PUBLISHED IN: CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS

By Amanda D’Ambrosio • October 20, 2025

Park Slope Music School to Open $16M Facility for Music Therapy Institute

The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music is doubling the capacity of its music therapy program for individuals with disabilities and mental illnesses with a new location in Park Slope.

The conservatory, which opened in 1897, announced plans Friday to develop a $16 million facility at One Prospect Park West that’s set to become the home of its new music therapy institute. The nonprofit is expanding partly to accommodate rising demand for music therapy; it serves roughly 2,700 clients each week, up from 700 a little over a decade ago, said Chad Cooper, executive director of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.

The new site will expand the organization’s capacity to serve 5,000 music therapy clients each week, the nonprofit said.

Music therapy, performed by licensed creative arts therapists, is a small but growing field. Patients typically receive the treatment in hospitals, and institutions like Mount Sinai have departments focused entirely on treating mental health concerns with music. The modality has become more popular as scientists explore whether music can help individuals with anxiety, depression or autism spectrum disorder.

The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music provides therapy sessions to clients at its main campus at 58 Seventh Ave., as well as through more than 50 off-site locations, including public schools and homeless shelters, Cooper said. Therapists see music as another tool to address the persistent mental health crisis, offering an alternative to talk therapy that can help patients improve their self-confidence or process their emotions.

“Not everybody can engage in verbal psychotherapy in a way that helps them,” said Toby Williams, who directs the music therapy program at the conservatory. “Music allows you to make a connection between your analytical mind, your physical body and your emotional self – it’s a helpful modality for a lot of people.”

The new music therapy institute is backed in part by a $2 million donation for capital costs from the Joel Foundation, the philanthropic organization led by Billy Joel and his wife Alexis Joel. The foundation has also provided $330,000 in programmatic funding. The new campus is set to open next fall.

Oct. 20, 2025: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music opened in 1945. The article has been corrected to state that the organization was founded in 1897.