ABSTRACT
Music therapists have been engaging in performances with their clients since the inception of the profession. They have variously considered public performance to be part of music therapy process, an outcome of it, or unrelated to their work as clinicians. Alan Turry (1999) makes a number of points regarding performance in the early years of music therapy that suggest it was undertaken for reasons other than therapeutic ones: Some music therapists conceived of their work as recreation or instruction that had performance as a natural focus; some administrators pressured music therapists to provide performances to increase the visibility of the music program; therapists were given such large groups to work with that group performance was the only option for a focus of their work; and behavioral frameworks employed by many therapists supported the use of instruction with music serving as a form of reinforcement. None of this is to say that these activities were not beneficial for clients, but it does highlight how performance was used to reduce options for therapists and clients, not to enhance them.
