Tony Wigram's Work and Influence in Denmark

By Inge Nygaard Pedersen

Tony Wigram was recruited to a fulltime Associate Professor position in the Department of Music and Music Therapy at Aalborg University in 1992. We were all convinced that he was the right person to supply and inspire the music therapy milieu there, and we were so right!!

Before starting he wrote a letter with a thousand questions – he wanted to be so well prepared. At the end he wrote .."my brain is beginning to run out of thoughts at the moment, but I guess I will have a few more questions in due course. Forgive me if I am a little bit demanding of all sorts of information, it is part of my personality disorder!"

Thank God for Tony´s personality disorder! He came and saw and won! He won the trust and admiration of all of us, and he was most deserving to assume the first Full Professor position in Music Therapy at Aalborg University in 1998.

Tony was very respectful and accepting of what was already established – he did not just put in his own ideas unless we all agreed, even if he was always so full of new and bright ideas. He gradually introduced more disciplines in the track of music training and the track of scientific training. He was the first to introduce quantitative research models and the neuroscience theory among other topics. The track of therapy training (self-experience and methodology) had been well developed, but gradually a better balance between the three tracks was established; and the platform of the five- year, fulltime music therapy education program was established.

Tony introduced other topics into the training including clinical improvisation, which is very popular among the students as it provides them with useful tools for improvisational music therapy work. He also introduced clinical group music therapy skills where the students roleplay different groups of client populations and take turns in pairs to lead the group with pre-, direct- and post-supervision. Tony further developed content in theories of therapy and music therapy as well. As a result of these additions to the training program, an eclectic education for the students was achieved with self-experience and music therapy methods as the glue.

Tony was very open-minded regarding the range of approaches and methods in music therapy internationally. He was at the same time very critical and very supportive concerning all levels of professional development. He received high ratings for excellence from students on his teaching, and Danish music therapists today are very grateful for what Tony has given them both professionally and personally.

As a colleague, Tony was extremely generous. His energy and humour were invaluable in the face of financial cut-backs and overly restrictive administrative and academic policies. Tony was able to "play" with all of his responsibilities – administrative papers, his own publications, new ideas, organizational matters and new initiatives. Tony's schedule involved being in Aalborg for two weeks and then elsewhere for the following 2-3 weeks. However, he was always informed and prepared as soon as he entered the door to his office. Occasionally his colleagues and I thought that we could keep up with him when he was there only because he was not there every week! He never failed to bring lots of sweets and good wine for late afternoon meetings and he very often cooked for us all and for the PhD students.

His humour was unsurpassed. Often before lecturing he handed out a page of jokes to start the day with a good laugh. He even organized his joke pages in a file in his office just as he organized every single piece of paper that crossed his desk during the 19 years in Aalborg. According to another close friend and colleague, Lars Ole Bonde, Tony's office reflected his personality as a mixture of a systematist and a partygoer. Tony collected all sorts of funny "kitsch" items and colored string lights and placed them in the office or in his flat.

As a musician Tony, was always in the centre when we had parties and meetings – playing the piano for community singing or playing classical piano, orchestra or opera pieces. Classical music – often operas - bellowed from his open office door when he was not supervising students there. He inspired the students to create matinees and just play music for each other; community music certainly grew with his energy and presence.

Last but not least Tony put Aalborg University and its Music Therapy Programme "on the map." Even before the university actively encouraged the staff to create an international profile, Tony had created, for all on the team, a very valuable international network The last network he created was The Consortium of Nine Universities; we are very proud and happy to be members of this group together with the most outstanding music therapy researchers in the world. The international PhD-Research School is another of his rapidly expanding international projects with 26 students and a wide range of supervisors and guest teachers.

I often called Tony, "The Lighthouse" of music therapy who surpassed the music therapy profession all over the world. Through his light and bright ideas he helped so many music therapists find their way both clinically and through research.

I am certainly grateful to have been one of Tony's close friends and colleagues. I will never forget him.