Dr. Vicky Abad is the Founding and Managing Director of Music Beat Australia, a multi-faceted business that provides community music, music early learning, music education and music therapy programs for children and adults of all abilities to support them to develop every day. Music Beat offers these services to over 500 clients each week. The business began when Vicky started one music group so that her baby could experience the magic that is making music in meaningful ways between a parent and a child. The business has grown organically from this one group 14 years ago to what it is today.
Vicky heads up a team of music therapists, music teachers, community musicians, and professional administration and support staff to bring these services to fruition. During the recent pandemic Vicky led the team to transition all services online and continue to run a successful business model through fast and flexible adaptations.
Vicky is a Registered Music Therapist and researcher at the University of Queensland, and is currently the President the Australian Music Therapy Association She has worked as a music therapist for more than 25 years and in this time has worked in and established a number of new positions in aged care and early intervention, and paediatric health care. Vicky was the Inaugural Director of the Australian national music therapy program Sing & Grow, a program that continues to offer services to thousands of Australians twenty years on.
In addition to her extensive clinical experience, Vicky researches in the areas of parent-child music therapy, family music therapy, community music therapy and music early learning, with a particular focus on families with young children.
Vicky is an internationally regarded presenter and speaker. She has presented keynote and invited presentations at a number of national and international conferences and events, trained clinicians around the world and presented at numerous international conferences. Vicky has edited a book with Dan Thomas, written a number of book chapters and published in national and international journals.
