Rosalie Pratt

Rosalie Pratt
Rosalie Pratt

“Let us develop new curiosity about these arts of music and healing.  We suspect enough now about the power of music to influence healing to know that further rigorous studies must be done of all aspects of these phenomena.  What a glorious adventure is just before us!” 

 

There have been many contributions and collaborations within ISMM since the first Symposium in 1982. Unfortunately, this organization lost one of its most prolific members and personal advocates in December of 2005: Dr. Rosalie R. Pratt. Her influence professionally was only enhanced by her ability to out perform a rare disease that consumed her body. She was not only a scholar, researcher, and visionary, but a survivor, mentor, and friend.

 

Dr. Rosalie Rebollo Pratt was born in New York City.  She was educated in the United States and Italy, and received her PhD from Columbia University, New York, N.Y. in 1976.  Dr. Pratt went on to work in higher education as a Professor of Music at Montclair State College for 6 years, and then at Brigham Young University for 20 years. While at BYU she developed a research based, interdisciplinary masters degree - Masters of Arts in Music Education with an Emphasis on Music as it affects the Human Life Process.

 

During her academic career, she was a visiting professor at both the University of Cologne and the Beijing Conservatory.  Dr. Pratt authored/edited 14 books and numerous scholarly articles in the fields of Music and Medicine, special music education, and music therapy.  She  also had the distinction of being a Fulbright scholar, Vice President of the International Society for Music in Medicine ISMM and an honorary member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Musik bei Behinderten.  

 

The former editor of the International Journal of Arts Medicine, Rosalie Pratt served the field of Music in Medicine throughout her adult life by conducting experimental research, presenting lectures to international symposia and conferences all over the world, and creating a hospital arts program in Utah, described in one of her books, Hospital Arts: “A Sound Approach. music therapy and special music education”.  Even despite severe health complications in retirement, she continued to be active with Music and Medicine until her death. In 2003, she was hired by The National Endowment for the Arts to write a state-of-the arts paper about the creative arts in medicine. 

 

In 2004, she was invited by Elsevier Publishers to contribute a chapter about the arts therapies to a medical text for doctors in physical medicine and rehabilitation.  She also attended her last international speaking engagement at the SaludArts Conference in Salzburg, Austria.  In her lifetime, she was the recipient of awards from the American Harp Society, Music Education for the Handicapped, the Utah Music Educators Association, the International Arts Medicine Association.

 

Dr. Pratt was also a concert harpist and editor of numerous collections of music for that instrument.  Her influence is still felt in the harp community today, particularly with The International Harp Archives (the largest collection of harp music in the United States),  

 

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

Arts Medicine

Elementary Music for All Learners

Hospital Arts: A Sound Approach

 

Music Therapy and Music in Special Education: Music in Medicine, Education and Therapy for the Handicapped: The 3rd International Symposium, July 31 - August 5, 1983, Ebeltoft, Denmark

 

Music Therapy and Music in Special Education: International State of the Art. The 4th International Symposium on Music in Rehabilitation and Well-Being

 

Music Therapy and Music Education for the Handicapped: Developments and Limitations in Practice and Research (Proceedings of the 5th International)

 

MusicMedicine: Volume 3, MusicMedicine and Music Therapy: Expanding Horizons. Melbourne

 

The Singing Cure: An Introduction to Voice Movement Therapy:  An Article from Notes Music Medicine II,  International Journal of Arts Medicine

 

At the time of her death, she was in the process of writing the following book, Music in Medicine, Therapy, and Special Education 1950-2005 

 

Rosalie R. Pratt Music Medicine BYU Donation -

Detailed List

 

Jill  P. Lex, Chicago - Ilinois