The Clinical Team


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Claire Kendrick, MT-BC / Therapist

Favorite Color: Blue, Favorite Food: Chocolate Cake, Favorite Band: Kishi Bashi

Claire was born and raised in Cypress, Texas. Her journey as a musician began when a student theatre group performed at her elementary school, and she saw and heard the flute for the first time. She decided then and there that she had to become a flautist, and she began her lessons at age 11. Her interest in the flute, music theory, and psychology led her to study music therapy at Sam Houston State University. After her undergraduate coursework, she interned at Heart & Harmony Music Therapy in Fort Worth, TX, before graduating in 2018. Claire wanted to deepen her understanding of research and the music therapy profession, so she went back to Sam Houston and graduated in 2020 with her Masters of Music in Music Therapy. Claire believes that music is so many things, but above all, it is an amazing catalyst for growth and change. Being a music therapist is her dream job as it combines art, science, and helping others all at once! Claire enjoys reading, spending time in nature, hanging out with her friends, and traveling.


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Rachel Chao, MT-BC / Therapist

Favorite Color: Pink, Favorite Food: Dumplings, Favorite Band: Vulfpeck

Rachel was raised in Austin, Texas, and developed a passion for music therapy when volunteering at Center for Music Therapy at sixteen years old. She attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and completed her music therapy fieldwork at Massachusetts General Hospital, working in the pediatric oncology unit. She has been a music therapist in Austin since 2017, and loves to work with children and adults with disabilities. She plays piano, guitar, and ukulele. In her free time, she enjoys running, baking, and spending time with her family. Rachel is currently a candidate for a Masters of Social Work, and a Masters of Public Health.

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Paola Felix, MT-BC / Therapist

Favorite Color: Green Favorite Food: Tacos “al Pastor” Favorite Band: The Beatles, Aterciopelados, Tigran Hamasyan

Paola was born and raised in the borderland area of El Paso, TX and Juárez, Mexico. Paola’s interest in music started at a young age, following the footsteps of her father and older siblings who would always play guitar and sing at home. Paola taught herself to play guitar and was always involved in the music groups available at school and church.

Paola started pursuing a Music Performance degree with a focus on guitar at UT El Paso in 2008. She soon fell in love with Music Therapy as soon as she found out it was a career option. Paola then transferred to Texas Woman’s University (Denton, TX) in 2011 to continue her bachelor’s in Music Therapy. She completed her internship at Big Bend Hospice in Tallahassee, Florida and graduated in 2014.

Paola has been a Board-Certified Music Therapist since 2015 and she has been part of the Center for Music Therapy team since 2018. Paola enjoys working with children and adults with disabilities providing services in both English and Spanish.

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Jamie Karr, MT-BC/Therapist

Favorite color: blue, Favorite food: tacos and sweet potato fries, Favorite bands: Lady A, Ed Sheeran, James Taylor, and Fleetwood Mac

Jamie was born in Tampa, FL, but spent the first five years of her life in California with her parents who were in the military. She moved back to Tampa, FL in 2003 where she completed high school in 2015. She currently lives in St. Petersburg, FL and is so excited to be moving to the wonderful city of Austin, TX. Jamie was first introduced to Music Therapy in college and fell in love with the idea of using music in the medical environment and the new research being introduced in these settings. Jamie graduated with her BM in Music Therapy from Florida State University in 2019 and completed her internship with Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH. Jamie received additional training with the National Institute for Infant & Child Medical Music Therapy and The Academy of Neurologic Music Therapy. Jamie enjoys working with clients of all ages and abilities and cannot wait to become involved with the Center and with music in the community. In her free time, she enjoys walking or biking to podcasts, reading, photography, and spending time with friends and family (especially at coffee shops).

Angelea Duncan, MT-BC/Therapist

Favorite color: green Favorite food: Asian and Italian Favorite artists: Frank Ocean and Hiatus Kaiyote

Angelea was born and raised in Conroe, Texas. She knew early on singing was one of her passions, and was in choir from 2nd grade through college. She also developed a passion for music therapy during high school. She studied music therapy at Sam Houston State University, where she was also a member of Mu Tau Omega, choir, and the opera workshop program. In 2018, she traveled to Osaka, Japan with the opera department to present a joint production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with the students of Kobe College! Angelea has worked with clients in behavioral health, special education and geriatrics. She completed her internship at Sound Starts Music Therapy in Frisco, TX and is now a board certified music therapist. She also loves to cook and spend time with her cat, Yoko.

Community Builder


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Jacqueline Jenkins “JJ”, Community Builder

Favorite Color: Green, Favorite Food: Chile Relleno Favorite Band: The Regrettes, The Maine, Hozier

JJ currently engages with the Center for Music Therapy’s community through social media, the newsletter, and weekly “Community Hours”. She went to high school in Austin where she developed her love for working with children and their families through volunteering, tutoring, and lifeguarding. JJ is currently an undergraduate senior studying psychology at the University of Texas at Dallas. JJ is applying to graduate school programs and hopes to work with young children with special needs and their families. She is an avid reader and enjoys painting, hiking, and cooking for her family. 

Interns and Volunteers


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Sean Brady, Technical Support Intern

Favorite Color: seafoam green, Favorite Food: blueberry and banana smoothie (in the morning) Favorite Bands: M83, AURORA, Tame Impala, Twenty One Pilots

Sean is combining technology, working hands on within the community, and music to improve on the current gold standards of motor impairment treatments. 

Sean was born and raised in Austin. Here he worked on various technical projects from growing different kinds of rock candy in elementary school to being an assembly technician at Detekt Biomedical to co-developing preliminary research models at Dell Medical School. He has also worked extensively in the community. He has served as a hospital volunteer at Seton Medical Center Austin and Dell Seton Medical Center. He has also served as a mentor, science clubs coordinator, and after school leader for various elementary schools. His journey through music has been a personal development of learning how to constructively express emotions through music. He has taken multiple music theory courses in addition to guitar and singing lessons for a cumulative 3 years.

He is currently an undergraduate at UT Austin studying biomedical engineering. In his free time he enjoys playing guitar, singing, running, and cooking.


Faith Chan, Volunteer

Favorite Color: Ivory Favorite Food: Rice cakes Favorite Band: BTS

Faith was born in Austin, Texas and is currently a junior at Westwood High School. Helping others through various ways and seeing their smile brings joy to Faith. Her passion for music and desire to help others developed immensely in the past year due to the pandemic. She's been an avid musician ever since she was young, dabbling in the violin, piano, and now the harp and guitar. Faith's love for music and desire to help others are what led her to the Center for Music Therapy; she too wishes to become a music therapist. She loves music, animals (owns a cat at the moment), and baking treats for her family and friends.

Consultants


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Gabriel Federico, MT-BC / Consultant

Favorite Color: Purple, Favorite Food: Hamburgers with homemade fries and ice-cream, Favorite Band: The Rolling Stones, Queen, & Bruce Springsteen

Gabriel Federico is a music therapist, writer, researcher, and university professor. He specializes in working with pregnant women, infants, and young children with developmental challenges. He lives in Buenos Aires and is the president of the Argentine Association of Music Therapy (ASAM). Gabriel is also the director of the C.A.M.I.N.O. Center for music therapy and research in neurodevelopment and obstetrics, as well as the coordinator of the international Prenatal Music Therapy Network. He is the creator of the Mami Sounds method of the Focal Music Therapy in Obstetrics. Gabriel currently works as a professor at both the Center of Interdisciplinary Studies for Learning and Communication Institute in Buenos Aires and the University of Barcelona. He is the co-founder of the Argentine Society for Research in Observation of Babies and has presented his research work at conferences in more than 22 countries. Gabriel was in the World Federation of Music Therapy’s Commission on Clinical Practice, which opens worldwide discussions about clinical music therapy practices. He is the author of the books A Musical Journey Through Pregnancy, The Child With Special Needs, and more. His Spanish podcast is called “Caminos de Crianza” (Paths of Child Rearing), on which he discusses childhood, pregnancy, and parenting issues.

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Emily Morris, MT-BC / Consultant

Favorite Color: Blue, Favorite Food: Fish Tacos & Sweet Potato Fries, Favorite Band: Arcade Fire, Dixie Chicks, and Childish Gambino

Emily enjoys working with clients of all ages and abilities. She has her specialization in Neurologic Music Therapy and serves as the Lead Music Therapist on the Movement Tracks Project, where they are combining music and technology to create new methods for rehabilitation.

She was born in Orlando, Florida and has lived in Florida her whole life until moving to Austin in May of 2012. Emily was brought up in a large household where the idea that it was "better to give than to receive" was truly lived out, and began serving the local community alongside her family at a young age. This led to additional work with non profits stateside as well as abroad, serving children, adolescents and adults in severely underprivileged areas.

Emily has been singing for as long as she can remember. Her grandfather was a musician and her oldest memories shared with him were sitting around the campfire singing "You can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd." She took piano lessons as a child and then began playing the banjo at age 14. Believing Emily had a gift at music, her grandfather gave her her first guitar. She taught herself how to play and began writing her own songs. She has been in multiple bands and enjoys playing live shows around town.

Emily first heard about Music Therapy as a career while in high school, and shortly after learning more, Emily knew it was how she wanted to spend the rest of her life. The thought that she could take her two greatest passions, helping others and playing music, and morph them together for a greater purpose seemed too good to be true. Emily studied Music Therapy at Florida State University, graduated in 2011, and served her internship at Big Bend Hospice in Tallahassee, Florida. She is a board certified-music therapist.

Resident Artist


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Stanley Jordan, Resident Artist

Stanley Jordan is a world-renowned guitarist who specializes in jazz and is considered by many to be the foremost exponent of the touch, or two-hand tapping technique. He's recorded 15 albums to date on various labels including Blue Note, Arista and Mack Avenue Records. His first major album, Magic Touch, was released in 1985 on Blue Note, and it was certified gold in the USA and Japan, and it remained at #1 on Billboard's jazz chart for 51 weeks.

He earned a BA in music theory and composition from Princeton University in 1981. Since then he has maintained a whirlwind touring schedule, having performed in 70 countries on 6 continents. The Covid era forced a much-needed break from touring and he now plans to tour more selectively in order to develop his new online school, Integral Arts Academy, and to work in the music therapy and sound healing fields. He has begun work toward a master's in music therapy from Arizona State.

Founder and President


Hope Young, MT-BC – Founder and President

Hope Young is the founder and CEO of the Center for Music Therapy, Inc., the first and oldest for-profit music therapy facility in the world specifically designed to research and treat neurologic movement conditions and disorders through music. Ms. Young is a member of the National Academy of the Recording Arts and Sciences, the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA), Austin’s Smart City Alliance-Head of Health Committee, and serves on the Board of Directors for Austin’s Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society (HIMSS). She is a leading global innovator and driving force behind the concept and development of merging music and biotechnologies as a health solution. Among other honors, she is 2020 A-List Award Winner in Tech and Innovation, the Greater Chamber of Austin 2020 Honoree for Tech Innovation and was a 2017 recipient of the Intelligent Health Award (IHA) for her research, patents, and the work of her sister software SaaS company Biomedical Music Solutions, Inc. team in reducing the risk of falls and improving patients’ experience in treatment of movement disorders via the application of music.

To read more about Hope Young, please visit the founder page here.