Claudia Spahn (*1963) is a German musician’s medicine specialist and director of the Freiburg Institute for Musicians’ Medicine. She is a leading researcher in the development of music physiology and musicians’ medicine, particularly in the field of stage fright and performance anxiety.
Claudia Spahn has received artistic training in recorder as a solo instrument, piano and violin since childhood. With the recorder and piano, she has won several prizes at the state competition Jugend musiziert. She has also trained in classical ballet, modern dance and tap dancing. Spahn studied medicine at the Albert Ludwig University in Freiburg, as well as in Paris and Switzerland. From 1986 onwards, she has also studied music teaching at the Freiburg University of Music, majoring in recorder, graduating in 1991 with a diploma in music teaching. Since 1992, Claudia Spahn has made numerous appearances as a pianist in the music cabaret duo Die schönen Baritons – together with baritone Bernhard Richter. From 1994 to 2004, she performed as a pianist and recorder player in musical theaters in France.
In 1992, Spahn began her medical training in the fields of psychosomatic medicine, internal medicine, and psychiatry. In 1993, she received her doctorate in medicine, and in 1999 she became a specialist in psychotherapeutic medicine. In 2004, she completed her habilitation at the Medical Faculty of the University of Freiburg on the topic of prevention in higher education for musicians. In the winter semester of 2005/2006, Claudia Spahn was appointed professor of musicians’ medicine at the Freiburg University of Music. Since then, she has headed the Freiburg Institute for Musicians’ Medicine (FIM) – an institution of the University of Music and the Medical Faculty of the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg – together with Bernhard Richter. In 2017, Claudia Spahn became Vice Rector for Research and International Relations at the Freiburg University of Music. In 2020, she received her doctorate in systematic musicology.
Claudia Spahn has significantly advanced the field of music physiology and musicians’ medicine, both structurally and in terms of content. She has written and edited several standard textbooks. She teaches music students the physical and psychological foundations of music-making, preventative body-oriented approaches, and how to deal with stage fright. Music physiology can be studied as a standalone minor at the Freiburg Research and Teaching Center for Music. She also teaches medical students in the preclinical and clinical study phases at the Freiburg Medical Faculty.
In the outpatient clinic of the Freiburg Institute for Musicians’ Medicine at Freiburg University Hospital, Spahn treats musicians with the full range of musicians’ medical conditions, particularly pain and strain syndromes. She offers a special consultation for patients with psychological problems, particularly performance anxiety.
https://www.mh-freiburg.de/personen/details/prof-dr-med-dr-phil-claudia-spahn
https://www.uniklinik-freiburg.de/musikermedizin/mitarbeiter/prof-dr-claudia-spahn.html