a candidate finalist for the Assistant General Manager position of the International Women's Brass Conference (IWBC) in May of 2023.
Katie is currently a member of the Performing Arts Medicine Association and has passed the PAMA and Sports Medicine Health Association's Essentials in Performance Art Health Certification. She is a member of the League of American Orchestras (LOAO), American Society of Administrative Professionals (ASAP), Association of Arts Administration Educators (AAAE), and the International Horn Society (IHS). She has been a former member of the National Association for Music Educators (NAfME).