Education

Professional Highlights

• Dr. Rohrbacher began undergraduate studies as a piano performance major at the Peabody Conservatory. He later completed the degree, Bachelor of Music with a concentration in music therapy from East Carolina University. He holds a Master of Science in Education with a concentration in Communicative Disorders from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
• Prior service includes six years as music therapist with the Baltimore City Public Schools, former Board Director with the Certification Board for Music Therapists, and President of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the American Music Therapy Association, Inc. Federal funding activities included consultant for the NIH Office of Alternative Medicine grant, “Music Therapy and Psycho-social Adjustment for Persons with Head Trauma,” and Project Director for the Administration on Aging (AoA) grant, “Music Therapy Model Demonstration Program in Adult Day Health Care.”
• He currently is Visiting Professor at Tokushima Bunri University, Japan, and guest lecturer at the Fujian University School for Traditional Chinese Medicine in Fuzhou, China. He serves as Project Director for an AoA grant on “Complementary & Alternative Medicine for Persons with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders: An Inservice Training Program.” Awards include “Honorary Doctorate” from Tokushima Bunri University, 2003, and recipient of Shenandoah’s 2002-03 Exemplary Teacher Award presented by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church. His fieldwork and research interests include healthcare arts in Bali, Indonesia, medical ethnomusicology and the use of neurobiofeedback in music therapy