EXECUTIVE TEAM

Program Manager

Mr. Navin Kumar Nayan

Mr. Navin Kumar Nayan, Program Manager, The Music Therapy Trust, has had years of experience in various health, rehabilitation and educational sectors throughout India. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Occupational Therapy in 2001 from the Deen Dayan Institute for the Physically Handicapped, Delhi University. In 2003, he assisted the Child Development faculty, the Indira Ghandi National Open University (IGNOU), in developing the Awareness Cum Training packages in Disability.

More recently, he served as Programme Coordinator, IGNOU Community College, where he assisted in making instructional curricula for teaching higher education for persons working with developmental disabilities.He is a specialist in the field of Public health and Rehabilitation and has over 10 years of diverse experiences in working with vulnerable communities and people at risk.

In August 2009, Mr. Nayan joined Handicap International to serve the adversely affected community after the national disaster in Bihar. Under exceptionally difficult situations, he was able to implement several community-based projects. His deep interest in working with marginalized sections of society motivated him to complete the Post Graduate Diploma in Health and Family Welfare Management from the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare in 2009. Recently he has been awarded with Post Graduate Diploma course in Public Health Nutrition through the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).
Mr. Nayan is now utilizing his expertise to serve The Music Therapy Trust. In addition to his education in the diverse needs facing a wide variety of challenged individuals, he brings to his work his love for serving others and his compassion for the vulnerable and marginalized individuals in society. He maintains an ability to establish rapport, handle stress, make decisions and negotiate in difficult situations. In addition to his strong leadership skills and his deep concern for the well being of others, Mr. Nayan is a devoted member of the TMTT team.


Course Tutor and International Internship Coordinator/Supervisor India/Nepal

Dr. Lucanne Magill

Dr. Lucanne Magill, LCAT, MT-BC, MTA is Course Tutor and International Internship Coordinator/Supervisor, The Music Therapy Trust India/Nepal. She was formerly Assistant Professor and Coordinator, Music Therapy Program, University of Windsor, Canada. She is internationally known for her pioneering clinical work, her research and her numerous publications in cancer and palliative medicine, as she began her work in 1973 at a time when the profession was young and this area of specialization was not well developed yet. Since 1973, she has been working closely with cancer and palliative care patients and families and

began the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s (MSKCC) first music therapy program under the auspices of the Psychiatry and Pain Services, following which she became Manager, Music Therapy Program, Integrative Medicine Service, MSKCC.

Lucanne was born in Egypt to US physicians serving abroad and grew up with a love for people from around the world and with an experiential understanding of the power of music- as a universal language- to build communication between people everywhere. She received a B.A. degree in psychology and the Masters and Doctor of Arts degrees in Music Therapy from New York University (NYU). In addition to her full time work at MSKCC, she was also Music Therapist, Cabrini Hospice and Consultant, Cancer Care, NY. She has trained over 60 music therapy interns and has served as Adjunct Faculty, NYU and Temple University, USA.

In 2007 she received the “Professional Practice Award” from the American Music Therapy Association and received the “Top Ten Young Women of America” Award in 1980; and in 2008 received the 34th National Conference of AMTA, Inc. (Australia), “Ruth Bright Award for Excellence in Presentation” with Dr. Clare O’Callaghan. She is a founding member of the International Association for Music and Medicine and serves as Chair, Education and Training Commission, WFMT.


Therapists

Somesh Purey, Head Therapist

Mr. Somesh Purey [IPGDCMT], is a qualified Clinical Music Therapist, who graduated from the TMTT PGD Training Program in 2008. Somesh, a professional Tabla and Percussion player, has performed classical, light classical and spiritual music programs in India and the USA for more than 20 years. Somesh now works for the Music Therapy Trust as a Clinical Music Therapist and is the Assistant Course Tutor and workshop facilitator. He works with a wide range of clients, including children and teenagers with special needs and is pioneering some of the new projects with young people and street children that the Music Therapy Trust is conducting.

Kedar Gandhari

Kedar Gandhari is a Nepalese musician who qualified as a clinical music therapist in 2009 following his full time studies in the Postgraduate Diploma in Music Therapy training program with The Music Therapy Trust in New Delhi. He has now returned to Kathmandu to set up the first clinical music therapy programme in Nepal. Mr Gandhari is, in his own words, ‘a musician by birth’. He belongs to the Gandharba community, which is one of the traditional musical castes of Nepal. As a child, brought up in a musical household and musical community where music was a necessity as a way of earning a living, Kedar played Sarangi and sang with his parents.

As a young man Kedar joined the Gandharba Cultural Art Organisation which ran musical activities along with providing lessons to national and international students. Kedar worked as a street musician in Kathmandu and taught traditional folk instruments, such as Sarangi and Drum, and participated in evening culture performances, organising the annual Sarangi Day with music workshops every year for the Gandharba Cultural Art Organisation in order to preserve the caste’s cultural tradition. During this time he earned his Intermediate level degree in Humanities and Social Science.

Since 2010, Kedar has been providing clinical music therapy services to children with autism and their families at the Music Therapy Centre, Autism Care Nepal. He is beginning to extend services into communities in the Kathmandu region, including to street children, the Gandharba Community, to mental health clients and other special needs children and adults.


Admin Assistant

Deepak Tiwari