TOM SWEITZER

Tom Sweitzer – MTT, MT-BC – Tom is Co-Founder, Creative Director and Head of Music Therapy at A Place to Be, a non-profit organization serving over 200 families weekly, offering Music Therapy in Northern Virginia. Tom holds a B.F.A. in Music Theater, a Graduate Certificate in Music Therapy from Shenandoah University and a Master’s in Music Therapy from Berklee College of Music. Tom has created several therapeutic musical productions that focus on acceptance, diversity and empathy that toured schools and beyond. His Rock Opera about Suicide prevention, A Will to Survive, performed at the Terrace Theater at The Kennedy Center. He is currently collaborating with Wolf Trap Performing Arts Center, writing and directing their first fully-inclusive and disability focused production for the children’s theater and education department. He is an adjunct professor at Shenandoah University and consults as a Music Therapist across the country. He is a member of the American Music Therapy Association.

Tom received the title Loudoun County Humanitarian of the Year in 2014 and in that same year was invited as a guest to the White House for his work with disabilities. A Place to Be and Tom was awarded “Best Music Therapy Provider of the Year” by the American Music Therapy Association in June 2017. That same year he was honored to be a guest at the “Sound Health” conference hosted by The National Institute of Health along with renowned Opera star, Renee Fleming and NIH Director, Dr. Francis Collins. His choir, “Different Strokes for Different Folks,” a group comprised of stroke survivors through Inova Hospital sang alongside Renee Fleming. He continues to educate people about Music Therapy with Mrs. Fleming on Music and the Mind, most recently at Tanglewood, and on her own podcast. Throughout Covid he has facilitated a nation-wide on-line support group featured both on NPR and ABC news. Tom is a subject of a new documentary, “Music Got Me Here,” along with one of his heroes, Forrest Allen, a young man with Traumatic Brain Injury who found his voice and courage again through Music Therapy. “Music Got Me Here” is on Apple TV and Amazon. Tom is dedicated in growing A Place to Be and its mission to help people face, navigate and overcome life’s challenges through Music Therapy. Tom is a featured Author in the book “Music and Mind” edited by Renee Fleming.