Music Therapy Department
Welcome to the Music Therapy Department at the Berklee College of Music!
Music Therapy is one of twelve majors offered by Berklee whose mission is to educate, train, and develop students to excel in music as a career. Students in the Music Therapy program learn to apply music's enormous force to improve the quality of life in individuals with special needs including children and adults with disabilities.
The goals of the Music Therapy program are to:
- Enable students to integrate musical and interpersonal talents with the latest technology and a worldview of today's music;
- Build careers devoted to helping others achieve their goals regardless of their personal limitations or challenges;
- Train savvy professionals in an interdisciplinary clinical team which can serve people through the life cycle from infancy to older adulthood; and
- Apply the art and science of music therapy in assessing the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
What is Music Therapy?
Music therapy is the applied use of music to measurably improve people's lives by assisting them in making positive life changes. Music therapy is the functional and scientific application of music by a trained music therapist to enhance an individual's social, emotional, educational, and behavioral development. The music therapist is a credentialed, professional therapist and trained musician who generally functions as part of a treatment team in a medical, educational or community-based program. He or she may also work as a private practitioner in a variety of clinical settings by developing contractual arrangements with therapy providers in diverse human service agencies and schools.
Where Do Music Therapists Work?
Music therapists work in a variety of clinical settings including, but not limited to, psychiatric settings, general hospitals, skilled nursing and intermediate care homes, child and adolescent treatment centers, schools, and forensic and corrections centers. They are hired as music therapists, rehabilitation specialists, expressive arts therapists, recreation therapists, and even activity directors.
Who Becomes a Music Therapist?
IF YOU ARE . . .
- a creative musician
- a problem solver
- an insightful helper
- an empathetic listener
- a keen observer
- communicate verbally and musically
then. . . music therapy may be for you!
Does Being a Music Therapist Require a College Degree?
The music therapist studying in the United States must complete a degree in music therapy at an institution whose music therapy program is approved by the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) including a clinical internship. The candidate must then pass the national examination offered by the Certification Board for Music Therapists.
The college offers an accredited baccalaureate degree in Music Therapy to talented musicians of any age who are interested in the study of contemporary music such as jazz, blues, popular music, rap and hiphop. The Berklee program is unique among music therapy training programs in that the musical center of the program is contemporary music and improvisation rather than classical music study. Students admitted to the Music Therapy major must demonstrate musical promise and a potential for working effectively with people using music as a therapeutic medium.
Student music therapists studying at Berklee come from all over the USA and many countries throughout the world. The student body is characteristically diverse, musical, creative, and academically capable. Students who prefer to "learn by doing" within the context of a sound academic base will excel in the Music Therapy program at the Berklee College of Music.
What is the Music Therapy Curriculum at Berklee?
Berklee's AMTA-approved curriculum combines the theory and practice of music therapy. It supports comprehensive training in the application of music therapy to children and adolescents with special needs, adults with psychiatric disorders, medical patients and older adults. Students enroll in five levels of supervised clinical practica in which they assist qualified music therapists from over 50 clinical settings in the metropolitan Boston area. These experiential placements include such highly respected facilities as Children's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, McLean Hospital, Judge Baker Children's Center, Franciscan Children's Hospital, Dimock Hospital, Massachusetts Hospital School, Boston and Cambridge Public Schools, Boston Housing Authority, and local nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Each practicum course is paired with an academic class that provides corresponding music therapy instruction in special education, clinical assessment and evaluation, research, psychotherapy, and medicine.
Other specialized courses include instruction in theory and technology behind music as therapy. The Introduction to International Music Therapy provides an overview of this unique field from the perspective of those shaping it. Psychology of Music tickles age-old questions like "Why do lullabies put us to sleep?" and "How can music distract us from pain?" Technology for Music Therapists includes faculty demonstration of state-of-the-art adaptive and medical hardware and its interface with music software. In addition, courses in Guitar, Keyboard, Percussion, Voice, Exceptional Children, Anatomy and Physiology, Abnormal Psychology, and Psychology of Aging are designed to support the development of the essential knowledge and practical skills required of the highly trained music therapist.
Anthropologist A.P. Merriam, a student of music in culture, in a text entitled, The Anthropology of Music (Northwestern University Press, l964, p.209), said of music "We wish to know not only what a thing is, but what it does, and how it does it." The Music Therapy curriculum at Berklee College of Music is the applied study of the intricacies of music, its meaning, and its applications to improving quality of life and promoting health and wellness. The curriculum further includes the study of research methodology designed to assisting students in identifying, understanding, and documenting the contributive role of music in medicine, education, and mental health care.
What are the Classes Like in the Music Therapy Major?
Courses in the Music Therapy curriculum at Berklee are taught by faculty members, each with teaching and practical experience in their particular area of expertise. Trained and credentialed music therapists also supervise experiential practicum courses. Class size for practicum and specialty courses within the Music Therapy major range from 8 to 12 students. Introductory lecture courses range from 20 to 30 students. Individual attention to students is a value of the Music Therapy faculty and Chair.
Who is Responsible for Teaching the Music Therapy Curriculum at the Berklee College of Music?
Suzanne Hanser
Chair
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- B.Mus., M.Mus., Florida State University
- Ed.D., Teachers College, Columbia University
- Fellow in clinical gerontology, postdoctoral training, Stanford University School of Medicine
- Received National Research Service Award from National Institute
on Aging
- Former professor and chair, University of the Pacific
- Author of three books and numerous articles and book chapters on music therapy
- Speaker at national and international conferences in psychiatry, psychology, education, music, gerontology, special education, and music therapy
- Past president of the National Association for Music Therapy
- Past program director of the Alzheimers Association, Greater San Francisco Bay area
- President of the World Federation of Music Therapy
- Research Associate, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
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Peggy A. Codding, Professor
Peggy A. Codding, Ph.D, MT-BC is a Professor in the Music Therapy Department at Berklee, former Chair of Music Therapy in the School of Music at Ohio University, and former faculty member at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. Among her professional experiences are consulting and clinical service provision to severely mentally ill inmates through the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, the State of Ohio, consulting for Kirkham & Associates Criminal Justice Consultants, and music therapy clinician/music educator to the Tennessee School for the Blind. She also served on the assessment team of the Children's Diagnostic Series-Parent Training Program for the State of Tennessee. Dr. Codding is currently on the Board of Directors for Genuine Voices, a Boston-based organization designed to serve as enrichment for at risk children and youth, and consultant to the Boston Minstrels, an established community organization serving incarcerated, homeless, and underserved persons through meaningful music participation. Dr. Codding is a member of the International Symposium on Research in Music Behavior and is published in the Journal of Music Therapy and Music Therapy Perspectives, and in the texts, Effectiveness of Music Therapy Procedures: Documentation of Research and Clinical Practice, and Alternative and Complementary Treatment in Neurologic Illness. She received her doctoral training in music education and music therapy at The Florida State University and is certified in Music Education and Special Education - Visually Impaired. Dr. Codding teaches music special education, behavioral assessment and observation and research courses at Berklee.
Karen Wacks, Associate Professor
Karen Wacks, M.Ed, LMHC, MT-BC, is an associate professor of music in Music Therapy and serves as Practicum and Internship Coordinator for fieldwork (practicum) placement for over 65 music therapy majors nationwide. She is a founder of the Massachusetts Music Therapy Alliance, Past-President of the New England Region of the American Music Therapy Association and Chair of the Government Relations Committee for the New England Region. In addition to being a Board Certified Music Therapist, Professor Wacks is a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) in the state of Massachusetts. Her clinical work centers on inclusion classrooms in public and private schools, and on therapy with geriatric populations in nursing home and adult day health programs. Professor Wacks was Director of Music Therapy at the Community Music Center of Boston for 13 years prior to her tenure at Berklee. There she served as supervisor to a staff of 15 music therapists, students and staff. Her contributions to the profession include active participation in the development of over 50 music therapy programs in the Boston area in settings to include hospitals, schools and nursing homes. Professor Wacks received her Master of Education degree with an emphasis in interactive technology degree at Harvard University. She has extensive background as a video producer with NAK Production Associations and has co-produced numerous television documentaries on music therapy and health/education reform. Her latest production, The Art and Science of Music Therapy at Berklee College of Music (2002) won highest honors at the Communicator Awards for "Creativity and Writing." This production featured hand-on music therapy in clinical sites in Boston and supportive documentation on film by leading researchers, musicians, physicians and clinicians with interest or expertise in music therapy. Professor Wacks has produced two documentaries in association with the American Music Therapy Association entitled, The National Satellite: Music Therapy in Medicine, and Partnerships in Care: Music Therapy and Medicine. Karen Wacks plays French horn with the Boston area woodwind quintet, the Centerwinds. Professor Wacks teaches courses in clinical practicum and music therapy and medicine at Berklee.
Michael J. Moniz, Associate Professor
Michael J. Moniz is the founder of Schoolhouse Music Services and the MIDI Schoolhouse which provides music technology and multimedia consulting services, professional development programs, music technology and training and Artist (Technologist) in Residence programs. A former public school music educator/administrator, Moniz holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Boston University and a Master of Education degree from Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts. He is an associate professor at the Berklee College of Music, and adjunct professor at both Salem State College and Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts. Additionally, Professor Moniz is consultant and technology trainer for the Massachusetts Elementary School Principal's Association (MESPA) and the Northeast Consortium for Staff Development. As Technology Chairperson for the Massachusetts Music Educators Association, Moniz coordinates technology sessions offered at the All State Conference. He is also a certified instructor for the Technology Institute for Music Educators (TI:ME). Professor Moniz offers TI:ME national certification courses at both the MESPA Technology Center in Marlborough, Massachusetts and through his annual Summer Music Technology Institute. He is responsible for teaching technology for music therapists at Berklee.
Kimberly Khare, Assistant Professor
Kimberly Khare is the Director of Music Therapy at the Community Music Center of Boston (CMCB) in addition to her part time appointment at the Berklee College of Music. The CMCB is an integrated music setting where the mission is to provide music education, music therapy and music experiences for those who might not otherwise be able to participate in music opportunities due to life circumstances or financial restraints.
Professor Khare studied music therapy on a graduate level at New York University and received her post-graduate clinical training and certification from the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy in New York City. She maintains appointments at Berklee College of Music and Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she is respectively, assistant professor and an adjunct faculty member in the Expressive Arts Therapies Program. Her focus within music therapy is in clinical improvisation and practicum training for students.
Additionally, Professor Khare is consultant to the Cambridge Elementary Schools where she further serves as supervisor for students and interns in music therapy. Her professional expertise is in clinical improvisation and music therapy with children, particularly those diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder, anxiety, speech/language, and sensory integration disorders, cerebral palsy, Downs syndrome, medically compromised, youth-at-risk, and highly musical children and teens with special needs.
Professor Khare is currently developing creative programming for peer and allied professionals interested in continuing their education and pursuing the benefits of clinical uses of music as therapy. She serves on the executive board and is editor of the newsletter for the New England Region of the American Music Therapy Association.
Julie Buras Zigo, Assistant Professor
Julie Buras Zigo, MT-BC loves working in the field of music therapy. She has been a practicing music therapist for 21 years, bringing her clinical expertise to the classroom at Berklee where she teaches part time. Professor Zigo is noted for her clinical skills, working with children and adolescents with multiple intensive special needs. She, and cooperating speech language pathologists, have developed a co-treatment model to provide music therapy services focused on communication and language development for children. Professor Zigo is the senior music therapy clinician in the Kennedy Day School at the Franciscan Hospital for Children where she coordinates and supervises music therapy students and interns from Berklee College of Music, Lesley University and Anna Maria College. She received the hospital's peer-nominated Spirit Award in 2001 in recognition of excellent job performance. The award recognizes the extension of acts of compassion, dignity and respect to all persons working in a spirit of collaboration.
Ms. Zigo is active in the professional community of music therapists. She served on the board of the Massachusetts Music Therapy Alliance (MMTA) for 9 years, including 2 terms as Executive Chairperson, Agenda Chair and Public Relations Chair. She was recipient of the organization's Honors Award in the year 2000.
Professor Zigo is an honors graduate of the music therapy program at Montclair State University in Upper Montclair, New Jersey. She has been flutist and vocalist with the Paulist Center Musicians of Boston since 1986, and is a founding member of the Centerwinds Woodwind Quintet. Professor Zigo teaches practicum courses in music in special education and older adults at Berklee College of Music.
For further information about the Music Therapy Department, please e-mail musictherapy@berklee.edu or call (617) 747-8677.
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