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These Proceedings record the activities of the Music Therapy New Zealand Music Therapy Symposium: Collaboration, August 13-15, 2021, in Ōtautahi Christchurch. The list of abstracts also highlights three articles in this issue of the journal arising from symposium presentations. An evaluation summary is included, based on a full report provided for the Convenor and Council (and previously published in the MusT newsletter, October 2021). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community singing offers an enjoyable form of social engagement and has also been applied in therapeutic contexts for people with a range of health needs. Internationally and in New Zealand, practitioners and researchers have shown considerable interest in the potential of singing to support people with communication difficulties resulting from a range of acquired neurological conditions. The terminology and approaches of aphasia choirs, Parkinson's choirs, and dementia (or memory) choirs are well established internationally. However, in New Zealand many choirs are not diagnosis-specific, but cater for people with a range of conditions, and are often described as neurological choirs. Neurological choir protocols are often termed choral singing therapy, although the practices of individual choirs vary. This research aimed to analyse interview data collected from current and potential leaders of choirs and singing groups for people with communication difficulties. Participants were Registered Music Therapists, speech-language therapists and community musicians who facilitated neurological choirs or were interested in doing so, and other representatives of organisations providing or considering choral singing therapy. The purpose was to gauge the availability, interest and training needs of facilitators for future research, such as a multi-site randomised controlled trial. Thirty-three participants took part in individual or (when requested by participants who worked together) small group interviews, either in person or via Skype. Interviews were transcribed by the interviewer and sent to interviewees for participant checking. As the research aimed to answer specific questions, thematic analysis of the interview transcripts predominantly used deductive coding, based on the themes of the interview questions. Many participants expressed interest in future research opportunities, but current practitioners' investment in existing approaches, including co-facilitation, highlighted the need for further exploration of current practice before considering a trial requiring facilitator training and protocol fidelity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: People with stroke or Parkinson’s disease (PD) live with reduced mood, social participation and quality of life (QOL). Communication difficulties affect 90% of people with PD (dysarthria) and over 33% of people with stroke (aphasia). These consequences are disabling in many ways. However, as singing is typically still possible, its therapeutic use is of increasing interest. This article explores the experiences of and factors influencing participation in choral singing therapy (CST) by people with stroke or PD and their significant others.Method: Participants (eight people with stroke, six with PD) were recruited from a community music therapy choir running CST. Significant others (seven for stroke, two for PD) were also recruited. Supported communication methods were used as needed to undertake semi-structured interviews (totalN = 23).Results: Thematic analysis indicated participants had many unmet needs associated with their condition, which motivated them to explore self-management options. CST participation was described as an enjoyable social activity, and participation was perceived as improving mood, language, breathing and voice.Conclusions: Choral singing was perceived by people with stroke and PD to help them self-manage some of the consequences of their condition, including social isolation, low mood and communication difficulties.Implications for RehabilitationChoral singing therapy (CST) is sought out by people with stroke and PD to help self-manage symptoms of their condition.Participation is perceived as an enjoyable activity which improves mood, voice and language symptoms.CST may enable access to specialist music therapy and speech language therapy protocols within community frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Group singing could be a promising component of neurorehabilitative care. This article aims to conceptualize how group singing may enable people with Parkinson's disease (PD) to synchronize their movement patterns to musical rhythm and enhance quality of life. Method: Spanning the medical and social sciences, the article draws conceptually on literature on PD, group singing and rhythm in music; personal experience; and reasoning. Results: Conceptualizing PD in terms of disruptions to social and biological rhythms, we hypothesize how group singing may produce two socio-psychological states - connectedness and flow - that may entrain rhythm in people with PD. The states connect during group singing to elicit and enhance motor processes but may also reawaken after the group singing, through the recall and reactivation of the musical rhythms encoded during group singing. Conclusions: In people with PD, this continuity of flow is hypothesized to be conducive to rhythmic entrainment during and after group singing and in turn to reduced deficits in motor timing and emotional processing, and improvements in quality of life. Empirical studies are needed to test this hypothesis in people with movement disorders such as PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]