Discipline: Music Composition

Paul Nordoff

Discipline: Music Composition
MacDowell Fellowships: 1950, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958
Paul Nordoff (1909-1977) was an American composer and music therapist, anthroposophist, and initiator of the Nordoff-Robbins method of music therapy. His music is generally tonal and neo-Romantic in style. His work as a composer was acknowledged by two Guggenheim Fellowships (in 1933 and 1935) and the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship for music. From 1958 to 1960 Paul Nordoff worked in Sunfield Homes together with Michael Wilson and Dr Herbert Geuter, the son of founder Fried Geuter, both accomplished musicians conversant with the field of music therapy themselves. Thereafter he visited 26 institutions offering Special Needs education, introducing his methods in England, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany. Thereafter, they worked together in a research program beginning in 1961 for two years, in which they treated children with severe handicaps in public schools in Philadelphia by means of music therapy, with astonishing results on their ability to learn. Also autistic children were activated and enlivened through their therapy sessions with music.

Studios

Sorosis

Paul Nordoff worked in the Sorosis studio.

Sorosis Studio was funded by the New York Carol Club of Sorosis. The small, masonry studio was designed by F. Winsor, Jr., the architect who also designed Savidge Library (1926) and Mixter Studio (1927). At the time of construction, the large porch on the southeast façade offered a spectacular mountain view that has since been obscured…

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