Stephen Venkatarangam

Biology

        Stephen Venkatarangam, MA, MTA is an INDI PhD candidate, music therapist, educator, and musician. He currently holds a limited term appointment as Music Therapy Lecturer.  His research interests include the use of raga interventions in non-culturally specific music therapy practice. He integrates theoretical knowledge from multiple disciplines such as medical ethnomusicology, Indian music theory, Indian philosophy and healing practices, Western classical music theory, neuroscience, music technology and contemporary music therapy. He also explores how listeners perceive, contextualize, and process unfamiliar music.  

         In his work, Stephen takes a great deal of care to ensure that he accurately and culturally sensitively represents unique, diverse and often marginalized or under-represented frameworks. As a music therapist, he has worked in multiple settings including in mental health and with at-risk youth.  As multi-instrumentalist, he has toured nationally and internationally in projects that fuse Eastern and Western music systems such as Tala and Polaris nominees Elephant Stone.  He is currently playing modular/digital synths/guitar in arc, while pursuing his lifelong training in Hindustani classical sitar. He is a recipient of Concordia’s PERFORM Graduate Scholarship in Preventive Health Research (2020/21).

MTHY 501 Music Therapy Skills (3 credits)
MTHY 502 Psychology of Music (2 credits)
MTHY 503 Music Therapy with Adults (1 credit)
MTHY 510 Music Therapy Practicum I (3 credits)
MTHY 602 Advanced Clinical Improvisation in Music Therapy (1.5 credits)

 Brault, A. & Venkatarangam, S. (May 2019). The use of electronic music technology in music therapy. Workshop presented at the 45th Annual National Conference of the Canadian Association of Music Therapists, Gatineau, QC.

Venkatarangam, S. (July 2017). Participants’ Experiences of a Receptive Music Therapy Intervention that incorporates Raga. Paper presented at the World Congress of Music Therapy, Tsukuba, Japan.