Top position at worldwide music education goes to IOE professor
10 September 2008
Graham Welch, professor of music education at the Institute of Education, London, has been elected president of the International Society for Music Education (ISME).
The world body for music education, the ISME was formed at a conference convened by Unesco in 1953 "to stimulate music education as an integral part of general education".
Professor Welch, the second only English person to hold this office (the first was Gerald Abraham 1958-1961), was elected at the general assembly of ISME's world conference in Bologna in July.
He has published over two hundred books and articles on music education, holds several international visiting professorships, is on the editorial boards of world-leading journals of music education and has amassed research funding of over £1m in the past three years.
Notes for editors
Further information from Helen Green, press officer, +44 (0)20 7612 6459, h.green@ioe.ac.uk
Biographical information:
Professor Graham Welch holds the Institute of Education, University of London established chair of music education and is deputy dean of the Institute's Faculty of Culture and Pedagogy. He is elected chair of the internationally based Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE); a recent past co-chair of the Research Commission of the International Society for Music Education (ISME); and president- elect of ISME. He holds visiting professorships at the Universities of Sydney (Australia), Limerick (Eire), Helsinki (Finland), Canterbury and Roehampton (UK) and has recently been appointed as a member of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Review College for music.
He has acted as a special consultant to (i) the USA National Center for Voice and Speech (NCVS) in Denver, the Swedish Voice Research Centre in Stockholm and UK Government agencies on aspects of children's singing and vocal development; (ii) the British Council in the Ukraine and Ministry for Education and Youth in the United Arab Emirates on education and teacher development; and (iii) the National Research Foundation of South Africa and British Council in Argentina on the development of their national research cultures in music.
Publications number over two hundred and embrace musical development and music education, teacher education, the psychology of music, singing and voice science and music in special education and disability. Publications are primarily in English, but also in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Greek and Chinese. He is on the editorial boards of the world's leading journals in music education, including IJME, JRME, RSME, BJME and MER. External research funding awarded in the past three years as Principal Investigator (2005-2008) totals over £1m, with grants from major UK Research Councils, the European Community and leading Charities.
The Institute of Education is a college of the University of London, specialising in teaching, research and consultancy in education and related areas of social science and professional practice.