Sponsors
This website has been previously generously sponsored by the BGSU Pro Musica Organization and the BGSU Center for Undergraduate Student Research. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of this website, please click the “SPONSOR” button below and fill out the contact form with your name, affiliated organization and the amount you are willing to contribute. All contributions are greatly appreciated!
The Knack database software on this website has been graciously sponsored by the BGSU Pro Musica organization. This grant was made possible through generous donations by alumni, parents and friends of the College of Musical Arts at Bowling Green State University.
Creation of website has been graciously sponsored by a 2017 research grant through the BGSU Center for Undergraduate Student Research.
About the Project
Francesca Leo is a flutist, educator, MBA candidate, and performing arts health advocate. As an alumni of the Manhattan School of Music and Bowling Green State University, Francesca founded Playing Without Pain in April of 2018 in fulfillment of her Honors Thesis project. This project was inspired by Francesca’s personal story, having experienced performance-related pain on and off for the past decade and diagnosed with tendinosis of the forearms and left shoulder and later a shoulder impingement from playing the flute.
Francesca has conducted a cross-sectional study on the prevalence of performance-related injuries and the stress connection in collegiate musicians. She built this award-winning project to create a dialogue about performance-based pain in collegiate music students across the nation and hopes to provide an interactive resource students can visit to gain access to proper treatment and prevention methods for performance-based injuries.
Francesca holds a 50-hour meditation teacher certification with a specialization in trauma-informed practices and is currently pursuing a certification as a Licensed Body Mapping Educator. She has presented her research at various conferences and institutions including the ASPAH Online Conference, the NAfME Eastern Division Convention, the Southeast Michigan Flute Association, the Mid-Atlantic Flute Convention, the Flute Society of Greater Philadelphia Flute Fair, the Upper Midwest Flute Association Flute Fest, the Puerto Rico Flute Symposium, the Utah Flute Association, the Manhattan School of Music, West Virginia University, the 2018 Ohio Northern University Student Research Colloquium and the 2019 National Flute Association Convention, among others.
She currently serves on the Board of Directors for NAMI Wood County, as the Chair of the Wellness Committee for the Puerto Rico Flute Symposium, and as a board member on the Performing Arts Medicine Association Young Professionals Committee and the National Flute Association Performance Health Care Committee, and as a Research Assistant for the Center for Arts and Medicine Interdisciplinary Research Lab at the University of Florida. For more information about Francesca, please visit her website at www.francescaleoflute.com.
Francesca Leo, Founder