ABSTRACT
The subject of music therapy is creeping gradually into the awareness of the general public. There is growing media interest with articles about music therapy appearing regularly in the press and music therapists being featured on television and radio. Another burgeoning sign of this public recognition is when the character of a music therapist enters a piece of contemporary fiction. In Helen Dunmore’s novel Talking to the Dead the photographer heroine prepares for a project with children in Romania where she will be joining not just one but two music therapists (Dunmore 1997: 60–61). A further sign is the increasing interest among young people in training for music therapy. The following appeared in a British national newspaper about pupils attending a specialist music school: ‘70 per cent of Chetham’s pupils go on to music college and 30 per cent to university, usually to read music. About a third overall end up earning their living as musicians, as teachers, performers or music therapists’ (The Independent 11 January 1996).
