Nordoff-Robbins
Together with Creative Scotland, ASF has partnered with Nordoff-Robbins in bringing to New York the winners of the Big Apple Clef Award, 'Song of Return', and a portion of the proceeds of their performances during Tartan Week 2012 was donated to Nordoff-Robbins. Please consider giving a specific donation in support of Nordoff-Robbins' work. On behalf of Nordoff-Robbins, the ASF thanks you for your support.
The Nordoff-Robbins approach to music therapy was developed from the pioneering work of Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins in the 1950s/60s. It is grounded in the belief that everyone can respond to music, no matter how ill or disabled. The unique qualities of music as therapy can enhance communication, support change, and enable people to live more resourcefully and creatively.
The Message from Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy Scotland:
Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy in Scotland is the largest music therapy charity in the country. We provide music therapy to both children and adults who find themselves isolated from the world due to disability, illness, autism or through other traumatic experiences.
Covering most parts of the country, Nordoff-Robbins' therapists have seen a rise in referrals and now see over 300 children and adults during a typical week (within school term time). Group and individual therapy sessions take place at four bases: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Crosshill (Fife) and Dundee as well as in schools, hospitals and other healthcare/community settings throughout Scotland.
The charity receives no statutory funding and requires approximately £450,000 a year to fund current operations. Fundraising efforts are critical for the continuation of vital work in local communities; almost 70% of service users require some subsidy from the charity to access music therapy.
For more information on Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy in Scotland please visit their website www.nordoffrobbinsscotland.org.uk. For information on fundraising activities and events, please visit www.tartanclef.org.
Song of Return
Clive Robbins, Developer of a Method of Music Therapy, Dies at 84
By Margalit Fox, December 12, 2011
Photo: Tim Farrell
Clive Robbins, a developer of an influential brand of music therapy designed to help people with various disabilities meet the physical, mental and social challenges that are facts of everyday life, died on Wednesday at his home in Jersey City. He was 84.
His death was announced by the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy at New York University. Alan Turry, the center's managing director, said that Mr. Robbins had been ill with cancer and heart disease for some time.
With his wife, Carol, Mr. Robbins established the center in 1989 and was its founding director. Part of the university's graduate program in music therapy, the center is responsible for professional training, clinical care and research, rooted in the particular brand of music therapy conceived by Mr. Robbins and Paul Nordoff more than 50 years ago.
Mr. Robbins, a British-born special-education teacher, and Mr. Nordoff, an American pianist and composer, first joined forces in England in the late 1950s. Their aim was to design a therapy, centered on music, that would help hard-to-reach children acquire linguistic and social skills.
Known as Nordoff-Robbins music therapy, their method is now used by hundreds of therapists around the world to treat people of all ages. The conditions treated include autism, mental retardation, psychiatric illnesses, stroke, Alzheimer's disease and physical and learning disabilities.
Read the full obituary in the New York Times here...