Presenter
Dr Turry is the Principal Investigator on key research projects being conducted at Nordoff-Robbins. In 2012 he was the recipient of the Arthur Flagler Fultz Research Award, given by the American Music Therapy Association to support the collaboration being undertaken by the Center with Rusk Rehabilitation Institute at NYU Medical Center to develop and research an integrated music therapy/occupational therapy stroke rehabilitation program. This grant augments support originally provided by the Steinhardt Office of Research Faculty challenge grants awarded to Dr. Turry in 2011.
Dr. Turry is leading the NYU arm of a collaboration with researchers from the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary to study the effects of music therapy on perception of the various elements of music perception in pre-lingually deafened children with cochlear implants. Speech gains related to musical development are a key outcome of this funded study.
In collaboration with These Our Treasures School (TOTS) in the southeast Bronx, Dr Turry is conducting ongoing research of the effects of Nordoff-Robbins music therapy on the development of communication and social interaction skills in young children with developmental disabilities. Promising preliminary results were recently published in a chapter co-authored by Dr. Turry in Early Childhood Music Therapy and Autism Spectrum Disorders. Dr Turry received an Arts and Culture challenge Grant award to support this research.
Dr. Turry joined the NR clinical staff in 1990, became Clinical Director in1997, and assumed the position of Managing Director in 2006. Dr. Turry directs the post masters advanced training in Nordoff-Robbins music therapy and the Graduate Internship and fieldwork Program at the Center. He also designs curriculum and teaches clinical improvisation in the NYU Graduate Music Therapy Program.
Dr. Turry is committed to interdisciplinary collaboration. In addition to his Rusk-NYU research partnership, he has developed an interdisciplinary team at the NR Center. Students from Steinhardt’s Drama Therapy program, Applied Psychology program, and interns from the NYU Silver School of Social Work participate in the Centers clinical, training and research program.
Dr. Turry is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in music therapy clinical technique. He taught and presented his work throughout Asia and Europe. He is 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 has been a guest lecturer at many university training programs, including Anna Maria College and the Berklee College of Music. Aspects of his approach are detailed in a number of publications including Transference and Countertransference in Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy from The Dynamics of Music Psychotherapy (Kenneth E. Bruscia, Ed.) and The Use of Improvised Song for Children and Adults with Cancer in the text Music Therapy and Medicine (Cheryl Dileo, Ed.).
Dr. Turry was recently named to the editorial board of Music and Medicine, a new interdisciplinary journal that will be an integrative forum for clinical practice and research related to music interventions and applications of clinical music strategies in medicine. Dr. Turry's published research in this journal has focused on the psychological effects of musical elements. Specifically, he examined the music and lyric content in the improvised expressions of a woman with cancer receiving music therapy treatment. He has authored and co-authored several publications in this journal including The Role of Music and Music Therapy in Aphasia Rehabilitation.
Dr. Turry is on the editorial board of several leading music therapy journals including the Journal of Music Therapy published by the American Music Therapy association, Music Therapy Perspectives, also published by the American Music Therapy association, and the Nordic Journal of Music Therapy.
Dr. Turry has a wide range of professional experience as a music therapist. He was a member of the clinical staff at Metropolitan Hospital New York City. He served as Supervising Music Therapist and Coordinator of Student Training, Activity Therapies Department at Bellevue Hospital. He has treated adolescent and adult patients in psychiatric and forensic settings.
Dr. Turry earned his Bachelor's, Masters and Doctoral degrees in Music Therapy from New York University.
