We sat down with Taylor Kurta (BMT ‘18), currently a PhD student in the University of Waterloo’s department of Recreation and Leisure Studies (School of Health). In our interview, we discussed her career in music therapy, her time at Laurier and the impact music therapy has had during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Laurier Alumni: So let’s start here: what is music therapy?
Taylor: Music therapy looks different depending on what type of therapist you are and what models you align with. For me, in the context that I use music therapy, which is in long-term care with individuals living with dementia, music is a way to connect with people and remind them of their strengths and their capabilities.
“It’s about building friendships and relationships using music.”
Through music, people are able to connect with themselves again. There's many different types of music therapy and models and music therapy. I use a community centered model where I'm much more focused on relationship-building between myself and the person and between the person and others living in the long-term care home.
LA: Thinking of the times we're living in right now; how important do you think something like music therapy is for people?
Taylor: I think it's very important, especially for individuals living in long-term care right now, who for a long time have been separated from their families and their friends and life looks so different for them right now. It's incredibly isolating.
I was working in long term care as a music therapist at the beginning of the pandemic and music therapy offered a sense of comfort and a sort of break from all of the craziness that was going on. With Covid there's a lot of people who were dying alone and dying without their families.
My grandfather died last year, and we weren't able to be with him, but I knew the music therapist at the hospital he was in. So even though we couldn't be there, music and the music therapist played such a vital role in providing him with comfort, but then also providing us with comfort because we couldn't be with him.
“Music therapists are doing a lot of incredible work right now providing people with comfort, hope and joy.”
It was really interesting because at the time I was also working in long-term care and I was with people who were dying without their families, so I had such a new appreciation for the work we do.
Working in long-term care as a music therapist while at the same time having a music therapist be with my grandfather as he died was a really interesting shift.
LA: What would you say to someone thinking about a career in music therapy?
Taylor: Do it. It's an amazing job. 
It's a job where you get to bridge your love for music with having direct connections with people all the time and it's an incredibly inspiring job because you're doing so many different things and you're using music in so many different ways.
I’ve heard people say that there's no jobs in music therapy, but that's not true. Everybody in my class who wanted to be a music therapist after graduating, are now music therapists.
I'm not practicing [right now], but when I was it was just unbelievable to know I could wake up every morning, play music all day, work with people and hear how these songs have moved them in their lives. It's a gift to be able to be with people in certain times when they want music.
When you're singing at the bedside with somebody who's dying, it is such a privilege to be there in that moment using music.
“Every person is so different and every person has such a different connection with music, so there are things that happen every day where you don't even realize the impact that you've had on somebody's life.”
I remember I was singing. I was doing a session with somebody who was in their last hours of life and they started to hum along. I forgot about it after because I do it so often. It is part of my job. But then six months later, I saw his wife and she told me how that completely changed the way she viewed his death.
These are the sorts of impacts that you have on people through music, it's amazing.
LA: What would you say to someone who is thinking about seeking music therapy?
Taylor: I think it depends on what you're looking for.
Sometimes people don't want to talk, sometimes they want to play and that's what music therapy offers, it gives you so many more options of how you can express yourself or work through certain things. That's what's really nice about music is that you don't need to always verbalize everything.
LA: What part of your time at Laurier had the biggest impact on where you are today?
Taylor: Without Laurier, I would not be a music therapist because at the time, any music therapy program in Canada that you wanted to do, you had to be a classical musician- that was standard.
I'm not a classical musician. I had zero classical training, nothing. So, I went in and sort of made my pitch to Glen [Carruthers] and to Colin Lee, who was the head of the Music Therapy department at the time.
I was expecting Glenn to be like “no”, but he was just so open to it; he just said, “You’re absolutely right.” Glen was the coolest guy ever. He was incredible.
They really took a chance on me and they let me into the program. No other school would have done that for me.
So really, without Laurier and Glen and Colin’s openness to accepting a new student who did not ‘fit in’ there, I would not have been a music therapist.
After that, they opened the Community Music program so musicians like me could come to that school and then go into music therapy if they wanted. No other University was doing that.
“I don't know of another school that makes space for students like Laurier does.”
The professors that work at Laurier in the music department really accepted me with open arms. It was really amazing because I was working with people who had only worked with classical musicians before, and then here I am like, “Ok, play Ray Charles.”
We all felt uncomfortable because it was new for everybody, but we all worked together and I created such incredible relationships with people. It was an amazing experience.
It really shaped what I want for myself moving forward in my education and also how I see myself being a professor; a lot of the tools and the support I got from the professors, they really inspired me. It's how I want to teach.