Howard Nelson, PT
Howard Nelson has been a physical therapist since 1989. He worked for ten years at Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC. Howard helped form the hospital’s Physical Therapy Outpatient Spine Center and served as its clinical supervisor. He also worked for five years in HSS’s sports medicine department. Currently he is in private practice in New York City. During 2007 to 2014 he taught a lecture/lab class on movement system impairments for Columbia University’s physical therapy program. Over the past ten years Mr. Nelson has worked and studied with Washington University’s physical therapy department, developing his expertise in movement system impairments. Specifically, he analyzes how postures and movements can be the cause of injury and pain. His physical therapy practice is focused on treating the biomechanical and neuromuscular causes of injuries by modifying faulty movement patterns.
During the last few years Mr. Nelson has been applying movement system principles to musicians. He has presented Pamela Frank’s case study and worked with musicians at festivals in Rolle and Verbier, Switzerland; Rice University, Caramoor, Chicago Music Institute, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, Curtis Institute, New World Symphony, the Tokyo Viola and Menuhin Competitions, the Tanglewood Music Center, UCLA, USC, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Trident Medical Center, The Performing Arts Medicine Association, Yale University School of Music, The Juilliard School, Peabody Institute, Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, Oberlin Conservatory, University of Auckland, Music Academy of the West, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
photo: Nicolas Lieber
Pamela frank
Pamela Frank has established an outstanding international reputation across an unusually varied range of performing activity. As a soloist she has performed with leading orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Berlin Philharmonic and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. Pamela performed regularly with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, recording the complete Mozart Violin Concertos with them and David Zinman and has also recorded a Schubert album and the Beethoven sonata cycle, both with her father Claude Frank. Pamela is a sought-after chamber musician and has performed at many international festivals including Aldeburgh, Verbier, Edinburgh, Salzburg, Tanglewood, Marlboro and Ravinia.
Aside from her devotion to works of the standard repertory, Pamela has performed and recorded a number of contemporary works. Her accomplishments were recognized in 1999 with the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize. Pamela is professor of violin at the Curtis Institute of Music and teaches and coaches annually at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Verbier Festivals. Since 2008 she has been the Artistic Director of the Evnin Rising Stars, a mentoring program for young artists at Caramoor Center for the Arts. Her newest venture is the formation of Fit as a Fiddle Inc., a collaboration with physical therapist Howard Nelson in which they use both their expertise for injury prevention and treatment of musicians.