Music, therapy and people
Message from Pauline Etkin CEO of Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy
On behalf of all at Nordoff Robbins, may I extend warm thanks to everybody for their support, of the Music Industry Trusts’ Award.
We are enormously grateful for the immense support that Nordoff Robbins has received from the BRIT Trust through the MITs annual award ceremony over 19 years, and for the generosity of every person who has contributed to this.
The funding that we have previously received from the MITs has enabled us this year to establish a brand new Nordoff Robbins music therapy unit at the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology. The unit opened its doors in January, cementing the warm relationship between Nordoff Robbins, the BRIT School and the BRIT Trust. The new service is a wonderful resource for the whole community of Croydon and surrounding areas and represents another significant step in casting our net wider and fulfilling our goal to reach and transform the lives of as many children and adults in need as possible. We have also continued to expand our work in other regions of the UK, while investing in the education and research programmes that ensure the continuing excellence of the charity’s music therapy services.
In 2009 we are celebrating fifty years of Nordoff Robbins music therapy. In 1959 Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins began their pioneering approach to using music as therapy, now practised worldwide. Music crosses boundaries of culture, disability, physical and mental ill health and trauma. Wherever people are struggling with life-limiting circumstances such as disability or illness, music creates new possibilities. The power of music as therapy is gaining increasing recognition among decision-makers and policy-formers of our country and we were delighted to receive a visit in June from Kevin Brennan MP, then Minister for the Third Sector, who participated in a music therapy group at an inner city care home where Nordoff Robbins provides a service for elderly frail residents. This visit recognised the significant support that music therapy offers people with dementia, reducing social exclusion and improving health and well-being.
Much of our work is carried out in schools, hospitals and day centres where people are in need. On the following pages are just a few of the many comments that we have received this year from those who have benefited from or witnessed the work of Nordoff Robbins:
All our work is made possible only by the generous individual and corporate support that Nordoff Robbins receives, particularly within the music industry. My heartfelt thanks to all those involved in organising this amazing event, and to all of you who have contributed so generously, enabling us to bring hope and improved quality of life to many more people in need.
