Q&A with Frankie Lo Surdo
You expect that once passing your trial for your dream orchestral job, you can really relax and settle into your new permanent role. But unfortunately this wasn’t the case for Frankie Lo Surdo. A potentially career-threatening injury soon after completing his trial led him down a path to completely rebuild his playing from scratch. His newly formed business, Brass Rehab, is now helping fellow musicians work through similar problems with their playing, and brings the latest scientific research on musician’s overuse injuries to the fore.
Can you tell us a bit about your career path – when and where did you start making music, and what are you up to now?
I grew up in Sydney and started playing French horn at the age of 7, after my rented trumpet was given to another student by mistake, so horn kind of found me.
I studied with Ben Jacks (principal horn-Sydney Symphony Orchestra) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. During my degree I took a year off to do a tutti horn contract with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane, where I also studied with Andrew Bain and Peter Luff.
During uni I freelanced in Sydney with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. I also played around the country with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne, Queensland, and West Australian Symphony Orchestras.
I then spent a year doing the Sydney Symphony Fellowship program, and following that year I won a section position with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra where I am to this day 9 years later.
I love my job in WASO, and I’m now also lucky enough to teach at a tertiary level regularly at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, and the University of Western Australia. I’ve also been invited as a guest to teach at the Australian National Academy of Music, the Australian Youth Orchestra, and Queensland Conservatorium of Music.
Frankie combining his two loves - playing the horn, and coffee!
Who or what inspires you as a musician?
My colleagues and teachers. This goes back to my teacher Ben Jacks, Andrew Bain and Peter Luff who I learnt so much from and still hear their voices in my head most weeks.
And all the fellow students and colleagues I’ve got to play with, I’m always learning from how others play and what can influence my own playing. I love playing in WASO, we work really well together, this inspires me to come to work and do my job to the best of my ability each week.
You’ve been really open in talking about the struggles you’ve had throughout your career – from mental health issues, to physical injury and recovery. Could you describe for us the difficulties that you have experienced, and how you’ve managed to work your way through them?
In 2009 I suddenly got hit with pretty severe panic attacks associated with performing, I was on tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and I had no idea what was happening to me. At first I felt disassociated, then I felt as though I was about to pass out, which then snowballed into being anxious about why I felt that way...then being anxious about being anxious etc..
First of all, I had no idea what was happening, and because of this I didn’t know who to talk to. I didn’t want to talk to my colleagues, my teacher at the time, my family...the only person who knew what was happening was my amazing girlfriend (now amazing wife!)
I finally sought help from a GP who suggested I speak to a psychologist, and it was after this we discovered that I was suffering from severe panic attacks and generalised anxiety.
After 4 years (performing full-time) trying to shake my panic attacks with the help of different psychologists, I decided my last choice was trying out medication through the guidance of a psychiatrist. This worked for me, and I’ve been medicated ever since.
During the end of my struggle with anxiety and panic attacks, I suffered an overuse injury to the muscles in my face from stress (anxiety obviously) and playing. This physical injury happened 2 weeks after passing my trial with the WA Symphony Orchestra, and left me unable to play a note anywhere on the horn.
In Australia we’re very lucky to have access to one of the world’s leading authorities on Musicians Health, Dr. Bronwen Ackerman is an Associate Professor in the University of Sydney School of Medical Sciences. Bronwen is not a musician, yet she was able to teach me how to play again from scratch (as she has done with 100s of musicians with similar injuries.)
I rang Bronwen as soon as I knew something had gone wrong with my playing. She was quick to diagnose me with an overuse injury to my Obicularis Oris (main lip muscle used in playing French horn). Bronwen told me upfront I would either come back a better player or never play again.
Thankfully the former was true! My rehabilitation involved learning how to efficiently breath again, as well as strengthening the muscles in my face and learning what role they play in the embouchure. 6 months later I returned to work with the WA Symphony Orchestra, and 8 years later I have now joined forces with Dr. Ackermann in helping musicians all over the world rehabilitate from similar injuries.
How have these experiences changed the way in which you prepare for practice and performing, both physically and mentally?
Rehabilitation looks very different to practicing music as a musician. What you are doing is creating new neural pathways for body parts to make new movements that the body has forgotten.
So rather than hours of practicing technique, studies and repertoire, I was practising much shorter periods of time, mostly off the horn, making weird faces in front of a mirror, and using things like toothpicks, marshmallows, and balloons to regain all the strength I had lost.
What this taught me is how to be very efficient with practice time. There’s so much as musicians we can do off the instrument both physically and mentally.
In terms of performing, this whole event has taught me just how important it is to trust in the PROCESS and not the RESULT. When you’re on stage worrying about an entry or solo, I now have a greater trust in knowing exactly the process that goes into achieving the musical outcome, rather than hoping it will go ok.
Your new business Brass Rehab is a fantastic point of call for all brass musicians working through embouchure injury and overuse. Could you tell us about the work you are doing, and the successes you’ve had so far?
I started Brass Rehab because I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through, and also because I understand that there are very few people in the world who specialise in injury rehabilitation.
Brass Rehab has become a name to the work I’ve already been doing over the past 5 years, helping players all around the world 1-on-1 to overcome different kinds of injuries.
We’ve had amazing responses so far to some of the basic anatomical information we’ve put out that we believe is lacking in brass pedagogy, and there’s so much yet to come.
We will eventually be creating an online course/resource that will be accessible to musicians, teachers and medical professionals making this information more accessible.
What advice would you give to students today in regards to looking after themselves, both physically and mentally?
My top 3 would be:
PROCESS over RESULT. Aim for an efficient and repeatable process in the practice room so that you can rely on it to get the musical results you want in performance.
Practice doesn’t just exist in hour blocks. As a student I was the same, I hear students only refer to practice in blocks of ‘hours’. 2,3,4,5 hours of practice. Split your practice into shorter blocks of 20-40 minutes. Your body, and mind will thank you later, and you’ll get quicker results. Our minds especially aren’t designed to concentrate for hour blocks like this.
Look after your body and it will look after you. Our physical and mental selves are so closely linked, it’s really important you make sure you drink plenty of water and eat well. Exercise is also proven to help not only your physical strength, but mental health as well.
Here’s some links to Frankie’s Facebook and Instagram pages, plus other articles you can check out!
Aeyons page – https://online.aeyons.com/frankie_losurdo
CutCommon interview - https://www.cutcommonmag.com/mastering-your-practice-3-miranda-interviews-francesco-lo-surdo/
Seesaw mag – https://www.seesawmag.com.au/2017/08/in-the-spotlight-francesco-frankie-lo-surdo-west-australian-symphony-orchestra
Bronwen Ackermann: Understanding the embouchure: Structure, function and managing common issues – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohvw_tUBN9Y
Francesco Lo Surdo – Overcoming Injury via anatomy – 2021 Northwest Horn Symposium