The PASIC 2026 Health & Wellness offerings focus on supporting musicians’ physical and mental well-being amid their demanding careers. Dr. Matthew Coley and Dr. Melissa Milanak address common challenges like poor sleep, performance anxiety, and stress, emphasizing the importance of optimizing sleep and rest to enhance performance and recovery from injury. Additional sessions include an immersive Deep Listening Gong and Sound Bath experience with Dr. Arin Levy, providing a restorative break from PASIC’s intense environment, and a Mid-Day Movement session led by Angela Kepley to promote physical awareness and refreshment through gentle stretching and movement. These programs aim to empower attendees to maintain balance, reduce burnout, and improve overall health in their musical pursuits.ary

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With the diversity of this year’s Health & Wellness offerings at PASIC, you are bound to find something that interests you! Whether you are a player looking for skills to aid performance, the mentor charged with guiding those players to their artistic selves, a human looking to empower others with the nature of drumming, or you are looking for a reprieve from the multisensory and hyperstimulating wonderland that is PASIC, there’s something here for you!

Sleep for Optimal Performance: Balance, Anxiety, Stress, Rest, and Solutions 
Dr. Matthew Coley and Dr. Melissa E. Milanak
As busy professionals, most of us have less-than-ideal sleep habits fueled by difficult performance schedules, teaching demands, financial pressures, and the long hours needed to plan and practice in order to accomplish our dream work. This can be a detrimental spiral, especially if we are also managing injury and fatigue in our hands, wrists, and arms. Sleep and rest are the solutions to healing from injury, anxiety, and stress overload/burnout, but often we use other coping devices that actually exacerbate the issues in the long-term. We keep pushing through, trying to not be perceived as weak or uncommitted. Sleep paralysis or panic attacks will be discussed as well. 

Dr. Matthew Coley and guests will present specific areas that plague performers, and Dr. Melissa Milanak will help to debunk myths, explain what is really happening, and provide real applications to remedy the issues that many of us face from poor sleep and rest “hygiene.” Optimizing sleep and rest is the key to optimizing performance. 

Dr. Coley will moderate the session, incorporating his direct experience with 20 years of sleep issues and a more recent recalculation of professional health habits following a bout with anxiety, debilitating neck pain, and headaches. He will share stories and experiences from a variety of musicians on topics of sleep problems, performance anxiety, financial stress, and person/professional life balance. The issues discussed in this session are things we should pay attention to, but often do not due to our “grindstone” conditioning and career drive.

Deep Listening Gong and Sound Bath
Dr. Arin Levy
Join Dr. Arin Levy (Enso Sounds & Healing Arts) for a longform, improvised, immersive sound bath designed as a restorative listening experience within the high-stimulus environment of PASIC. This session offers percussionists an intentional pause from rehearsals, clinics, and the exhibit hall — a space to reset the ears, body, and attention before returning to the demands of performance and practice. The experience is built around a large-scale setup of 16 gongs, singing bowls, handpan, and other resonant instruments. If possible, please arrive five minutes early to get settled. You are invited to bring a yoga mat or blanket if you wish to rest on the floor; chairs will also be available.

Mid-Day Movement
Angela Kepley
Let’s come together for Mid-Day Movement! After hours of sitting for fantastic PASIC sessions, come enjoy some movement flow and dynamic stretches. Wake up your body and mind so you can enjoy even more of PASIC for the remainder of the day! Clothes that allow free movement are encouraged but not required since you can modify or omit movements at your discretion. We’ll try not to get sweaty so you can still feel fresh for the rest of the day, but movement does build some heat, so bring some water and stay hydrated!

The aim is for attendees to leave refreshed and focused. Participants can also take away some movements, stretches, or exercises to incorporate into their daily routine. Our bodies require continual awareness and regular attention so we can perform at our best, so please take, use, share, teach, or repeat any movement patterns or combinations from our session.