Audiograms of symphony orchestra musicians

The audiograms of fifty-seven musicians from four Danish symphony orchestras were determined. The fifty-seven persons (26 females and 31 males) were in the age range from 22 to 65 years. The subjects were interviewed and participated voluntarily in the investigation.Measurements of sound level were performed during rehearsal and during concerts in the four orchestras with a sound level meter placed in various instrument groups. At the same time a noise dose meter was used to evaluate the dose perceived by specific orchestra members.The average audiogram showed a decrease at higher frequencies similar to an age-related hearing loss. Each audiogram was corrected for the age of the person by means of the median from ISO 7029. The average audiogram from these age-corrected individual audiograms showed no signs of hearing loss. The audiograms were also compared with the expected audiograms from ISO 1999, which takes account of the number of years at work, the number of playing hours per week, and the average sound level in the orchestra for the instrument group. In almost all cases the measured audiograms looked better than the predictions from ISO 1999.It may be concluded from this investigation that musicians cannot be expected to get pronounced hearing losses from playing in a symphony orchestra. It should be noted, though, that the data material is limited, and that the subjects have not been selected in a systematical or representative way.