Music & Resilience took part in the 18th World Congress of Music Therapy, which was held in Bologna (Italy) from 7 to 12 July 2026. Alberto, Luca and Marco gave three separate presentations, aimed at raising awareness of and exploring the use of music therapy in areas of conflict, crisis and marginalisation.

On Wednesday 6th, we were invited to lead, alongside Indra Selvarajah (outgoing chair of the WFMT Crisis Commission), a pre-conference session on the topic of musical intervention in humanitarian crisis contexts. We shared with participants many of the insights we have developed over ten years of working in these contexts. We did not offer answers (which we do not have) but rather a way of reflecting on the work to be done, starting from one’s own skills and the local context of the intervention. The essence of our talk was that the ‘solution’ to the problem must be co-constructed from scratch each time, in interaction with the local context and the people involved in the intervention, in a dialogue that must never cease.

During the conference, we made two further presentations. The first was a brief overview of the project, with particular emphasis on our work in Lebanon with Palestinian refugees and in Ukraine with internally displaced persons.

The other was a round-table discussion on the topic of music therapy in crisis contexts, shared with other professionals:

  • Rihab Jebali, Higher Institute of Specialised Education (ISES), Manouba, Tunisia
  • Lina Riachy Haddad, Lebanese University, Lebanon
  • Indra Selvarajah, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore, Malaysia
  • Marlén Rodriguez-Wolfe, Ukulele Kids Club, Inc., USA.