In this section you will find short introductions of people who are active participants of MERYC and working as a researcher and/or practitioner in Early Childhood Music Education.

 

Guidelines for members.

If you would like to be added to this page, please send a short bio to website@meryc.eu
- max of 250 words
- photo max 75kb

To be eligible for inclusion you should have at least participated in one MERYC conference.

 

 

Linda Bance

is a music educator specialising in singing and music making with children in their early childhood. She is renowned nationally and internationally for her passion and work promoting music as an essential part of children’s development and wellbeing.

Over the past 30 years her path has been varied and whilst always committed to her local work with community music, dance and drama groups for children and families, she has led projects within Children Centres, works with many practitioners in Music Services and Early Year’s departments and lectures at the Faculty of Education, Cambridge.

Linda currently works alongside the CBeebies team in a new music programme and lately has been successful publishing the book Voiceplay with Oxford University Press.

As well as making a contribution to research in Music in education Linda is a member and co- chair of the Primary focus group for National Association of Music Educators. N.A.M.E. Her mission is to promote a creative approach to music making celebrating the children’s efforts as those that we as adults should take lead from.

www.playmusicplay.co.uk & musicwithmum21@btopenworld.com

 

Margareta Burrell

is a qualified Dalcroze Teacher (Geneva 1976) and Music Therapist. She has worked extensively with Early Years and Special needs children in Scotland and England. She has been leading a First Steps Programme (Youth Music) at Coram Family Centre, London since 2000, lately focusing on Staff training.

Margareta works as a music therapist at Castle Road Clinic, Dover (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service CAMHS).

Margareta lives in Cranbrook, Kent, UK.

 

Nancy Evans

is Learning Manager for Birmingham Contemporary Music Group [BCMG] and a freelance musician and trainer working in early years education. Nancy has worked as a musician in a range of early years settings, on long and short-term projects in Birmingham and the West Midlands. Currently, she is musician-in-residence at Adderley Children’s Centre in Birmingham. In collaboration with Cynthia Knight, Director of St Thomas Children’s Centre, she co-devised and is co-leading, Musical Moonbeams, a long-term project involving musicians working in Childrens' Centres across Birmingham.

Nancy has conceived and led training programmes for musicians and early years practitioners working in early years settings for a range of organisations including: Birmingham Early Years Training Team; Sound Futures (Birmingham’s Youth Music Action Zone); Make Some Noise (Staffordshire’s Youth Music Action Zone); Wolverhampton City Council, The London Symphony Orchestra; The Wigmore Hall; MusicLeader West Midlands; The University of York; 20,000 Voices; The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic; and, ARCPA (the Arab Resource Centre for Popular Arts), Beirut.

Nancy is the main author of Tuning in to Children, a Youth Music publication created to support Youth Music’s Cluster programme which involved orchestral and other musicians working in Children’s Centres across England. She is a member of the editorial board of http://www.teachingmusic.org.uk website and a trustee of the Tippett Foundation.

Lucinda Geoghegan

graduated in music from Edinburgh University in 1982, gained a postgraduate teaching qualification at Moray House College of Education and trained with the Kodaly Institute of Britain where she gained an Advanced Diploma in musicianship with Distinction.
She worked as a secondary music teacher in Edinburgh before deciding to specialise in primary music education. Lucinda taught for 10 years as a visiting specialist in West Lothian delivering music in Nurseries and Primary Schools. She is currently a freelance musician and a regular member of staff with the British Kodaly Academy as well as a member of staff of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus. In September 2003 she became a member of staff in the Junior Department of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama teaching theory and musicianship as well as delivering a Kodaly programme with younger children.
Lucinda is currently the Education Consultant for the National Youth Choir of Scotland and her work increasingly includes Staff Development training across Britain presenting workshops on Kodaly methodology particularly in Early Years working with Sure Start, Bookstart , local authorities and Colleges of Education.
Publications written by Lucinda Geoghegan for NYCoS include: Singing Games and Rhymes for Tiny Tots, Singing Games and Rhymes for Early Years, Singing Games and Rhymes for Middle Years and with Christopher Bell she wrote Go for Bronze, Go for Silver and Go for Gold.

 

Margré van Gestel

obtained a degree as a primary school teacher (1976), a certificate Orff Schulwerke (1978) and a higher degree in Music Education (schoolmusic) from the Conservatory of Utrecht, (1993, the Netherlands). She also received a degree in Physical Remedial Teaching and as a NLP practitioner and NLP Master.

She was the co founder of the Music on the lap (Muziek op Schoot) courses in the Netherlands for parents and children, and the Music on the Lap teacher-training course. She has made extensive contributions to the development of the content of the MoL teacher training and the early childhood music courses for day care centres. Being an early childhood music educator since 1990, as well as a teacher of the MoL teacher training course, she has also given presentations at national and international conferences and as an (co)author has published articles and books on the subject of music in early childhood. In 2009 she was a member of the panel of reviewers for MERYC.

At present she is the chair of the Foundation Music on the Lap (Muziek op Schoot) and the Foundation Toddlers & Music in the Netherlands. Since 2008 she is part of the board of the international Early Childhood Music Education commission (ECME) and is a board member of the Dutch Foundation Zingenderwijs and the Dutch Gehrels Vereniging (INA member). Her main interest: music andÊquality music education availableÊforÊchildrenÊall over the world.

Contact: V_gestel@hotmail.com Website: www.zingendoemaarmee.nl

 

Alison Harmer

BA(Hons), is a music facilitator specialising in Early Years. She leads music activities for young children and families in private settings, playgroups, nurseries and Children’s Centres throughout Gloucestershire.

She is passionate about nurturing musicianship in others. Using performance and technical skills gathered over a decade at the BBC, she created “Music Ideas for Everyone”, a DVD sharing best music practice by Early Years practitioners from all over Gloucestershire, and later worked with another practitioner to create “Doctor Foster’s Music Box”, a highly-successful CD aimed at encouraging music-making at home.

Alison mentors many practitioners in Gloucestershire and is an Associate of the Institute for Learning.

 

Emma Hutchinson
BAhons LTCL FRSA, is a music educator, trainer and workshop leader. In 1994 Emma established The Music House for Children to provide instrumental tuition across London for children, as well as early years music provision in nursery settings and drop-in sites. In 2001 Emma acquired Bush Hall to encourage education and performance links, as well as to provide space for developing early years research and delivery.
The Music House has developed over the last fifteen years to support training in early years music provision, newborns and toddler groups, family based singing, musical story telling workshops and shows, as well as opportunities for youngsters to benefit from musical experiences in their beautiful performance hall.
Emma works with, and trains early years practitioners, parents and children's centres to encourage the integration of music making within homes as well as in schools. She has spoken at numerous conferences on the importance of music for young children, as well as the need for nurturing the family unit to give children the best start in life.
Emma is the author of "A little birdsong", "A little birdsong tale" and "A little birdsong Ð more tales", as well as commissioning an instrumental maker to create a bespoke early years instrumental basket for toddlers and their families.
Emma is married with 3 boys, 2 dogs and an array of wild life.
www.musichouseforchildren.co.uk

 

Rasa Jautakyte

is Associate Professor in the Pedagogical Faculty at the Klaipeda University (Lithuania) and Head of Art Pedagogical Department where she teaches a range of courses concerned with art and music education and therapy. Before joining Klaipeda University, since 1986, she studied at Lithuanian Conservatoire, grand- piano speciality and at the Vilnius university, in 1994, she received her PhD "Students Ð future music teachers music interests training by ethnic music".
Rasa has participated in a number of international projects and exchange programs. She has published many academic articles on topics of music education with interests spanning school change in Lithuania, musical enculturation in the family, traditional music and national identity. She has made more than 15 lectured reports in different conferences. Published one educational book and three books for students.
Her main research interests are music education, music training in pre-school and primary school age and music therapy.
Contact: rasa.jautakyte@gmail.com

Theano Koutsoupidou

is a Teaching Fellow in Music Education at the University of the Aegean, Greece, Department of Sciences of Pre-school Education and Educational Design, where she lectures at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. She also lectures for the CPD courses of the Department of Primary Education of the same university. She holds a Ph.D. in Education (University of Surrey, UK, 2006), a Post-Graduate Certificate of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (Roehampton University, UK, 2006) and a 1st Class Degree of Music Studies (University of Athens, Greece, 2002). She also holds degrees and diplomas in piano and clarinet performance.
She has taught at several music education seminars, and has presented her work at European and international conferences. She has also published research papers in international scientific journals (Psychology of Music, Music Education Research, Musicae Scientiae). Her research interests include children's musical development, teachers' musical training, and creative music teaching in pre-school and primary education. She has worked on a number of research projects in the field of education funded by government and European bodies including the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs and the European Regional Development Fund. She is member of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) and the Society for Education and Music Psychology Research (SEMPRE).
Contact: tkoutsoupidou@rhodes.aegean.gr

José Retra

PhD, is an early childhood music education researcher and practitioner and has given presentations at different conferences on the subject of early childhood music education.  Her research interests are a.o.  movement representation, symbolic representation, temporal representation and the use of objects in early childhood music education. In 2010 she founded the Preschool Music Education Centre with Manuela Korver, which is based in Amsterdam. This centre provides music courses for children from the age of 4 months to 4 years accompanied by a (grand)parent or carer, and music courses at day care centres. At the same time she created the RPMEgroup with Margré van Gestel. A research group for early childhood music education, which is a continuation of the Dutch Foundation for Toddlers and Music.
Contact: jose.retra@chello.nl Website: www.joseretra.com

 

Alison Street

PhD, has spent 30 years in early years music education, with particular focus on ways to foster support parents and carers give through their interactions from birth. She composed and compiled the musical materials for the PEEP (Peers Early Education Partnership) Learning Together programme from 1995 to 2000.Ê Her doctoral research (2006, Roehampton, UK) explored the role of singing in mother-infant interactions and its influence on engagement patterns.
Collaborative project coordination and research includes 'Music One-to-One' from 2004 to 2006, which explored ways of using music with children under two,Ê Musical Babies, with musicians and early years practitioners in early years settings in Birmingham, UK, and Time to Play, (2008-9)that focused on creative play with Muslim families with young children. She currently works in Oxford for PEEP, contributing to regional training, development and management and co-ordinates practitioner accreditation through Oxford Brookes University. She is co-author with Linda Bance of 'Voiceplay', published in 2006 by Oxford University Press.