Emily Achieng' Akuno (Ph.D., Kingston, Surrey; M.Mus., Northwestern, LA; B.Ed, Kenyatta) is Associate Professor of Music and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology at The Technical University of Kenya. A past chair of MISTEC and Board member of ISME, her research and publications focus on cultural relevance in and implications for music education.
Julie Ballantyne is known for her work in the areas of music teacher identities, social justice, music teacher education, and the social and psychological impacts of musical engagement. An Associate Professor in Music Education in the School of Music at the University of Queensland, Australia, she has won commendations and fellowships for her teaching, and also holds leadership positions with organizations such as the International Society for Music Education. Julie has published work in key journals and has co-edited the book Navigating Music and Sound Education. She enjoys teaching pre-service and in-service teachers at the Bachelor's and Master's Levels, as well as supervising several Ph.D. students.
Joe Berkovitz is the founder of Noteflight, which launched the first web-based application for creating, sharing and consuming traditional music notation. Joe also co-chairs the W3C Web Audio Working Group and Music Notation Community Group. With over 35 years of experience in the software industry, Joe served as Senior Architect at pioneering web application company ATG. At the Education Development Corporation, Joe led the software design team for IBM's constructivist "Math and More" math curriculum. Joe is a frequent and sought-after speaker at conferences on the web platform. He studied piano and composition at New England Conservatory of Music.
Ryan Bledsoe is a doctoral student in music education at Arizona State University. She specializes in early childhood music education and has worked with infants through middle school students in Texas, Arizona, and Florida. Ryan's articles have been published in General Music Today and The Arizona Music News, and she is an active conference presenter. Her research interests include creativity, makerspaces, and designing electronic instruments with young children. Ryan shares her work with other educators on her website: ryanbledsoe.wordpress.com
John-Morgan Bush is the Executive Director of the UMass Lowell String Project and is a music education faculty member in the University of Massachusetts Lowell Music Department. He also serves on the executive board of the National String Project Consortium. Before joining the faculty at UMass Lowell, he served as the Director of Education for The Little Orchestra Society and managed music education engagement for thousands of New York City public school children, parents, and senior citizens. In 2012 he founded the Tuxedo Revolt, an arts consultancy and think-tank that reimagines how to connect live music to today's audiences.
Dr. Jason Chen graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music in 1995 with a B.Mus. Degree, majoring in composition and piano with a four-year scholarship, and received his M.A. and PGDE from the Hong Kong Baptist University. Jason is currently an Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. He has a Ph.D. in music technology from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, Australia, where he researched composition for film and media. His articles have been published by top-ranked journals including International Journal of Music Education, Research Studies in Music Education, and Music Education Research.
Carlos Chirinos-Espin is Clinical Assistant Professor of Music Business at New York University. He has been a social entrepreneur, researcher, and consultant in music and media in emerging markets in Africa and Latin America. He works in the fields of music, communication, and social change, and creates public health awareness campaigns using music, radio, and TV. In 2015 he received the Ebola Grand Challenge Award from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, CDC and the U.S. Department of Defense for the development of Africa Stop Ebola, a global fundraising and awareness campaign about Ebola in West Africa. Before relocating to NYU, he was based at SOAS, University of London.
Smaragda Chrysostomou is an Associate Professor of Music Pedagogy and Didactics, Faculty of Music Studies, University of Athens, Greece, where she teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses. She also teaches at the Long Distance M.A. course on Music Education, University of Nicosia, Cyprus. She was one of the key experts responsible for the new National Curricula for Music in both Greece and Cyprus. She leads the Aesthetic Education Team in the nationwide project for media-enriched textbooks and learning objects' repository. More information as well as her publications can be found at http://scholar.uoa.gr/schrysos and at http://publicationslist.org/schrysos.
Dr. Donald DeVito is a music and special education teacher at the Sidney Lanier Center School in Gainesville, Florida for students with disabilities. He is a board member of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) and a facilitator in the online Masters in Music Education program at Boston University. He publishes extensively on networking universities, schools, and community-based music programs for the benefit of children with special needs throughout the world. He is currently developing a music and special education program at the Notre Maison Orphanage in Haiti, one of the few to accommodate children with disabilities.
Jay Dorfman is Associate Professor and Coordinator of Music Education at Kent State University. His writing has been published in several scholarly journals. He is the author of Theory and Practice of Technology-based Music Instruction (Oxford University Press, 2013). He is a former president of the Technology Institute for Music Educators (TI:ME). His research interests include the uses of technology in music teaching and learning; instumental music teacher education; and comprehensive and interdisciplinary approaches to music education. He holds BM and MM degrees from the University of Miami (Florida) and a PhD from Northwestern University.
Barbara Freedman has been teaching Electronic Music & Audio Engineering at Greenwich High School in Connecticut since 2001 and was named the 2012 TI:ME Music Teacher of the Year. She is the author of the book "Teaching Music Through Composition: A Curriculum Using Technology" published by Oxford University Press and a consultant, trainer, and frequent keynote presenter/clinician at state, national, and international in-service conferences. She holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Music in Performance from Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music City University of New York and a Professional Studies Diploma from the Mannes College of Music. She studied conducting at the Hartt School of Music, Westminster Choir College, and The Juilliard School. Barbara is currently pursuing a PhD in Learning Technologies through the University of North Texas College of Information.
Dr. Marina Gall has worked as a lecturer at the University of Bristol since 1999. For 16 years prior, she taught music at both primary and secondary levels. Currently she coordinates the one-year initial teacher education program for secondary school music teachers. She is also a board member of the European Association for Music in Schools (EAS). Marina's research focuses on children's use of music technologies in and outside the classroom. Her publications include European Perspectives on Music Education: New Media in the Classroom (2012), which details the role of music technology in education in 14 European countries.
Patricia A. González-Moreno is a professor of music education at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Mexico, where she teaches courses in music, music education, educational psychology, and philosophy. Before earning her Ph.D. in Music Education from the University of Illinois, she taught general music in basic education for seven years. Her published research includes studies on motivation, creativity, teacher education, knowledge mobilization, and professional development. In 2013, she was acknowledged as a National Researcher by the National Council for Science and Technology in Mexico. She has served as a board member of the International Society for Music Education (2012-2016).
Gena R. Greher is a professor of music education at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and the 2014/15 Nancy Donahue Endowed Professor of the Arts. Her research interests focus on creativity and listening skill development and the influence of integrating multimedia technology in urban music classrooms. Recent projects include: Performamatics, an NSF CPATH grant linking computer science to the arts; Soundscapes, a music technology intervention program for teenagers with ASD; and the Cambodian Culture and Heritage Project for Middle School Students. Gena received her Ed.D. from Teachers College Columbia University. Previously, Gena spent 20 years in advertising as a jingle producer and music director.
Ethan Hein teaches music technology and music education at New York University and Montclair State University. He maintains a widely-followed music blog at ethanhein.com and has also written for NewMusicBox, Quartz, and Slate. He is an active producer and composer, and you can listen to his recent work here: soundcloud.com/ethanhein. The Groove Pizza project grew out of Ethan's Master's thesis for the NYU Music Technology program. As a founding member of the MusEDLab, he has also contributed to Play With Your Music, the aQWERTYYon, and the IMPACT conference and workshop. He looks forward to continuing to grow the lab's suite of online music creation and learning tools.
Dr. Evangelos Himonides held the University of London's first-ever lectureship in music technology education and is now a Reader in Technology, Education, and Music at UCL Institute of Education. He currently leads the M.A. in Music Education at UCL IOE. He is Chartered Fellow (FBCS CITP) with the British Computer Society. As a musician, technologist, and educator, Evangelos has had an ongoing career in experimental research in the fields of Psychoacoustics, Music-Perception, Music-Cognition, Information Technology, Human-Computer Interaction, Special Needs, the Singing Voice and Singing Development. Evangelos has developed the Sounds of Intent free online resource soundsofintent.org.
Gillian Howell is a community music researcher and practitioner who investigates music initiatives in conflict-affected settings, refugee children's music experiences, and cross-cultural music leadership. She is a PhD candidate at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, and lectures in Community Music Leadership at Melbourne Polytechnic. An award-winning music facilitator and community arts consultant, Gillian has extensive experience as a leader of participatory music events that focus on improvisation and composing. She is a regular guest artist with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, festivals, schools, and other orchestras and community-based organizations throughout Australia, and has undertaken residencies in multiple post-conflict and developing countries.
James Humberstone is a lecturer in music education at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney. As well as focusing on the teaching of composition and technology, James's research interests cover a broad range of fields, including technology and innovation in education, musicology (experimental music and music composed for children), and non-traditional research outputs as a regularly commissioned composer.
Leah Kardos (b. 1979) is a composer/producer making eclectic music that often combines live instrumental performance with technology, location recordings and found sounds. She enjoys music that explores the communicative powers of timbre and psychoacoustic phenomena, memory and pattern recognition and the beauty of spaces. She has collaborated with performers and ensembles such as Ben Dawson, R. Andrew Lee, Laura Wolk-Lewanowicz, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, and Australian chamber orchestra Ruthless Jabiru. She is currently lecturing in music at Kingston University London, and is a signed artist with contemporary music label Bigo & Twigetti.
Dr. Ailbhe Kenny is the Lecturer and Coordinator of Music Education at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, Ireland. Previous roles include working as a primary teacher in a mainstream, learning support and specialist music teacher capacity; arts education officer at The Ark - A Cultural Centre For Children in Dublin; research fellow at St. Patrick's College, Dublin; and leader of numerous professional development courses. Ailbhe holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and has published internationally on music, arts and teacher education. A Fulbright Scholar, Ailbhe spent the Year 14/15 at Teachers College, Columbia University and New York University.
Benon Kigozi is a senior faculty member at the Department of Performing Arts and Film of Makerere University. He is the National President of the Uganda Society for Musical Arts Education (USMAE), President of the Pan African Society for Musical Arts Education and an elected board member of the International Society for Music Education (ISME). His research interests include ICT in music education, arts education pedagogy, music program evaluation, and cultural policy. He serves on editorial boards and has published extensively in form of articles, book chapters, and conference papers. Kigozi is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow (PAF) of Rotary International.
Professor Samuel Leong (Ph.D.) is Deputy Director (Academic Programs and Educational Innovation) at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He was Director of the UNESCO Observatory for Research in Local Cultures and Creativity in Education, Associate Dean (Quality Assurance & Enhancement) and Head of Cultural and Creative Arts at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. A contributor to over 100 publications including the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, Educational Psychology and Routledge International Handbook of Creative Learning, his recent research projects focus on Chinese creativity, multi-sensory arts learning, and innovative digitally-enhanced pedagogy for the performing arts.
Chee-Hoo Lum is an Associate Professor of Music Education at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is also Head of UNESCO-NIE Centre for Arts Research in Education (CARE), part of a region-wide network of Observatories stemming from the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Action Plan. Chee-Hoo's research interests include examining issues towards identity, cultural diversity and multiculturalism, technology and globalization in music education; children's musical cultures; creativity and improvisation; and elementary music methods. Chee Hoo is currently the co-editor of IJME (International Journal of Music Education), has published two edited books, and numerous chapters and referred journal articles.
Roger Mantie (Ph.D., University of Toronto; M.M., Brandon University) is Associate Professor at Arizona State University. His teaching and scholarship are informed by his fourteen years as a school music educator. His work emphasizes connections between schooling and society, with a focus on lifelong engagement in and with music. A widely published author, he is co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Music Making and Leisure (2016).
Michael Medvinsky has engaged learners/musicians in creating and expressing through music for ten years. He earned his Masters of Music in Music Education from Oakland University where his focus was general music and music technology. He is currently an instructional technology integrator advising Pre-K through fifth grade teachers on designing learning experiences where experiential learning encourages thinkers to look closely, think deeply, and wonder incessantly. Working in education with an engineering background, Medvinsky advocates the integration of technology and global collaboration into learning environments. Medvinsky actively shares ideas with practitioners and co-authored a chapter for Composing Our Future: Preparing Music Educators to Teach Composition (2012).
Dr. Bo Nilsson received his doctorate in Music Education at Malmö Academy of Music, Lund University in 2002. Bo is Reader in Music Education at the Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts, Lund University and Associate Professor at Kristianstad University, Sweden, where he teaches aesthetics and pedagogy at the teacher education programme and the public health programme. His teaching and research interests are children's musical creativity, music in special education, popular culture and ICT in music education, and public health. Bo was a member of the expert group that wrote the current music curriculum for Swedish compulsory school.
Dr. Heidi Partti (Doctor of Music, M.A. Applied Music Psychology) works as a postdoctoral researcher at Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki in Finland. Partti's research interests are initiated by a need to better understand the surrounding culture of music making, learning, and teaching so as to help the music education profession adapt and understand the rapid changes transpiring in today's popular and participatory cultures. Her articles on topics such as music-related learning communities, digital technology, peer learning, collective creativity, and the development of intercultural competencies in music teacher education have been published in numerous scientific journals and books.
An artist by training, Kylie Peppler is an Associate Professor of Learning Sciences at Indiana University. She engages in research that focuses on the intersection of the visual and performing arts, computation, and out-of-school learning. Peppler is the Director of the Creativity Labs at Indiana University as well as the lead of the MacArthur Foundation's Make-to-Learn Initiative. Peppler's research is currently or has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Education, the Wallace Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Moore Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Initiative.
Valerie Peters holds Bachelor's degrees in music and education from the University of Manitoba, a Master's degree in music education from the University of Northern Colorado, and a doctoral degree in music education from Northwestern University. She is currently a full professor of music education at Université Laval, Quebec City. She taught high school music in Montreal for 11 years. She is the recipient of a research grant to study intercultural music education, conducts research on music teacher working conditions and has been awarded a SSHRC Insight Grant to study artistic learning and youth arts engagement in a digital age.
Joseph Michael Pignato is a composer, improviser, and music education scholar. He currently serves as associate professor in the Music Department at the State University of New York at Oneonta, where he teaches music industry and technology courses and directs two ensembles that perform experimental music and improvised rock. His research interests include improvisation, alternative music education, and music technology. Additional details are available at joepignato.com.
S. Alex Ruthmann is an associate professor of music education and music technology at New York University Steinhardt where he teaches courses at the intersection of music, education, technology, design and entrepreneurship. Alex leads the NYU Music Experience Design Lab (MusEDLab.org), which researches and co-designs new technologies and experiences for music making, learning and engagement with youth, school, community, and industry partners. At NYU he co-developed the Play With Your Music MOOC in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab and P2PU. He works collaboratively with student and faculty researchers in the NYU Music and Audio Research Lab on applying user and experience design methods to music technology applications. Active in social media, you can follow his curated posts on music learning, teaching and technology as @alexruthmann on Twitter.
Jonathan Savage is a Reader in Education at the Faculty of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University. He is Managing Director of UCan Play, a not-for-profit company (ucanplay.org.uk) that runs consultancy, research and training as well as providing a point of sale for musical instruments, audio and video technologies. Jonathan runs an active blog at jsavage.org.uk and can be followed on Twitter @jpjsavage.
Gabriel Solis is a professor of music, African American studies, and anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. A scholar of historical ethnomusicology, he has done research in the U.S., Australia, and Papua New Guinea. His work focuses on musical racialization as a component of global modernity. In addition to the books Monk's Music: Thelonious Monk and Jazz History in the Making (2008), Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane (2014), and Musical Improvisation: Art, Education, and Society (2009, co-edited with Bruno Nettl), he is the author of articles and book chapters that have appeared in such journals as Ethnomusicology, Popular Music and Society, The Musical Quarterly , Musicultures, and Critical Sociology.
Sandra Stauffer is a professor of music education at Arizona State University. Her research and writing focus on musical creating, place philosophy, and narrative. Sandra is co-author/editor with Margaret Barrett, University of Queensland, of Narrative Inquiry in Music Education: Troubling Certainty (2009) and Narrative Soundings: An Anthology of Narrative Inquiry in Music Education (2012). She is also an author for K-8 music texts and online music learning platforms, and she has collaborated with composer Morton Subotnick in the development of his music-creating software for children.
Evan Tobias is an assistant professor of music education at Arizona State University, where his research interests and teaching include creative integration of digital media and technology, curricular inquiry, issues of social justice and equity, and integrating popular culture and music in music classrooms. His published work ranges from detailing students' hyphenated musicianship in a hybrid classroom to discussing project-based learning in music programs. He serves on the advisory board of The Music Educators Journal. Along with teaching courses in contemporary curricular and pedagogical approaches at ASU, Tobias heads the Consortium for Innovation and Transformation in Music Education (cdppcme.asu.edu) and maintains a professional blog at evantobias.net.
Rena Upitis earned her doctorate at Harvard University after completing degrees in psychology, law, music, and education. Before securing her current position at Queen's University, where she has been a Full Professor since 1995, Rena was a Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT. She has secured over $8 million dollars in research funding from government, foundations, and businesses. She has authored or co-authored seven books and has published over sixty peer-reviewed papers. Her most recent book, Raising a School (2010) was published with Wintergreen Studios Press. Rena is currently the Principal Investigator for the MEDA Project, Transforming Music Education with Digital Tools.
Lauri Väkevä is a professor in music education at University of Arts Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. A co-author of three books, he has also published book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals, as well as presented papers in international conferences in the fields of music education, musicology, music history, and popular music studies. His main research interests cover Afro-American music, popular music pedagogy, history of popular music, pragmatist aesthetics, philosophy of music education, informal learning and digital music culture. Aside of academic career, his work assignments have covered working as a musician, music journalist, general music teacher, and instrumental teacher.
Deborah VanderLinde Blair is Associate Professor of Music Education and the Music Program Director at Oakland University. She is co-editor of Exceptional Pedagogy for Children with Exceptionalities: International Perspectives (2015). She has also produced "Songs for You and Me," Illustrated Songs for Learners of all Abilities (iBooks). Deborah teaches graduate and undergraduate educational psychology, elementary & choral methods, and graduate qualitative research. Her research interests include the application of a constructivist approach to teaching and learning in pre-service and in-service music teacher education, and particularly in classrooms for learners with exceptionalities.
Dr. Janice Waldron is an associate professor of music education at the University of Windsor, teaching Music Education and Ethnomusicology courses. Her research interests include informal music learning practices, social media and music learning, online music communities, vernacular music, and participatory cultures. Dr. Waldron is published in Music Education Research, The International Journal of Music Education, and Action, Criticism, and Theory in Music Education, among others, and has upcoming chapters in the Oxford Handbook of Community Music, the Routledge Companion of Music, Technology, and Education, and the CMEA Edition 2015: Music and Media Infused Lives.
David A. Williams is an associate professor of music education and technology, and the Associate Director of the School of Music at the University of South Florida. His research interests center on the enhancement of teaching/learning situations in music education using learner-centered and informal learning pedagogies.
Ruth Wright is Associate Professor in the Don Wright Faculty of Music, Western University, Canada. She has served as Chair, Music Education (2009 to 2013) and Assistant Dean, Research (2013-15) at this institution. She received her Ph.D. in Education from this institution in 2006. She views access to socially and culturally inclusive music education as a basic human right for all young people. She is the co-founder, with Dr. Betty Anne Younker and Dr. Carol Beynon, of Musical Futures Canada, an informal learning music program. Her edited book Sociology and Music Education was published by Ashgate Press in 2010.
