Consonances: Highlights from Bulgaria’s Sixth National Music Therapy Conference

The programme brought together a blend of Bulgarian and international perspectives, with sessions covering music therapy in residential care, logorhythmics with children, forensic music therapy in prisons and custodial settings, transdisciplinary rehabilitation after stroke, performance anxiety in musicians, approaches to couple therapy and parent consultation. Clinical cases, research presentations and workshops highlighted the expanding reach of music therapy across education, healthcare and community contexts, demonstrating a shared emphasis on connection, therapeutic presence and collaborative ways of working.

Click here for the full programme.

Among the international contributors, Angelica Postu, EMTC Country Representative for Romania, offered a particularly resonant perspective in her presentation on performance anxiety in musicians. Speaking both as a music therapist and as a classically trained pianist, she explored the pressures musicians face — from the demands of performance to the expectations of the industry and the constant scrutiny of social media. While research on musicians’ health is increasing, she noted that there is still limited evidence explicitly demonstrating the need for music therapy in this field, despite the clear emotional strain many musicians endure.

Angelica also reflected on the cultural context shared by several South-Eastern European countries, where many musicians, including herself, trained within strict pedagogical traditions. Her story was brief but striking: she recalled a piano teacher who would dismiss her from lessons when something didn’t go well. The fear and emotional suppression this produced left a deep impression, one she later recognised in the experiences of many other musicians from the region. Music therapy, she said, offers a space to address these longstanding patterns — and therapists who have “overcome something themselves” are often especially well placed to help.

Both Angelica Postu and Teodossi Tzinguilev, EMTC Country Representative for Bulgaria, highlighted how valuable the EMTC South Region network has become for countries in South-Eastern Europe that share similar challenges and aspirations. Regular regional meetings provide a platform for creative collaboration on issues affecting multiple countries, from training pathways to the organisation of professional events. They noted that conferences in the region require considerable personal commitment, particularly because fees must remain low and financial resources are limited.

Angelica and Teodossi spoke about the strengthening connections among the 11 countries that make up the EMTC South Region. Angelica had travelled to Sofia earlier in Romania’s EMTC membership to build relationships with Bulgarian colleagues, and ongoing conversations have now sparked the idea of a joint South Region — or Balkan — conference. Inspired partly by the Nordic Conference model, such an event could bring visibility and accessibility to practitioners who cannot easily attend larger conferences elsewhere in Europe. Teodossi noted that if the idea moves forward, the organisational workload should be shared from the outset rather than resting on a single host country; the topic will be discussed further at the next South Region meeting in December.

Angelica emphasised that events like Consonances play a crucial role not only in supporting music therapists but in opening doors for neighbouring professions. Conferences, she said, are an opportunity to show teachers, psychologists, counsellors and speech therapists how music therapy connects with their work, and to demonstrate that it is “never too late” to join a training programme or integrate music-therapy-informed approaches into practice. She also pointed to opportunities in Europe-wide Culture and Health funding, which could help therapists in the region access resources that support innovative projects and provide meaningful financial sustainability.