4:53 p.m. March 16, 2013
KSO hires music therapist for Music & Wellness program

KNOXVILLE -- The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra has hired a Music Therapist for its Music & Wellness program. Alana Dellatan Seaton recently began her duties which include creating patient music therapy plans and working with musicians as part of the KSO’s award-winning Music & Wellness program.

Piloted in 2004, the program brings the healing powers of music to more than 6,000 patients, staff and visitors in area hospitals annually. The KSO was one of just 22 American orchestras to receive a first-year Getty Education and Community Investment Grant in 2012. Receiving this grant allows the KSO to support the addition of a part-time Music Therapist and will enrich the standard of care provided for individual patients and staff through the program.

Alana Dellatan Seaton is a Board Certified Music Therapist with a Master’s degree in Music Therapy and a Bachelor’s degree in Music and Psychology. She has ten years of clinical experience in facilitating individual and group music therapy sessions, treatment planning and treatment team collaborations. She has managed her own private practice in both New Orleans and in Knoxville over the past ten years. Her expertise includes designing, launching, and implementing music therapy programs in various settings.

Since 2003, the KSO has developed collaborations between healthcare providers and musicians in order to fully nurture and utilize the healing power of music. Currently KSO string quartets perform at UT Medical Center, the Cancer Support Community, Covenant Health and Humana healthcare facilities for patients, visitors and staff. With the addition of a music therapist to the KSO staff and in collaboration with UT Medical Center’s Cancer Institute, Alana Dellatan Seaton represents the first music therapist in East Tennessee working within a hospital integrative medicine program. Incorporating the craft of musicians into the integrated treatment approach of informed hospitals and healthcare facilities enhances the lives of patients as they go through the process of diagnosis, treatment, and recovery.

It is acknowledged by those touched by the program that incorporating music into the healing process uplifts the spirit of the patients and by doing so accelerates the recovery period. In 2006, the KSO received a Bank of America Award for Excellence in Education for the establishment of the Music and Wellness Program and in 2012 received a Getty Foundation Grant to support this new position. The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation and the League of American Orchestras for their generous support of this program.

Published March 16, 2013