The Surry Music Therapy Center - Alan Wittenburg Maine Music Therapy

Alan Wittenburg will be a featured speaker at the 8th Annual Parkinson’s Awareness Conference
Saturday, April 10, 2010
from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Portland Elks #188
1945 Congress Street, Portland, Maine

The American Parkinson Disease Association’s Information & Referral Center and State of Maine Chapter is pleased to present an educational meeting for ALL people who are touched by Parkinson’s disease. Our program is designed to educate, inform and inspire those living with PD as well as those who care for them. In addition to a distinguished panel of presenters the conference will also showcase a large number of vendor booths with helpful exhibits and resources. click here for the flyer.

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Alan Wittenberg of Surry gave a presentation last month at this hospital for disabled children in Moriyama, Japan, where he established a music therapy program.

Surry Music Therapist Brings Medium, Message to Japan
Ellsworth American December 10, 2009 by Stephen Fay

English playwright William Congreve suggested that:
"Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast, To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak." /
But does music also have the power to calm an anxious child, engage a young man separated
from the world by autism, restore rhythm to a hearing impaired elderly woman and connection
to a man suffering from Alzheimer's disease?

Alan Wittenberg thinks so. Wittenberg believes music therapy can create pathways into the consciousness that other therapies cannot travel.

The director of_ the Surry Music Therapy Center and founder of music therapy centers in Russia and Japan contends that musical expression can reach body, mind and spirit, awakening communication and cognitive skills. Therapy also can help, he says, with impulse control and physical development.

"Music therapy can be effective when other forms of treatment are not."

Just back from several weeks in Japan, Wittenberg gave presentations at several venues, listing the varied applications of music therapy. Music therapy can calm children in hospital settings, he said, enhance an elderly person's quality of life and help someone recovering from a stroke address issues of memory loss, speech and mobility.

Though music may well be the universal language, Wittenberg said he tailors his piano performances to the national culture. In Japan, where a five note scale is the norm, Wittenberg adapts accordingly. But, he said, even "Alouette" would strike a familiar chord in Asia because wherever you are, rhythm is rhythm.

Wittenberg said he has been visiting Japan for 26 years, since a 1983 pilgrimage as a Zen Buddhist student of Walter Nowick of Surry.

He notes that music therapy is widely recognized and used in the United States, but is hardly
embraced in Maine.

"The Shriners Children's Hospital in Boston has a music therapy department," he observes.
"But Maine is very, very far behind. It's the most under music therapied state, though Wyoming comes close."

Wittenberg is teaching two upcoming courses, one online this spring semester with the University of Maine System (MUS298) and one that takes place'during winter term"'(Dec. 28 - Jan. I8) at Husson (HU299).

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On March 19, 2009, six Japanese students from Niigata University of Health and Welfare came to the University of Maine for an English Language Intensive. They study in the fields of social work, speech and language therapy, and physical health. Alan Wittenberg's presentation on music therapy was directed to their work specialities. These students were escorted by Tode Sensei and University of Maine English Language professor, Chris Mares. Click here to view the video.