Music therapy students plan to educate, inspire in ‘Muses’
USU’s music therapy students will transform the Daines Concert Hall into an interactive classroom on Jan. 30, showcasing the healing power of music in their long-awaited concert “Muses.”
Music therapy students who have prepared self-accompanied pieces will demonstrate what music therapy entails in this educational and interactive concert.
Madison Black is a senior majoring in music therapy and the president of the USU Music Therapy Student Association.
“Music therapy is using music to accomplish therapeutic goals. In any therapeutic setting, there can be a use for music,” Black said.
The concert will have a variety of music presented by music therapy students who will treat the concert as an educational setting to advocate for the program.
“They’ll be explaining a little bit about the purpose behind the song and why they would use it in a clinical setting,” Black said. “Then they’ll perform it for the audience, and there could be some interaction. It’s honestly a way for us to advocate for the effectiveness of music therapy.”
The students’ goals are to accomplish what a music therapist’s goal as a clinician would be, meaning audience interaction and participation will be pivotal. The audience might be asked to clap or sing along to the music, demonstrating what might be part of the experience between a client and music therapist.
The concert was originally planned to occur in November, but due to scheduling conflicts, it was postponed. Corinne Pickett is a temporary music therapy instructor and was part of the committee that postponed the concert.
“There were so many concerts happening, so it couldn’t be postponed just a week or two because from Nov. 1 to the end of the semester, there’s all kinds of things,” Pickett said.
While the concert may have been rescheduled, Pickett said the student involvement was able to flourish due to the new concert date. The faculty was only part of the program to approve students’ ideas and organize a concert date — otherwise, it is all student-led.
“Muses is our concert where we advocate for what we do, so concert attendance can expect to have a musical experience much like a concert,” Pickett said. “However, they’re also going to learn what that might look like in a therapy setting, and what the clinical intention behind using a song they share would be.”
Pickett said the concert will be unique, not just because of the variety of music but because of the intention behind each song. Several different genres will be featured that are targeted to help a client’s specific emotional needs.
“We do a lot of music that is very popular that might be enjoyed by someone in a nursing home — that might be enjoyed by teens in a recovery program,” Pickett said. “It might be enjoyed by kiddos in an elementary school that are in a therapy program.”
The name for the concert goes back to what inspired artists in ancient Greece. It refers to the Greek goddesses of the arts and how they inspired works such as music.
“The reason that we’ve named this concert Muses is because a muse is something that inspires you, and we hope that this concert inspires the audience,” Pickett said. “The music that we choose certainly is inspired by the clients that we might serve, their journeys and the things that they share with us. It’s meant to be a night of inspiration and learning and advocating for what we do.”