Professor Tony Wigram: Collaborator and Innovator
By Denise Grocke
Professor Tony Wigram loved to be with people and to connect people together wherever and whenever possible. His outgoing, generous and fun-loving personality spearheaded many lasting collaborations within the field of music therapy. Tony was a member of the original group who developed plans for the World Federation of Music Therapy, initially in 1976 through to 1985 when the first document was signed in Genoa Italy at the 5th World Congress of Music Therapy. Tony was the Scientific Chair for the 7th World Congress in Vitoria Spain in 1993, when the Constitution and Bylaws of WFMT came into effect. He then served as Chair of Government Relations of WFMT, and gathered important information about the status of music therapy in countries throughout the world. Subsequently he served as President of WFMT (1996-1999). It was during his term as President that the WFMT truly became an international network. There were various commissions of the WFMT, and Tony's first suggestion on assuming Presidency was that each region of the world should be represented on each of the Commissions. In this first task, he doubled the size of the WFMT at its core, and in so doing expanded communication across the international group, gathering information on the essential features of music therapy practice worldwide. Further, he collaborated with Gianluigi di Franco (Chair of Publications) and Ismez, a publishing house in Italy, to produce regular newsletters for the WFMT. These were works of art with beautiful calligraphy and elaborate design, and the content kept the world informed of music therapy events, particularly conferences.
Tony was also an instigator of the European Music Therapy Committee (EMTC), which was established after the European Union was formed, with the intention of creating guidelines for the recognition of music therapy through European countries. Tony was passionate about the EMTC, and served as inaugural President from 1989-1998 (see also the tribute written by Monika Nocker and Gro Trondalen).
In 1992 Tony, Hanne-Mette Kortegaard and I embarked on a collaborative project for the WFMT to identify where music therapy courses were situated in the world, and to find out basic information about the length of the course, what content was being taught, philosophical orientation, and how clinical training was conducted. Our questionnaire, dubbed the WEK questionnaire (Wigram-Erdonmez-Korteggard), was sent to 41 educational institutions across Europe, UK, North and South America, Canada, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and the results of the survey were compiled into a report for the WFMT, published in 1996. At that time Tony was serving on both WFMT and EMTC, and he was instrumental in the survey's being disseminated widely.
In recent years Tony had turned his attention to research collaborations, and in 2002 the first collaboration was formed between the University of Melbourne, Aalborg University, Denmark, and the University of Witten-Herdecke, Germany, with Professor David Aldridge. Tony had already established the "Aalborg" model for research meetings, where postgraduate research students presented a progress report of their research project and received feedback from international experts. This model was an empowering one for students and provided incentive to present new material. With the first collaboration in place, regular teacher exchanges took place, particularly between Melbourne and Aalborg, as Melbourne too accepted the Aalborg model.
In 2007, more collaborations with the University of Melbourne and Aalborg University were added: Temple University (USA), University of Queensland, and the Bergen University/Uni Research (Norway). In 2008 Anglia-Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK, the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, University of Jyvaskyla in Finland, and Leminsinstitut in Belgium were added to the Consortium. Tony set out three areas of work for the collaborations:
- International benchmarking for postgraduate research students proposals, ethical procedures, supervision and examination of theses. He initiated two extended courses on PhD supervision, held in Denmark for approximately 20 music therapy academics. These courses enabled in-depth discussion of issues about supervising PhD students in music therapy research, including the structure and design of studies, methods of analysis and standards in writing a thesis. Aspects of effective supervision were covered, with a view to establishing benchmarked standards for initial and elaborate proposals, confirmation of candidature, and the process and standards of examination.
- Collaborative Research Projects. It was the intention that the Consortium would work together to develop multi-site international trials, where one university would principally develop the study, and others interested would apply to granting bodies to run the study in their own country. An example of this was the Resource-Oriented Psychiatry study, developed at Bergen, that included sites in Norway, Austria and Australia.
- Research teaching and supervision. The "Aalborg Model" for research-intensive seminars has been adopted by many of the universities in the Consortium, and it is common to have supervisors from several universities on PhD panels.
Tony visited the University of Melbourne every year from 1996-2010, in dual capacity as visiting teacher and also as research advisor. Over that period, he influenced 36 studies of Master's degree and PhD students. What was remarkable was his ability to consult on all studies from infants to palliative care, from quantitative to qualitative, and mixed methodologies.
He exemplified a generosity of spirit that enabled the field of music therapy to grow internationally; he facilitated people coming together to be connected and engaged in discussion. He brought humour, intelligence and knowledge to our meetings. He also had remarkable foresight and could see an opportunity for collaboration and development long before others, and would act immediately to galvanise energy for a new idea. These networks continue to work effectively today, with focussed energy and clear direction thanks to the solid groundwork built by our esteemed colleague, Professor Dr Tony Wigram.
