Ep 28 Simon Procter

In episode 28, Luke talks to Simon Procter.


Simon works for Nordoff Robbins, based in London, as its Director
of Music Services responsible for oversight of its education,
research and public affairs activities. 


Simon is a pianist, accompanist and improviser who trained as a
music therapist with Nordoff Robbins in London from 1995 to 1997.
He has since worked in a wide range of settings, most recently
within adult mental health services, as well as in the training
of music therapists. His commitment to the Nordoff Robbins
approach stems from his own experience of music as fundamental to
what it is to be fully human. As part of the sociology of the
arts group led by Professor Tia DeNora at the University of
Exeter, his PhD project was an ethnography of music therapy
within a community mental health setting.


As a practitioner, he views music as a potent force for social
action as well as for the fulfilment of personal potential. As a
researcher, he is an ethnographer committed to attention to the
detail of the apparently mundane, in musical interaction as in
life more generally: this means attending to the nitty-gritty
detail of the work people do when they make music together in
order to learn about the musical dimensions of health and
wellbeing and in particular the craft skills required of music
therapists so that their work can be as useful as possible.
Similarly, as a trainer he emphasises the importance of
developing acute musical-personal awareness coupled with
practical musical means not just of responding to people but of
actively and imaginatively helping them to flourish.


Luke and Simon talk about the craft of music therapy, differing
theoretical stances, how musical cultural background relates to
the work, and whether Simon is, as Gary Ansdell claims, a
'contrarian'.