Kenneth Aigen is a music therapist whose clinical specialties include work with children and adolescents with emotional and developmental delays, and adults in mental health. His research has used musicological analyses to reveal connections between the elements of music and common cognitive, emotional, and physical goals in music therapy. His current work involves studying the role of music in everyday life for autistic adults. He lectures internationally and has authored numerous publications on Nordoff-Robbins music therapy, popular music in music therapy, and qualitative research methodology. Three of his books--Paths of Development in Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy, Music-Centered Music Therapy, and The Study of Music Therapy: Current Issues and Concepts--have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Aigen is a past–president of the American Association for Music Therapy and he was the scientific committee chairman for the Ninth World Congress of Music Therapy. Aigen received his doctorate from New York University in 1991 and for 15 years he was the research director and then co-director of the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy at NYU. From 2006 until returning to Steinhardt in 2013, Aigen was an associate professor in music therapy at Temple University where he received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. Other honors include the NYU Steinhardt School Teaching Excellence Award, and the Research and Publications Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award, both from the American Music Therapy Association, In addition to his teaching duties at NYU, he maintains an active performing career as a keyboardist in Stella Blue's Band.
