It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the Manfred and Penny Conrad Institute for Music Therapy Research (CIMTR) - a dynamic forum that bridges clinical practice and research, and provides opportunities for collaboration. If you are involved or interested in interdisciplinary music therapy research I invite you to join us.

We will provide you with research facilities and opportunities to engage in joint scholarship, and an environment that will nurture global dialogue and networking by using internet, video-conferences and research seminars that concentrate on specific topics. We are interested in applying diverse approaches - some from within the discipline of music therapy and some from allied disciplines - and in forging important and innovative links between research findings. Research Clusters will be generated to take on specific evidence- or practice-based music therapy topics. Please see our web-site for current activities and feel free to offer your own ideas.

Join our international team - make connections.
Heidi Ahonen, Ph.D., Director of Conrad Institute for Music Therapy Research

In April, Wilfrid Laurier University proudly unveiled the newly named Manfred and Penny Conrad Institute for Music Therapy Research (CIMTR), in recognition of the Conrads’ $1 million gift to the Faculty of Music. Theirs is the largest individual donation ever given to the Faculty, and it will be used to support the research and therapeutic work done within Laurier’s international music therapy research institute, established in 2003, and to create an annual scholarship for a Laurier graduate student in music therapy.

The Conrads’ gift reflects their support of music therapy. Dr. Heidi Ahonen, Director of CIMTR, says that Laurier President Max Blouw and Dean of Music Charles Morrison introduced her to the philanthropists at a meeting in spring 2009, and that she was immediately struck by the Conrads' curiosity and passion. “They asked about my research and dreams. I told them how we can see the positive effects of music on those who have suffered trauma, and yet we don’t have the money for EEG and MRI studies, for example, to prove what we know. They asked me lots of questions, including how much money it would take to do the studies that I dreamed of doing. I told them a million dollars.”

Meetings between the Conrads, Blouw, Morrison, and members of the University’s Development staff followed, resulting in the gift.

“The Conrads donation will now fund research into Alzheimer’s patients, studying how music can actually rewire the brain. That’s just one example of what the Conrads’ gift now makes possible. There are so many exciting projects. We now have a way of proving what we know to be true,” Ahonen says.

Currently, the work conducted within CIMTR also helps those suffering from Parkinson’s disease, promotes healing for victims of trauma and abuse, assists those with developmental, behavioural, mental health and communication challenges, and helps patients requiring critical or palliative care.

“This remarkable $1-million gift from Manfred and Penny Conrad to support the music therapy research institute will ensure Laurier is at the forefront of music therapy research in Canada and around the world,” said Morrison. “This historic donation promises to help so many people as Laurier researchers continue to better understand the therapeutic powers of music.”

At the naming ceremony, Penny Conrad also spoke of her 2009 meeting with Ahonen, impressing the audience with her knowledge of music therapy, and revealing that her gift to the institute is, indeed, thoughtful.

“I tell my students you need four things for research: vision, passion, wisdom, and money,” Ahonen says. “I’ve been doing my work for 23 years, with the first three ingredients, but never the fourth. Until now. Because of the Conrads, My colleagues and I, and our students, will have the money we need to do our work.”