Interview with Ruth Bright, reflections on President of WFMT
This is the second interview in the series of interviews of Presidents of the World Federation of Music Therapy, an initiative of Prof Barbara Wheeler that captures the history of WFMT from its inception. It is an important oral history; all too quickly years roll by, and memories can be clouded by intervening events. It is important for the profession therefore to track its roots and to have these facts and memories captured accurately for posterity.
This interview is with Dr Ruth Bright, who was President of WFMT from 1990-1993. Her term commenced with the Congress in Rio de Janeiro and concluded at the congress in Vitoria, Spain. However Ruth Bright’s contributions to the WFMT precede 1990, as we see in the transcript of her recollections.
Denise Grocke, June 2010
What do you remember of your time as President of the World Federation?
Ruth Bright, President of the World Federation of Music Therapy from 1990-1993.
1982 was the beginning. The Musician’s Union in the USA funded Music in the life of Man to be held at New York University. I was invited as a representative for Australia. I remember I took a recommendation from the Australian Music Therapy Association to establish an international organisation and this was discussed during the week and it was approved. Ken Bruscia agreed to start an International Newsletter.
In 1983, there was an international conference in Paris – in fact there were two in Paris that year. People from UK were there – Helen Odell, Tony Wigram, Amelia Oldfield, and people from America. We set up a working party to do more planning. Rolando Benenzon was the Chairman of that group.
In 1985 there was an Italian conference in Genoa, and this is when we signed an agreement to establish the World Federation of Music Therapy. This was the first time the title World Federation of Music Therapy was used. People were assigned different tasks, and I was asked to start planning a Constitution for the World Federation.
1990 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was the next time we met. I presented the draft of the Constitution. I thought it would be important that each country had a vote, rather than each organisation. The vote would be split between the number of organisations of each country to make up the country vote. Ideally it would be better for each country to agree on the vote – i.e. that the organisations would agree. Rolando Benenzon had been President up to that point, but he didn’t stand in 1990 and I was appointed President at Rio. The Rio conference was the first congress that was specifically organised for the World Federation of Music Therapy. Lia Barcellos and Cecilia Condes had organised that conference. The commissions, particularly the Commission on Education and Training, were set up at the Rio congress.
What do you remember about being President at The World Congress in Vitoria, Spain in 1993?
There was translation into four languages at the WFMT Congress in Vitoria, which was marvellous. I remember handing over to Dr Cheryl Dileo and we exchanged gifts of candles.
We did further work on the By-laws and the Constitution?
Yes, we discussed how differently music therapy was practised around the world, and we discussed different types of memberships. The organisation had to be a music therapy organisation, with music therapy as its’ primary aim. The country representative had to be a practising music therapist in the country.
Did we start to define what a world congress would be?
The selection of papers was always tricky. The host country always had a primary role in choosing the papers. We came up with a formula that only 1/3rd of the members would be from the host country. I also remember discussions on what constituted research in music therapy.
What changes do you think have taken place in WFMT over the years?
I think the World Federation has been important in bringing people together to discuss and exchange ideas. The cross-fertilisation of ideas was important, and has probably contributed to how much music therapy has developed. Music therapy is not one approach but must meet the needs of people, particularly culturally.
