as a 15 year old ....

horn player performing in my high school pit orchestra, symphony orchestra, and jazz band, as well as in various orchestras and ensembles outside of school it never occurred to me that I needed to be concerned about the potential long term effects on my hearing from playing the instrument that I loved.  

It was only at the Boston Conservatory's Horn intensive program this past summer when Eli Epstein of the Cleveland Orchestra raised the issue and suggested that I start wearing earplugs to protect my hearing, especially given my position as principal horn in many of the groups where I play that I became aware of it. I now carry earplugs in my horn and will use them depending on the piece we are playing to lower the volume of the sound.

While all orchestral musicians intuitively know that certain pieces, composers, and instruments are louder than others, many probably do not realize how loud or how much "noise" (and I am hesitant to use that word as it is music) we are subjected to.

The point was driven home to me at the NYS Summer School of Music this past summer playing as part of the the NYSSSA Orchestra program at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center where the selections included the 1812 Overture and Billy the Kid.  Both pieces include the percussion section, which the French Horn sits directly in front of, mimicking cannon and gun fire.  The earplugs I wore muted the sound considerably.

This experience and Eli's comments led me to look into the issue further.  The few studies done on the the audiological health of orchestral musicians have in the super majority of cases shown that that orchestral musicians can be exposed to potentially harmful sound levels in the working environment.

Most of the studies were conducted in Australia and looked at only a few different seating arrangements of the orchestra itself and none would be considered long term to see if hearing loss worsened. Nevertheless, the studies did establish that orchestral musicians are at risk for noise induced hearing loss (NIHL).

The studies also focused on musicians in professional orchestras.  None of the studies looked at potential hearing loss among high school or college students playing in student orchestras and bands.  As an example, NYC stopped testing all students for hearing impairment instead relying on parents to flag the issue.

PhilHEARmonic is what I named my proposed study to look at Noise Induced Hearing Loss among high school and college students.  

Since I first wrote the words above I've continued to look into NIHL.  I now work with Fader Plugs LLC, a manufacturer of adjustable noise attenuation earplugs for musicians and others.  I test and provide feedback on designs of their universal and custom earplugs.

I've even had a custom pair made for myself.   You can see a short video below of my ears being injected with silicon to make the molds for my customized plugs.

Read my blog "Happenings" to keep up with my latest work on PhilHEARmonic.

Meredith Summa - NYC Horn