Chair
Michel Hogenes
Michel Hogenes is a lecturer of music education at the teacher education department and a researcher in the research group Youth and Development of The Hague University in The Netherlands. He also lectures pedagogy and psychology at Codarts, the Rotterdam School of Music.
Michel’s research interests are in the field of primary & early childhood education and music, with a focus on child development, and curriculum. The theoretical framework of his research is the cultural-historical (Vygotskian) approach.
Besides lecturing Michel conducts a community choir and he is also president of Gehrels Music Education, a Dutch association for music education.
Dr. Anna Rita Addessi /Italy
Anna Rita Addessi, PhD in Systematic Musicology, is researcher in Musicology and Contemporary Music and professor of Music Education at the University of Bologna (Italy). She was co-chair of the 9th ICMCPC-International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition and 6th Conference of ESCOM-European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, Bologna (Italy) 2006, and the scientific coordinator of the Conference of SIEM-Società Italiana di Educazione Musicale, Modena (Italy) 2007. Her main research interests are music education and artificial intelligence, training of music teachers, auditive music analysis, contemporary music, musical style and intertextuality.
Anna Rita has an active international profile; she has been visiting scholar at the universities of Gothenburg, Edinburgh, Granada, and Curitiba, and has participated in Erasmus exchanges with academic colleagues in France, Sweden, Uk and Spain. She has initiated in a number of collaborative research projects concerned with music technology, music education and musical style. She has published many academic articles in international journals on topics which reflect her wide range of interests across musicology and music education.
http://www.muspe.unibo.it/personale/addessi/schedaENG.htm
Laura Huhtinen-Hildén
Laura Huhtinen-Hildén (Master of Music, music therapist) has been working as the Senior lecturer in music education since 2007 in Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Finland. Since august 2009 she has been the Head of Studies in the degree programme in music. She is responsible for the early childhood music education programme and is coordinating research and development work in the degree programme. She is also leading the development of the studies in applied music education. Her areas of specialization are early childhood music education, arts integration and movement as a working method in music education.
She is the director of the EU-Project CultureBridge, which joins four cities (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen) in a project that aims to develop new models for broadening the use of music and arts education. This project is financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the State Provincial Office of Southern Finland.
She is studying for a PhD at the University of Jyväskylä. Her topic is music education students' significant moments during their studies and she is exploring how teacher identity and pedagogical competence develops during their undergraduate studies. She is interviewing the students to find out what the key issues are for them.http://kulttuurisilta.metropolia.fi
Jessica Pitt
Jessica Pitt feels as though she represents the many practitioners who are members of MERYC. She has over 20 years experience as an early childhood music educator, trainer and mentor. She has been a regular contributor to local authority training programmes for early years practitioners and library staff. Since 2004 she has taken an active interest in research in early childhood music. She is now involved in doctoral research at Roehampton University and is interested in the effects of group musical activities on participants in a Children’s Centre. Her research is funded by The Froebel Institute. She has been a trustee of PRESMA (Pre-School Music Association) and is a member of MERYC-UK. She believes in the tremendous positive professional development that can take place when practitioners and academics meet together.
Dr Stefanie Stadler Elmer
Dr Stefanie Stadler Elmer is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Zurich and Head of Music Research at the Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences, Zurich, Switzerland. She received her PhD from the University of Bern and her Habilitation from the University of Zurich. Important book publications are: Spiel und Nachahmung (play and imitation, 2000); Kinder singen Lieder (children sing songs, 2002). Her main interests in research and teaching concern the development of music and language, song singing, and methods to foster early development in these domains. She is involved in several research projects at national and international levels, e.g., as a collaborator in the AIRS (Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing), supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and UMSIC (usability of music for the social inclusion of children), an interdisciplinary project funded by the EU.
Affiliated members
Dr. Susan Young /England
Susan Young lectures in early childhood and music education at the University of Exeter, UK. She has published and presented widely on the topic of music in early childhood and is author of Music with the Under Fours, and co-author of Music in the Early Years. Her research interests cover many aspects of early childhood music including the role of movement in music, spontaneous musical behaviour, musical play between adults and children, the role of professional musicians in early childhood settings and popular music for young children. http://www.ex.ac.uk/sell/research/staff_profiles/index.php
Dr. Charlotte Fröhlich /Switzerland
Charlotte Froehlich graduated at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and completed her studies at the Mozarteum and Orff Institute in Salzburg, Austria. Her PhD thesis is "Being present - Being aware: Musical contributions to psycho social prevention".
She was the chair of ECME 2004-2006 (Early Childhood Music Education) in ISME (International Society for Music Education). Charlotte has taught in schools, music schools and Universities in Germany and Switzerland. She is involved with teacher training with a particular focus on teaching movement and music to groups of all ages mainly in Germany and Switzerland.
She publishes regularly in "die Musikpraxis". Her principal interests in musiceducation and research include the connection between music and movement, the principles of being in an ensemble and group teaching. Her actual articles and workshops are published on: www.imElement.net
Dr. Sven-Erik Holgersen PhD /Denmark
Sven-Erik Holgersen is associate professor at the Danish University of Education (DPU) department of Curriculum Research. MA in musicology and educational theory and ph.d. in music education. 2002-2008 a member of the Early Childhood commission of the International Society for Music Education, serving as chair 2006-2008. From 2007 chair of the Nordic Network of Research in Music Education.
Publications about music teaching and learning in early childhood including music and movement, music and language development, musical intersubjectivity.
Research interests: Young children's learning and participation in music teaching, the "favourite" perspective being phenomenological and hermeneutical with an emphasis on 'the lived body'.
Current research: Music teacher education in different institutional contexts.
Current teaching: Music education theory, music psychology, qualitative research methodology.
www.dpu.dk/about/svho