In 1998, the subject of music therapy was introduced, for the first time, at the Seventh-day Adventist University in Friedensau near Magdeburg. For 25 years now, the head of the music therapy master's programme, Professor Dr. Petra Jürgens, has been researching and teaching in Friedensau.
Music as a component of education
As Dr. Johannes Hartlapp, theologian and lecturer in church history and supervisor of the bachelor's programme (B.A.) in theology, reports in the booklet "Unser Friedensau", 2/2023, music has always been an integral part of education and worship practice at Friedensau. It would be no coincidence that even in the difficult post-war years, Mendelssohn's oratorio "Paulus" was performed with a large choir and orchestra on the occasion of Friedensau's 50th anniversary in 1949. At the beginning of the sixties, Professor Wolfgang Kabus was recruited, a personality who had a decisive influence on Friedensau until his retirement in 2001.
Music programme rethought
With the founding of a deaconry course with a focus on music in 1967, artistic education had been given an institutional framework. It was, therefore, only logical that the music programme could be rethought, in 1990, with the award of state recognition as a university. Professor Dr Baldur Pfeiffer, then rector of the university, had also supported this. After the recognition, he saw four focal points for the university: theology, Christian social work, music, and health sciences. The plans for music envisaged a multi-level education from pre-university courses (Propaedeutic and Church Music C) to master's degree courses with a focus on church music, music therapy and popular music and, in the future, music education.
Unfortunately, according to Hartlapp, only a few elements of this vision have been realised so far. But a solid start had been made with the founding of an Institute for Church Music in 1994. This provided the outer framework for the further development of musical work in Friedensau.
Master's programme in music therapy
In 1998, the subject of music therapy started for the first time and, in 1998, the Institute for Music Therapy at Friedensau University was founded. Due to a change in personnel, the focus had also changed. The area of church music could not be further expanded. The first music therapy training courses developed into the master's degree programme in music therapy under the direction of Professor Dr Petra Jürgens. She has now been teaching and researching in Friedensau for 25 years. With her experience from the Institute for Music Therapy Berlin-Zehlendorf, she and her colleague, Dr. Regina Lorek, are continuously developing this part-time master's programme as well as specialised further education programmes. According to Hartlapp, this is an exemplary combination of theory, practice and research.
Healing people with music
There is a great need for qualified music therapists. Their field of work or research accompanies all phases of life up to hospice work, both in the medical, and socio-pedagogical and counselling in the pastoral field. Johannes Hartlapp estimates that the variety of possible applications of music therapy in society will continue to increase the demand for professional training in the future. In this respect, the first 25 years of music therapy at the University would be a good starting point for the future.
Friedensau University
The Friedensau University near Magdeburg has been a state-recognised university run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church since 1990. Eight bachelor's and master's degree programmes can be taken here, some of them part-time, in the fields of Christian social work and theology. Around 40 nations are represented among the students and teachers.
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