Our field has lost one of its most significant and inspiring contributors in the recent passing of Edith Hillman Boxill. Edith showed an early love of music, and was actively pursuing piano studies by the age of five. This led her to eventually major in music and psychology at the Boston University College of Music. This double major was a telling combination that seemed to anticipate her destiny in music therapy, a field of study not available at that time. After graduating Edith pursued a musical career. She became active as a concert accompanist for singers and instrumentalists, and teaching. She continued her studies at the Juillard School, and elsewhere, while also raising a family.
Edith had a flair for song writing. She relished telling the story of one of her songs, "New York City Blues". The singer she had been working with knew W. C. Handy, the famous composer of the "Saint Louis Blues" known as the "Father of the Blues". The singer arranged an opportunity for Edith and himself to perform the song for Handy in his New York office. He was immediately taken with the song, and intended to publish and record it: only his sudden death, shortly afterwards, precluded this development.
It was not until twenty-five years after graduating from Boston University that she first encountered music therapy. In 1972, a friend encouraged her to attend a lecture about music therapy given by Dr Jerrold Ross, then head of the music therapy program at New York University. Edith felt an immediate connection, and, well into mid-life, began her music therapy studies in the NYU program. A natural from the start, she became the first music therapist and later director of the music therapy program at the Manhattan Developmental Center in New York. She soon became a clinical supervisor of interns for NYU music therapy students, and subsequently a faculty member of the NYU program directed by Barbara Hesser. With an ageless vigor and enthusiasm she continued teaching through 2005, thus becoming, at age 89, perhaps the oldest practicing music therapist.
She gave workshops and lecture presentations throughout the world, including at the United Nations. Her many books and articles remain a valuable resource, such as A Continuum of Awareness: Music Therapy with the Developmentally Handicapped (1981), Essential Competencies for the Practice of Music Therapy(1981) with K. Bruscia and B. Hesser, Music Therapy for the Developmentally Disabled (1985), and The Miracle of Music Therapy (1997), to cite a few highlights from her extensive bibliography.
In 1988, she made a new turning point in her life when she founded the international organization Music Therapists for Peace. As Edith said, "Not only do I love peace, I live peace", and her life fully reflected her beliefs. From the time that she founded this movement, her dedication to inspiring all music therapists to make a conscious use of music to contribute to world peace knew no bounds. For many years she personally funded booths at the annual NAMT and AMTA conferences, distributing free literature, and inspiring countless numbers of music therapists. She helped so many to expand their vision of the potentials of music therapy to bring more peace to a world increasingly beset with violence. She created a program S.A V.E.(Students Against Violence Everywhere) that was applied as a pilot program in the New York City public schools. A rap she wrote for the children contained the refrain "No more guns...beat drums", helping these children to learn non-violent means of conflict resolution. Edith gave many sessions on Music Therapists for Peace at the NAMT and AMTA conferences, most recently at the AMTA meeting in Austin in 2004. A Gandhi-like figure, she was a familiar presence at many opening sessions, ringing her peace bell made from discarded weapons of war. I was privileged to co-lead the first candlelight vigil for peace with her at the WFMT conference in Oxford, England. She was planning to lead the peace vigil at the 2005 WFMT conference in Australia this past July, and only health problems prevented her from traveling. Her address to the more than one-hundred participants attending the vigil in Brisbane, which was led by myself, Maria Gonsalves and Kotoe Watabe, was read in absentia, a moving tribute to her ideals.
At a time when the threats of nuclear proliferation and terrorism are becoming increasingly prevalent, we need to act upon Edith's hope of making music therapy a bridge to peace. Edith often pointed out that, as much as we may love music therapy, unless we stop the march towards nuclear self-destruction there will no longer be a world left in which to practice our work. We must honor her life by each of us, in our own way, helping to realize her vision of world peace through music therapy.