Symposia
The MEP Group organises annual symposia to provide an interactive space for networking, learning, reflection and discussion.
MEP Group Annual Symposium
29-30 Nov 2024
Helsinki, Finland
ACCESS!
Exploring access to music education through the lens of technology, brain research and urban policy!
Theme
The 6th annual symposium will convene MEP Group members alongside external experts to explore the critical theme of "access to music education," a cornerstone of the MEP Group’s "Global Compact on Music Education." This compact underscores the belief that universal access to music education is not just a privilege but a fundamental human right, vital to human development, cultural diversity and intercultural understanding. Music is deeply embedded in human identity and expression, making access to music education essential for the flourishng of both individuals and communities.
Throughout the symposium, we will address this central theme from multiple perspectives, examining the role of technology, brain research and urban policies in shaping access to music education. Discussions will explore how technological advancements are transforming and expanding opportunities for music learning, while also considering the potential challenges these innovations may bring. Insights from the latest brain research will shed light on the cognitive benefits of music education and the necessary levels of access to achieve these outcomes.
We will also take a closer look at the unique challenges and strategies related to access in different cultural contexts, with case studies from different countries. Sessions will provide valuable lessons on how to expand access to music education globally. Additionally, updates from MEP Group members and other experts will present new developments in music education from around the world, exploring the implications for funding and policy.
Throughout the event, discussions will consistently return to the core principles of the Global Compact on Music Education, reinforcing the idea that access to music education is essential for unlocking music’s full potential as a universal human right and a catalyst for social and cultural well-being.
View the Global Compact on Music Education!
Booklet Global Compact_2024.pdfAgenda
Day 1 – Friday, 29 November 2024
3:30pm – 4:30pm: Coffee & Musical Welcome
4:30pm – 6:00pm: Opening Session 1: Harnessing Technology to Expand Access in Music Education
This session examines how new technologies are transforming music education by broadening access and engagement while raising important considerations. Highlighting innovative educational tools, presenters discuss how these technologies democratise music education and creation and offer students more interactive learning opportunities. The session also addresses challenges, for example with Artificial Intelligence's role in personalising music education, offering adaptive feedback while sparking ethical concerns about potential over-reliance on technology and its impact on traditional learning. Presenters weigh whether increased technology usage truly improves outcomes, urging educators to balance these innovations with music education's cultural and pedagogical goals, ultimately guiding attendees on integrating technology thoughtfully.
Tom Gale, Founder, Solfeg.io
Mari Pritchard, Director, National Music Service, Wales & representative, Charanga (moderator)
Lauri Väkeva, Professor of arts didactics, University of Education, Helsinki
Haakon Kvidal, Head of team for technology in learning and teaching, Senior lecturer in music technology, Norwegian Academy of Music (online)
DINNER
Day 2 – Saturday, 30 November 2024
10:15am – 11:45am: Session 2: Providing Access to Music Education: Inspiring Country Profiles
Yukiko Tsubonou, Professor and Director of Institute of Creativity in Music Education, Japan (online)
Mari Pritchard, Director, National Music Services, Wales
Bridget Whyte, Director, Music Mark, England
Mae Murray, Music Education Partnership Group, Scotland
Marja-Leena Juntunen, Professor of Music Education, Sibelius Academy, Finland
Annika Mylläri, Head of Music, Centria University of Applied Sciences, Finland
NETWORKING BREAK
12:15am – 12:30: Session 3: Keynote: From Access to Outcomes: Evidence-Based Insights into the Cognitive Benefits of Music Education
This keynote will explore the current limitations and possibilities of what empirical research in cognitive music psychology can reveal about the benefits of music education. It will provide insights into how to critically evaluate the evidence, helping advocates distinguish between genuine findings and overhyped claims. Topics will include the duration and intensity of music education required for cognitive benefits, the differing effects of active music-making versus digital tools, and how brain impacts vary by skill level. By addressing common misconceptions, it aims to foster a nuanced understanding of research findings, highlighting both their promise and the importance of careful interpretation for effective advocacy.
Mari Tervaniemi, Research Director, Department of Education, Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, University of Helsinki
LUNCH
1:45pm – 3:00pm: Session 4: Access to Music Education in Creative Cities
This session explores cities' unique policies, approaches and challenges in providing access to music education, including the integral role of music schools within cities' broader arts and music education strategies. It will delve into the creative solutions these cities have implemented, the obstacles they’ve encountered and the lessons they have learned in striving for more equitable access. This session aims to inspire new ideas and collaborations among policymakers, educators and cultural leaders, underscoring the importance of music in building vibrant, inclusive urban communities.
Verena Tschira, Director, Music School, Hannover, Germany
Ulla Laurio, Senior Planning Officer, Arts & Culture Promotion, Helsinki, Finland
Annika Kukkonen, Education Manager, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
3:00pm – 5:30pm: Session 5: Updates on Developments and their Policy Implications
In this series of presentations, MEP Group members and other experts will provide insights into new developments in their countries and/or organisations and outline what makes these innovations unique, and the impact are they designed to have. They will also highlight why these innovations are relevant to policymakers, and how can they influence policies, including funding policies, in different contexts.
Part 1:
Maria Helena Vieira - APEM and CIEC Research Center/University of Minho, Portugal, Public music education in Portugal in general and specialized schools: what does the future hold?
Maria Olga Piñeros, Columbia, President, FLADEM (online)
NETWORKING BREAK
Part 2:
Kirsten MacLaine, Board Chair, Canada Coalition of Music Education (online)
Kārlis Jēkabsons, Department of Cultural Education, Leading expert of music education, Latvian National Center of Culture
Adriana Didier, Brazilian Association of Music Education
MEP Group Annual Symposium
23 - 25 October 2023
Scotland
In partnership with Creative Scotland
Joint Action for Music Education:
Collaborations & Partnerships
Theme
This 5th symposium focuses on the importance of collective efforts and collaborations in the field of music education. It brings together music education professionals to delve into the potential of partnerships and explore innovative and effective ways to enhance music education policies and practices globally.
In the realm of music education, networking, collaborating, and partnering hold immense potential for overcoming challenges, for instance those posed by limited policy support and insufficient resources, including financial backing. By fostering connections and alliances, music education actors can tap into a range of benefits that contribute to the growth and sustainability of the field, and do this in line with the principles laid out in the Global Compact for Music Education.
Participants from different continents will explore existing strategic alliances that provide insights into how the collective voice of music education actors can be amplified to address such challenges and to advocate for policy changes and increased support.
Agenda & Venues
Download draft agenda here!
Download background documents here!
23rd October 2023, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), Glasgow
Keynote Address by John Wallace CBE
Workshop on "Accessibility and Partnerships" led by Professor Stephan Broad, Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange, RCS
Lunch at the RCS
Opening Panel Discussion: National Insights: The Power of Strategic Music Education Partnerships in a GCME Perspective
Visit at National Piping Centre in Glasgow
Visit at Music Initiative "Tinderbox Sparks"
24th October 2023, Creative Scotland, Edinburgh
Welcome by Iain Munro, CEO, Creative Scotland
Panel discussions on new developments in terms of partnerships & collaborations from MEP Group Members and invited experts
Updates on new policy developments in Japan, Portugal and England
Meeting at the Scottish Parliament with Michelle Thomson, Convener of the Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Music
Whisky tasting followed by MEP Group dinner
25th October 2023, Creative Scotland, Edinburgh
General Meeting of the Scottish Music Education Partnership Group (MEPG), a network of over 70 music-based organisations with a Scottish focus which brings together the diverse music teaching constituencies, formal, non-formal, informal, in the public and third sectors - opportunities to meet and exchange information and contacts with all the main music education actors in Scotland!
Symposium ends at 1pm
***
MEP Group Annual Symposium 2022
30 Sept & 01 Oct 2022
Portugal
Implementing the Global Compact
Venue
The Symposium took place at one of the most beautiful seaside towns on the Portuguese Riviera at the Museum of Portuguese Music, which is a small museum housed in the Casa Verdades de Faria in Estoril, municipality of Cascais, Portugal, just 20 km outside of Lisbon.
National Music Museum of Portugal
Casa Verdades de Faria, Av. de Sabóia
1146, Monte Estoril - 2765-580 Estoril, Portugal
Theme
For over 2 years, more than 40 experts from around the world worked together to draft 6 universally valid, shared and proven principles of music education in the form of a Global Compact (GCME) that could serve as a common reference for all music education stakeholders. The Symposium brought together MEP Group members and invited experts to discuss how to engage with the GCME and use it for sharing best practice globally.
Download the GCME here.
Program
Designed to provide lots of space for networking, collaboration and reflection, the program provided the opportunity to meet professionals who share an interest in the GCME in a truly international context.
Symposium 2021
Cover Symposium.pdfTheme
This symposium provided best practice examples and an opportunity for open discussion of recent developments in the music education policy sphere in different countries and regions. Addressing the different stages of the process underpinnning the development and implementation of music education policies, the symposium showcased and analyzed different approaches to evaluating existing policies, influencing agenda setting, formulating policies, monitoring implementation, or engaging stakeholders. Bringing together music education specialists and policy-makers, it offered inspiring and critical insights on how some of the shared problems affecting the music education field are being addressed at the policy-level and help to identify possible steps for future policy actions.
Program
Presentations and panels from Australia, Canada, Brazil, the US, Scotland, Finland, India, Singapore and the OECD. More...
Supporting documentation
Finnish Music Education Vision 2030
Overview of Finnish Music Education System
OECD Presentation: Fostering Creativity and Critical Thinking in Music Education
Symposium 2020
The e-symposium “Rethinking Policies for Music Education in a Post-Pandemic World”, organized by the Music Education Policy Group from 28-30 October 2020, brought together 69 MEP Group Members and external experts from the music, culture and education ecosystems from 25 different countries. Discussing issues related to workforce development, music in schools and equitable access and participation in three virtual sessions, participants explored how the disruption caused by the pandemic may provide a unique opportunity to rebuild and reshape the field of music education and to rethink policies, including funding policies. Reflecting on how the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated critical inequalities and vulnerabilities, accelerated change in certain domains and brought into clearer focus areas that need further attention, discussions looked at what influential stakeholders across different levels would have to do to ensure that music – as a powerful form of cultural expression – can be used as an engine of reconstruction and, beyond that, what needs to be done so the global music education community can fully embrace a “new normal” that is based on equity and diversity and driven by its collective values.
Symposium 2019
The MEP Group held its inaugural symposium on "Policies for Unlocking Potential: Music & Creativity in Education" on 14-15 October 2019 in London, United Kingdom.
The symposium was hosted by the Arts Council England, one of the chairing organizations of the MEP Group. It was open for MEP Group member organizations and invited experts; it brought together policy-makers, practitioners and academics to share insights and culturally diverse perspectives with a particular focus on the link between music education policy and creativity within and beyond the public education system.
Info materials provided by participants:
Send, Inspire - Great Music for Every Child in UK Special Schools, Live Music Now
Projects Guri from Brazil and Arte para Crecer from Peru (video) and website of Teca Alencar de Brito
The Durham Commission on Creativity and Education, Final Report, 2019
Scotland’s Creative Learning Plan (2013) and related: ‘Creativity is the skill of the future’
‘A note of concern: The future of instrumental music tuition in schools’ Report. (Jan 2019), The Education and Skills Committee of the Scottish Parliament
Fostering Students' Creativity and Critical Thinking - What it Means in School, (book), OECD, 2019
ArtsEqual Research Initiative, Finland, Results
Presentations:
Shaping the Next 10 Years: Creative People, Cultural Communities and a Creative and Cultural Country; presentation by Hannah Fouracre, Arts Council England
Current Music Education Policies and Creativity: The FLADEM Perspective; presentation by Adriana Rodrigues Didier, Latin American Forum for Music Education (FLADEM)
The Embedded Artist: Challenges Higher Education Music Institutions Have to Face Against the Background of a Changing Job Market; presentation by Stefan Gies, Association of European Conservatoires
The OECD-CERI Project on Creativity and Critical Thinking Skills in Education; presentation by Carlos Gonzalez-Sancho, OECD
The Dilemma of International Regional Collaboration in a Global Artistic Scene, presented by Eline Wernberg Sigfusson, Nordic Culture Fund
A Norwegian Perspective on Teacher Education, presented by Jonas C. Romme, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
The Portuguese Association of Music Education and the Cantar Mais Project: Building Teacher Capacities, presented by Manuela Encarnacao, APEM
Music Education in Scotland, presented by Morag MacDonald, Creative Scotland