Alan Turry, DA, LCAT, MT-BC, Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapist, is the Faculty Liaison to the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy within New York University’s Steinhardt school. He holds the distinction of being the first music therapist certified to lead a Nordoff-Robbins training course. In his capacity as Managing Director, he oversaw the comprehensive spectrum of responsibilities encompassing administration, research, clinical services, and the training program at the Center, holding this pivotal role from 2007 to 2023. As the Principal Investigator on key research projects at Nordoff-Robbins, Dr. Turry is spearheading the development of The Music Engagement Scale, a research instrument designed to measure a client’s engagement in music, which is a crucial component of the Nordoff-Robbins music therapy process. His research perspective – that measuring functional gains and improvement in quality of life is more appropriate rather than symptom reduction when researching the effectiveness of music therapy interventions with autistic children – was published in two leading music therapy journals.
Dr. Turry is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in music therapy clinical improvisation technique. He has taught and presented his work throughout Asia and Europe. He was a visiting lecturer at the Nordoff-Robbins Centre in London, and a visiting professor at Lesley University in Boston, Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana, the University of Lisbon in Portugal and Senzoku College, Japan. He led the development of Nordoff-Robbins supervision programs in Japan, the Nordoff-Robbins clinical program in Korea, and has led workshops on clinical improvisation in Denmark, Greece, Poland, Ireland and Italy. He was also a keynote speaker at the 8th World Congress of Music Therapy in Hamburg in 1996, and the 13th World Congress in Seoul, Korea in 2011. He provides supervision to music therapists throughout the world including Greece, Hong-Kong, Singapore, and Beijing.
