Multicultural Musical Competence in Music Therapy

<span class="paragraphSection">Over the past 10–15 years, there have been an increasing number of scholarly publications that address a broad range of cultural considerations in music therapy (e.g., <a href="#CIT0002" class="reflinks">Hadley, 2013</a>; <a href="#CIT0003" class="reflinks">Hadley & Yancy, 2011</a>; <a href="#CIT0005" class="reflinks">Kenny, 2006</a>; <a href="#CIT0006" class="reflinks">Pavlicevic & Cripps, 2015</a>; <a href="#CIT0009" class="reflinks">Stige, 2002</a>; <a href="#CIT0010" class="reflinks">Uhlig, 2006</a>). However, few publications provide clinically focused information on how music therapists can respectfully and skillfully navigate the complexities of engaging in music experiences with clients whose cultures and personal histories are markedly different from their own. These complexities go well beyond learning songs in different languages, studying traditional or indigenous instruments, or gaining in-depth practical and theoretical understanding of the musical elements that define particular musical cultures, genres, or styles. Although all of these skills and knowledge can be very helpful, they do not ensure that the therapist has a genuine understanding of how music is conceptualized or understood within a given culture, nor how a client’s own musical identity has formed within a particular cultural context. If all music therapy encounters are in fact cross-cultural, as <a href="#CIT0004" class="reflinks">Hadley and Norris (2016)</a> propose, achieving even a basic level of multicultural musical competence seems like quite a daunting task. The four articles contained in this special-focus volume of <span style="font-style:italic;">Music Therapy Perspectives</span> all suggest that multicultural musical competence is not only possible, but also a necessary component of music therapy practice. However, it is not a competency that can ultimately be achieved, per se, but rather a way of practicing that requires ongoing re-conceptualization according to each clinical case/client, music therapist, therapeutic relationship, and social-political-cultural-musical context.</span>

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