A music therapy educator and undergraduate students’ perceptions of their music project's relevance for Sichuan earthquake survivors.

Following the earthquake in Sichuan, China, in May 2008, which killed approximately 70,000 people, a music therapy educator led three teams, totalling 41 music therapy students, who provided music performances and activities to survivors and relief workers for three 30-day periods from June–August 2008. This constructivist research examines the educator's and five music therapy student volunteers’ perceptions of their music project's relevance during a stabilization-through-music phase in June–July 2008. The educator's narrative stance provides some context for the students’ presence in the earthquake aftermath and his views about the music program’s outcomes. The volunteers’ interview transcripts were inductively, comparatively, and recursively analyzed. Emergent themes encompassed descriptions of the volunteers’ arrivals; aims for improving survivors’ wellbeing; music activities, and their beneficial outcomes; personal enrichment and challenges; and helpful coping strategies and recommendations. In the early months following an earthquake disaster, survivors of all ages may benefit from experiencing music performances or small music activity groups provided by music therapy students. Benefits may include nurturance, relaxation, reflection, emoting, learning, diversion, socialization, family resilience, and community building. It is suggested that musical options provided by musicians and music therapists following a disaster can support survivors and relief workers, and remind them about the potential aesthetic of existence and hope for improved lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]