Dec 17, 2024
Colin Lee talks to Martin Lawes about his musicology-oriented
approach as a Nordoff-Robbins trained music therapist, and
about the newly published Oxford Handbook of Queer and
Trans Music Therapy which he edited. The podcast begins
and ends with music. To start with, a composition by a
music therapist commissioned to begin the handbook. To
conclude, an improvisation from a music therapy session where
Colin explains his musical decision-making as a therapist.
Colin Andrew Lee studied piano at the Nordwestdeutsche
Musikakademie and subsequently earned his postgraduate diploma
in music therapy from the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy
Centre, London, UK. Colin was awarded the Music Therapy
Charity research fellowship completing his doctoral thesis
on the analysis of improvisations with people living with
HIV/AIDS at London Lighthouse, a center for people facing the
challenge of AIDS. He continued his clinical work at Sir
Michael Sobell House Hospice, Oxford, UK. After immigrating to
North America, Colin taught at Berklee College of
Music, Boston, USA, and later at Wilfrid Laurier University,
Waterloo, Canada. Following the publication of Music at
the Edge: The music therapy experiences of a musician with
AIDS (1996, 2016), he subsequently created the theory of
aesthetic music therapy that was the subject of
Colin's monograph, The Architecture of Aesthetic Music Therapy
(2003). Colin recently edited The Oxford Handbook of Queer and
Trans Music Therapy (2024), and is currently editing The
Oxford Handbook of Improvisation in Music Therapy. His
research interests also include the analysis of
postminimalist composers and their influence on the study of
applied health musicology.
References
Lee, C. A. (2024) The Oxford Handbook of Queer and Trans Music
Therapy.
Oxford University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxford
Lee, C. A. & Dromey, C. (2023). Towards an applied health
musicology:
Aesthetic music therapy and beyond. In C. Dromey (Ed.), The
Routledge
Companion to Applied Musicology (pp. 184-191). Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/978100