THE MRI BRASS REPOSITORY PROJECT:
Providing New Hope and Understanding for Brass Players

Cutting edge MRI technology provides a window to study career-ending movement disorders in brass players, as well a means of discovering new pedagogical strategies for teachers leading to healthy, sustainable performance.

Peter Iltis, professor of kinesiology at Gordon College and a French horn player, was diagnosed with embouchure dystonia (EmD) in 2002. For the past 17 years, he's devoted his research to learning about this disorder; to discover and publish new information leading to more effective treatment and preventative practice.

AN IMPORTANT 6 MONTH INITIATIVE STARTS MARCH 1, 2019

Coincident with his Spring 2019 sabbatical, Iltis will be joined by the 2018 European Inventor of the Year, Dr. Jens Frahm from March 1–August 15 at the Max-Planck-Institute of Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany in a campaign to expand the MRI Brass Repository to study 50 new musicians. These include horn, trombone, and trumpet artists both with and without embouchure dystonia.

Every dollar raised helps bring research participants to Germany for real-time MRI scans, covering travel and research costs.

“The work that you have been involved with over the last decade is nothing short of revolutionary. Your MRI work is pioneering, allowing real-time measurements of the complex anatomy of the embouchure to be visualized in affected patients...Musicians with Dystonia, the organization we founded twenty years ago to help musicians afflicted with this condition, enthusiastically supports your work…Our understanding of the condition is extremely limited. Your work holds the greatest promise to unlocking the secrets to this condition, and to finally pointing out the way forward for rational treatment.”

Steven J Frucht, MD
Professor of Neurology, New York University Medical School
Director of Movement Disorders, NYU Langone Health

“The work by Professor Iltis and his colleagues is absolutely groundbreaking in utilizing the latest technological advances to enable us to better understand the highly complex internal physical mechanisms underpinning the debilitating neurological condition of Embouchure Dystonia. His research to date…has greatly improved our understanding of this condition, as well as enhancing our clinical approaches to its assessment and management.”

Bronwen Ackerman, PhD
MPH, Editor-in-Chief, Medical Problems of Performing Artists

“As someone whose career was brought to a screeching halt by this debilitating condition, it seems the greatest problem we face is ignorance—of the problem itself, its causes and its treatment. I am excited to see how this endeavor and the knowledge we gain through it might assist with more accurate diagnosis, pedagogical prevention and effective treatment.”

Eric Overholt
Former Associate Principal Horn, Los Angeles Philharmonic

Scientific Publications:

Iltis, P.W. Medical and scientific issues: Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Window to Understanding Motor Control in Horn Playing?. The Horn Call, January, 2014

Iltis, P.W. Dystonia. in Salem Health, Magill’s Medical Guide, Volume II, Salem Press, Grey House Publishing, pp. 692-694, 2014.

Lee, A., S. Furuya, M. Morise, P. Iltis, and E. Altenmuller. Quantification of instability of tone production in embouchure dystonia. Parkinsonism Related Disorders (2014) 20(11):1161-4

Iltis, P.W., E. Schoonderwalt, S. Zhang, J. Frahm, and E. Altenmuller. Real-time, high-speed oropharyngeal MRI in brass players: a methodological pilot study. Human Movement Science (2015) 42:132-45, DOI 10.1016/j.humov.2015.04.013

Iltis, P.W., E. J. Frahm, D. Voit, A. Joseph, E. Schoonderwalt, and E. Altenmuller. High-speed real-time MRI of fast tongue movements in elite horn players. Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery (2015) 5(3):374-381, DOI 10.3978/j.issn.2223-4292.2015.03.02

Iltis, P.W., J. Frahm, D. Voit, A. Joseph, E. Schoonderwalt, E. Altenmüller. Divergent oral cavity motor strategies between healthy elite and dystonic horn players. Journal of Clinical Movement Disorders (2015) 2:15, DOI 10.1186/s40734-015-0027-2.

Iltis, P.W., J. Frahm, D. Voit, A. Joseph, R. Burke, E. Altenmüller. Inefficiencies in motor strategies of horn players with embouchure dystonia. Medical Problems of Performing Artists (2016) 31(2):69-77

Iltis, P.W., S.L. Gillespie, J. Frahm, D. Voit, A. Joseph, E. Altenmüller. Movements of the glottis during horn performance: a pilot study. Medical Problems of Performing Artists (2017) 32(1):33-39.

Iltis, P.W. When science meets brass. The Instrumentalist (2017) 72(1):36-39.

Iltis, P.W., J. Frahm, D. Voit, A. Joseph, A. Miller. Movement of the tongue during lip trills. Medical Problems of Performing Artists, (2017) 32(4):209-214.

Iltis, P.W., E.K. Epstein. MRI Horn: Brass pedagogy informed by science. The Horn Call, February, 2018.

Douglass, N., Iltis, P.W. Iltis, J. Frahm, D. Voit, A. Joseph, P.K. Fisher. Abnormal oral cavity motor strategies in a horn player with orofacial myofunctional disorder: a case study using real-time MRI. (International Journal of Orofacial Myology, March 2018)

Iltis, P., J. Frahm, E .Altenmüller, D. Voit, A. Joseph, and K. Kozakowski. Tongue Position Variability During Sustained Notes in Healthy vs Dystonic Horn Players Using Real-Time MRI. Medical Problems of Performing Artists (2019) 34(1):pages unassigned as yet

Iltis, P, J. J. Frahm, E .Altenmüller, D. Voit, A. Joseph, N. Douglass. Real-Time MRI visual feedback in embouchure dystonia and tongue thrust: implications for treatment? Journal of Clinical Movement Disorders (under review 2019)

Iltis, P, J. J. Frahm, M. Heyne, D. Voit, A. Joseph, L. Atlas. Simultaneous dual-plane, real-time magnetic resonance imaging of oral cavity movements in advanced trombone players. Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery (under review 2019)

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THE MRI BRASS REPOSITORY PROJECT: Providing New Hope and Understanding for Brass Players

Cutting edge MRI technology provides a window to study career-ending movement disorders in brass players, as well a means of discovering new pedagogical strategies for teachers leading to healthy, sustainable performance.

THE MRI BRASS REPOSITORY PROJECT:
Providing New Hope and Understanding for Brass Players