Peter F. Ostwald; Specialist on Performers’ Health Problems

Peter F. Ostwald, 68, UC San Francisco psychiatry professor who was an expert on the medical problems of performing artists. A skilled violinist, Ostwald was particularly knowledgeable about musicians and dancers and wrote two well-received biographies, “Schumann: The Inner Voices of a Musical Genius” about composer Robert Schumann, and “Vaslav Nijinsky: A Leap Into Madness” about the ballet dancer. In 1986, Ostwald founded the Health Program for Performing Artists, a San Francisco-based group of medical specialists devoted to research, education and clinical care of the health problems and disabilities affecting musicians, singers, dancers, actors and other performers. Ostwald was educated at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco and served in the Army medical corps in Germany. On May 25 in San Francisco of cancer.