OUR HISTORY

1990

• Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust (NIMTT) started in one room in Erskine House with a small team and a Typewriter.  As things progressed, they got a loan of a computer from IBM, due to the commitment and hard work of this original team. 
• As we became more established, we opened a Music Therapy Centre in Graham House at Knockbracken Healthcare Park.
• NIMTT became a registered Charity in July.

1991

• The NIMTT November newsletter reported that a fund-raising Marathon relay team had been secured and t-shirts would be provided!!

1992

• In June, The Ulster Orchestra held as fundraising concert on behalf of NIMTT which raised over £3,000.

1995

• On 1 October NIMTT appointed a Business Manager and employed 3 Music Therapists.
• NIMTT held an Evening at Hillsborough Castle on 29 September which was attended by Sir Patrick Mayhew who was the Secretary of State at that time.

1998

• NIMTT established a Music Therapy Clinic at Graham House, Knockbracken in January to provide children and adults who do not have access to music therapy in their school or Day Centre.
• NIMTT moved onto e-mail in November.

2000

• As part of the year-long, province-wide celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust, a special joint anniversary concert was held on 14 April with Fortwilliam Day Centre, who also celebrated their 10th anniversary that year.

2001

• An Evening of Music by “MICHAEL SWALLOW AND FRIENDS” was held in the Harty Room in Queen’s University on Wednesday 25 April.

2003

• In August, the NI Music Therapy Trust received funding to undertake a project called CODA.  The project was designed to respond directly to a recommendation made in the NI victim’s strategy document ‘Reshape, Rebuild, Achieve’. The aim of the CODA project was to provide the opportunity for creative expression and development for those who were sufferers or survivors of the troubles in Northern Ireland.

2008

• NIMTT launched the Arioso Project in July, which provided a music therapy service to selected special schools throughout Northern Ireland; the project was used to evaluate and monitor the role of music therapy in special education. 
• In September, The Chorus Awards, a music awards ceremony was held in the Grand Ballroom, Ramada Hotel, Belfast, for 240 performers from across Belfast with severe learning disabilities including Autistic Spectrum Disorder, complex learning disabilities or physical disabilities, stroke, and acquired brain injury. The Awards ceremony was the result of 4 music therapists from the NIMTT preparing and accompanying the performers through a range of musical performance categories. All the participants were attendants of day care facilities in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. UTV’s, Mr Paul Clark acted as Master of Ceremonies for the evening ceremony and awards were not only presented to category winners but also to people who have clearly overcome many personal challenges in terms of their disabilities to get up and perform.
• In October, NIMTT moved premises to bright new offices at McKibbin House, Eastbank Road, Carryduff BT8 8BD, where we are currently located.

2009

• In December, NIMTT was awarded £326k to fund the ‘Music in Mind’ research project, which was a pioneering, complex intervention RCT that examined the effectiveness of music therapy in child and adolescent psychiatry.  Over a three-and-a-half-year period, a trial team, led by Professor Sam Porter, Chair of Nursing Research at the School of Nursing & Midwifery, QUB conducted the study. Their review of the literature suggested it to be the largest study of this type to be undertaken at that time globally.  

2011

• On 10 March, NIMTT organised a Protest Rally to Stormont against budget cutbacks that threatened Music Therapy provision for children in Northern Ireland with Special Needs. Over 300 parents and children walked the mile long stretch of Prince of Wales Avenue to Parliament Buildings to hand in a petition containing 8,000 signatures.

2013

• In April, NIMTT secured a contract with HSCB to deliver a regional service for children with severe disabilities, Every Day Harmony continues to deliver this service today.

2015

• NIMTT was rebranded as Every Day Harmony on the 26 September, during its 25th anniversary year and the branding was officially launched at an event in Stormont.

2019

• In June, Every Day Harmony opened a Music Therapy Hub in its head office in Carryduff to help provide additional sessions and more cost-effective choices to individuals and groups requiring Music Therapy.
• Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol) became an Ambassador for Every Day Harmony and attended the official launch of the Hub in Carryduff, much to the delight of his many Northern Irish fans. Gary provides invaluable support to our work and continues to lobby for our work at the highest level.