ECU Music Therapy Club to present annual concert

A group of East Carolina University students will show audience members how the power of music could help ease the pain and soul.

ECU’s Music Therapy Club will present its annual Music Therapy Concert tonight at 7:30 in A.J. Fletcher Music Hall, which is free and open to the public.

Virginia Driscol, assistant professor of music therapy, is supervising the concert and explains that her and Adrienne Steiner, a music therapy professor, are letting the music therapy seniors take charge of creating the concert and expand upon the past concerts.

“The individuals performing in the concert are music therapy students, freshmen through seniors. Anyone who is taking a music therapy course this semester is going to be in it,” Driscol said. “There are also students in the School of Music or outside who really just enjoy being part of the (Music Therapy) club that is taking part.”

The Heart and Soul Choir, a group of adults with intellectual and developmental delays who participate in a music therapy group once a week, will also take part in the concert tonight.

President of the Music Therapy Club, Rachel Wilson, senior music therapy major, and vice president, TayAndra Allen, senior music therapy major, are both heavily involved in the preparation of the concert from choosing the music for the show to leading the rehearsals.

Wilson explains that the concert meant a lot to her throughout her years at ECU. Wilson said it was nice to have the students input in the event since the new music therapy program faculty members, Driscol and Steiner, let the club take charge of the concert.

“That was kind of a nice change because the previous director kind of made all the final decisions and stuff so it’s kinda cool the students get to lead it this year,” Wilson said.

Driscol explains that music therapy is an evidence-based, data-driven, profession where people use music to address goals that are outside the performance and working with individuals throughout the lifespan.

“So it (music therapy) works with mothers and labor. We definitely don’t want them to create a song when they’re done,” Driscol said. “It’s more about helping them with pain management and focusing outside on being able to relax and be calm.”

Driscol mentions that music therapists work with babies in neonatal intensive care who are born prematurely and their bodies are not able to handle the stimulus they’re getting so the therapists help them adapt.

Music therapists also work with people who are in hospice care and experiencing pain and anticipatory grief and help them process those thoughts and create a legacy they can leave behind for their families.

“We work with everything within the life health domains, we just use music to make it happen. So it looks like a lot more fun, but the underlying part of it is really about the person and not the music we make,” Driscol said.

Wilson said music therapy is using music to help people accomplish non-music related goals, which help separate music therapists from music educators. Allen mentions that the concert will show how music therapy is more than just playing songs for people but it is a healing process because everybody uses music for something.

“Music therapy is more than just playing songs for people, it is using music to help in the healing process. The importance of music therapy is that everybody uses music for something,” Allen said.

For more information on the event, visit the ECU School of Music website.