Institute for Music Therapy

Video: Discussion with the founding fathers >

The Institute for Music Therapy was founded in 1990 (founding director: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c.mult. Hans-Helmut Decker-Voigt).

First beginnings (1974-1990)

This was preceded by the development of the academic teaching of music therapy since 1974 by Prof. Dr. Johannes Theodor Eschen (1973-1990, Vice President of the HfMT since 1982). In the early 1970s, he was appointed by the then Head of Department of Faculty 4 (Music Education) and later President Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Herman Rauhe as the first lecturer for music therapy in Hamburg. His appointment as professor followed in 1975; the first full-time professorship for music therapy in Germany was established in Hamburg in 1977, followed by the first C4 professorship in 1979.

In 1974, the first foundations were laid for an "additional course of study in music therapy" for special education students, which was finally structured and established in 1984 under the direction of Dr. Wolfgang Mahns (1984-1989).

In 1978, the HfMT Hamburg (represented by Prof. Eschen in collaboration with Dr. med. Konrad Schily, Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus Witten Herdecke) assumed responsibility for the two-year "Mentor Course in Music Therapy", a training course for trainers, thus laying the foundation for the development of academic music therapy in Germany.

In 1985, the "Diploma Postgraduate Course in Music Therapy" was set up as a pilot project by the Federal-Länder Commission. For this purpose, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c.mult. Hans-Helmut Decker-Voigt was appointed to the university.

Foundation of the institute and further milestones (1990-2010)

1992 Foundation of the "Arbeitskreis aller Musiktherapie-Ausbildungen im staatlichen Terziärbereich" (AMA)

1993 Establishment of the doctoral program

1993 Establishment of a research center for musicians' illnesses

1996 Organization of the 8th World Congress for Music Therapy

1998 Integration of the Research Unit for Artistic Therapies (Prof. Dr. med. Peter Petersen)

1999 Foundation of the MusicMedicine Research Center (with Prof. Ralph Spintge, MD)

At the turn of the millennium, the institute moved into its own premises in the new building donated by Mr. and Mrs. Greve.

2001 Foundation of the biannual journal Musik und Gesundsein (Music and Health)

2008 Conversion of the diploma course into the first Master's course in Music Therapy

New paths and connections within the university (2010-2020)

The retirement of Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c.mult. Decker-Voigt was followed in 2010 by Prof. Eva-Maria Bleckwedel (initially provisional, later Tandem Institute Director 2010-2017) and from 2013 by Prof. Dr. Eckhard Weymann (lecturer since 1986, Deputy Director of the Institute of Music Therapy since 1990, Tandem Institute Director 2013-2020).

During this time, the Institute Director was particularly active in networking within the university: the Institute Director took on important functions, e.g. in the founding of the Council of Confidence, in the function of Dean's Office Director and Equal Opportunities Officer, through membership of the University Senate. During her time in office, important foundations were laid for the theoretical foundation of music therapy on the basis of phenomenology, including the concept of morphological music therapy.

The foundation of the "Arbeitskreis Musiktherapie HfMT und UKE" also laid the foundation for a fruitful collaboration with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), which has been a teaching hospital of the institute since 2011.

2012 first research workshop under the direction of Prof. Dr. Weymann, Prof. Bleckwedel, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c.mult. Decker-Voigt

2014 Cooperation with the Medical School Hamburg for the development of the bachelor's degree courses in artistic therapies there

2015 Conference 25th anniversary of the institute "Encounters - music therapists and their identity"

2016 Joint seminars for music therapy medical students, awarded the "Gunter and Juliane Ribke Prize for outstanding achievements in the fields of general music education and music and instrumental pedagogy" in 2013

Parallel development of the interdisciplinary teaching and research project "Healing Soundscape", which won a prize in the Claussen Simon Foundation's "Excellent!" competition in 2016

2018 Foundation of the Center for Music and Health

2018 First practical workshop under the direction of Prof. Karin Holzwarth, who was appointed to the institute in 2017 to succeed Prof. Bleckwedel (deputy head of the institute since 2018)

Since 2020: The institute in women's hands

2020 Tandem institute management Prof. Karin Holzwarth & Prof. Dr. Dorothee von Moreau

2021 Deepening the collaboration with the Medical School Hamburg, including organizing the symposium "Crossover"

2022 Foundation of the Center for Music Medicine and Music Therapy at the UKE and organization of the first science & sounds conference

2023 Presentation of the Hamburg Teaching Prize of the Ministry of Science, Research and Equality to the core team of the institute (Karin Holzwarth, Dorothee von Moreau, Nicola Nawe, Gitta Strehlow)

2023-2027 Establishment of the Music Therapy Institute and Teaching Clinic, MIA at Eppendorf University Hospital as part of the BMBF-funded joint project ligeti zentrum (participating universities TUHH, HAW, UKE under the leadership of HfMT)

2025 Organization of the European Music Therapy Conference together with the Medical School Hamburg and the German Music Therapy Society

Further text follows.

Since 2011, there has been close cooperation with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), which acts as a teaching hospital for the Master's students. In addition to teaching, the cooperation agreement provides for the initiation and implementation of joint research projects in the field of music therapy. In two third-party funded projects, for example, the implementation of music therapy in the psycho-oncology outpatient clinic and the development of concepts for acoustic environment design in hospital waiting rooms (HealingSoundscape) were investigated.

In addition, there are collaborations with the Institute of Music Therapy at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Bar-Ilan University, Israel, Al-Quds University, Palestinian Territories, Zurich University of the Arts, L.u.M. Rostropovitch University of Music and Performing Arts, Orenburg/Russian Federation and Metschnikov University of Medicine, St. Petersburg, among others.

In view of the current situation, we are expressly positioning ourselves at this point against the supporters of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine - and not against colleagues and students at Russian universities and scientific institutions who are just as shocked by the current developments as we are, who are committed to peace and who are trying to use music therapy in the health sector to cushion and alleviate the immediate psychological consequences of war for their patients in Russia.

In January 2022, in cooperation with the Institute for Music Therapy, a certificate course "Supervision and Coaching with Artistic Perspectives" will start for the first time at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), Switzerland. Diploma of Advanced Studies (DAS) (PDF)
Further information on the course can be found here.

(as of March 2023)

The Forderfonds from the cooperation between UKE, Dean's Office Teaching, and HfMT, Institute of Music Therapy, supports courses that strengthen the skills for interdisciplinarity and professional personality development. Special emphasis is placed on accompanying scientific research, i.e. on the evaluation and scientific analysis of these courses and possible influencing factors.

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From 01.01.2023-31.12.2027, the joint project LIGET Center will be implemented in cooperation with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), the University of Applied Sciences (HAW) and the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). The Institute for Music Therapy is responsible for the Music and Health cluster, , in which music-related services that contribute to health promotion are developed in an interdisciplinary network. The cluster's four sub-projects include

• TV 1 Establishment of a Music Therapy Institute and Teaching Clinic (MIA): Development and provision of outpatient music therapy services to improve health and well-being. Outreach services for people who are insufficiently or inadequately reached by existing care structures
• TV 2 Healing Soundscapes (HSS): Combining acoustic ecology with musical concepts: improving wellbeing by positively influencing the sonic environment (soundscape) in hospitals. Integration of an immersive, multi-channel spatial sound installation in several rooms of the new heart and vascular center to be built at the UKE
• TV 3 Musicians' consultation hour at the UKE (MSpSt): Treatment of complaints triggered by making music. Expansion of the existing offer and extension of the target group
• TV 4 Health prevention in instrumental training (GPIA): Development of a preventive-medically based exercise concept for musicians Transfer of biomechanical analysis methods into instrumental didactics

Further information can be found on the website of the LIGETI Center.
 

The next conference of the European Confederation for Music Therapy EMTC will take place in Hamburg in 2025: The Hochschule für Musik und Theater (HfMT), Medical School Hamburg (MSH) and the Deutsche Musiktherapeutische Gesellschaft (DMtG) are co-hosting the conference and are expecting around 600 guests from all over Europe and beyond.