Nordoff-Robbins Celebrates a Trifecta of Milestones

Dear Friends,

In 2009 we observed three key events in our history:

• Fifty years ago Clive Robbins and Paul Nordoff created their revolutionary approach to music therapy.
• One hundred years ago, Paul Nordoff was born on June 4, 1909.
• Twenty years ago the first Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy in the United States was opened. 

It has been 50 years since Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins founded their pioneering work with disabled children, which they called the art of music as therapy. Their extraordinary and original approach remains the inspiration for the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Foundation, the fundraising arm of the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy.

This anniversary also coincides with the centennial of the birth of Paul Nordoff. And to mark such important milestones, on October 23, Dr. Clive Robbins, co-founder of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy and the founding director of the Center in New York, gave the Paul Nordoff Memorial Lecture. When I asked him about what this celebration means to him, Clive said, "In this special year I want to celebrate Paul Nordoff’s gifts of courage, originality, active compassion, humor, melodic invention, the marriage of vocal and piano technique, and sheer innovative ‘clinical musicianship’ – all gifts he had in such abundance, and bequeathed with such generosity of spirit to the inheritance we share." 

The work pioneered by Dr. Nordoff and Dr. Robbins has set a benchmark in the use of music to promote health and well being. Today, we continue to build on their innovative work through our therapeutic services, music and health projects. We are also very proud of our training program, which begins at the fieldwork level and continues through certificate-level training in the approach, as well as of our expanding research program, in which we are developing new tools to measure the effectiveness of music therapy. 

Since I began working at the Nordoff-Robbins Center 20 years ago I have seen our work grow and impact thousands of people who are constrained by illness, disability, trauma or isolation on an incredible journey with music, so that they can discover abilities that will help them experience a richer life.

The more people we can train and inspire, the more lives we’ll transform through music.

We hope you will help us as we look towards the next 50 years.

With all best wishes,

Dr. Alan Turry
Managing Director