Music and Community

Music is a powerful tool for shaping and developing communities, as evident by countless cultures throughout history. Singing, drumming, and group playing are all tools that can be utilized not only on stage or by professional musicians, but also—and especially—by those choosing to practice music for their own enjoyment. Research on music’s impact on the community and its resilience has begun to develop in recent decades, and tends to follow cases from around the world where the power of music was harnessed to achieve community goals and examine how these approaches are able to improve the sense of community belonging and mental health. At BIU’s Music Therapy program there are many active community projects, such as “Communicating Vessels”—music studies for people with disabilities and a passion for music; the Avraham Omer School of Musical Dialog; drumming groups for people on the Autistic spectrum; and more. Some of these projects are paired with research led by our faculty and their students and aim to validate the importance and efficiency of musical activity in the community.