Music bridges culture, therapy

Anthony Kaseoru, a music therapy graduate student
Anthony Kaseoru, a music therapy graduate student, plays a djembe.

A music therapy professor and graduate student are traveling across the globe to share their knowledge on their profession.

Trish Winter, associate professor of music therapy and coordinator of the graduate music program, and Anthony Kaseoru, a graduate student, will travel to Tsukuba, Japan to share their knowledge on music therapy at the World Music Therapy Congress, the largest international music therapy conference. The World Music Therapy Congress takes place every three years.

The pair will talk about their work with the music therapy project at the Waldron Clinic at Radford University when the present at the conference.

“It is an inter-professional speech language and music therapy program for children who are 18 months to six years of age who have speech and language disorders,” Winter said. “Every summer we work together to provide services to the children.”

In addition to discussing the work with the Waldron Clinic, Winter and Kaseoru will visit Nagoya College of Music and Mukogawa Women's University, two Japanese institutions of higher education, to speak about music therapy.  

Yuji Igari ’14, a graduate of Radford’s music therapy program, teaches at Nagoya College of Music and was instrumental in setting up the speaking engagement at the college.

Anthony Kaseoru (left) and Trish Winter (right) play the djembe drums.

Anthony Kaseoru (left) and Trish Winter (right) play the djembe drums.

“We’re going to be speaking about older adults,” Winter said. “Japan is the current world leader in life expectancy and they’re looking at an expanding population of older adults – even larger than here in the United States. They want to talk about providing services to this really big group of people who are going to need that help.”

While traveling to Japan is a first for Winter and Kaseoru, traveling abroad is not new for either of them. Due to Kaseoru already having international experience, Winter hopes the trip “sustains his passion for the profession” and “that he recognizes the continuum of his efforts.”

On her first visit to Japan, Winter looks to analyze and understand any differences between music therapy in the United States versus Japan.

“At the end of the day, I hope to see that there is a common way of thinking in our profession and that music therapists in the US and Japan share some kind of common ideals and beliefs and that’s what makes music therapy work.”

Another perk for Winter - the authors of the textbooks she uses will also be presenting at the World Music Therapy Congress.

“I am so excited,” Winter said.

Jun 7, 2017
Max Esterhuizen
540-831-7749
westerhuizen@radford.edu