Panelists and session chairs

Romain Asselborn studied clarinet at the Conservatory of Esch/Alzett and the Conservatory of Luxemburg, receiving a Diplôme Supérieur and a Diplôme Supérieur interrégional in clarinet and chamber music. He continued his studies with Marcel Ancian, Rigobert Mareels and Jan Cober at the Royal Conservatory Brussels (Diplôme de 1er Prix), the Royal Conservatory Liège (Diplôme Supérieur), and the Zuid-Nederlandse Hogeschool voor Musiek Maastricht/Tilburg, where he received his master's degree in clarinet performance – classical music. From 1989 to 2000, Asselborn was solo clarinettist in the Luxembourg Military Band, and since 1990 he has been a clarinet teacher at the Regional Music School Grevenmacher, where he has also been the director since 1994. He has been president of the Luxembourg Music School Association (AEM) since 2017, a member of the EMU presidium since May 2018, and vice-president of the EMU since 2021.

Magdalena Bork (Mag.art., Dr.phil.) is a flautist trained in Hamburg and Vienna, a researcher in the field of musicians' studies, and head of the mdw talent lab - Support Center for Young Musicians. She completed her doctoral degree at the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with a dissertation entitled Dream Job Musician? Challenges of a Life Dedicated to the Arts (Schott, 2010). Following her doctorate, she initiated and worked on the artistic research project "Quo vadis, Teufelsgeiger?", funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).

Desiree Calzavara is an Italian cellist, educator, and researcher specialising in inclusive music education. She earned academic diplomas in both modern and baroque cello from Italian conservatories and holds a bachelor's degree in Interfaces and Communication Technologies from the University of Trento, with a thesis on the relationship between music and language. She also completed a first-level master's as an academic tutor specialised in inclusive music education at LUMSA University. She is currently a PhD candidate in education and social sciences at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, focusing on the professionalisation of instrumental music teachers. Calzavara teaches cello at lower secondary school level and coordinates music programmes, promoting inclusive practices and ensemble-based learning. She collaborates with higher education institutions on teacher education activities and is particularly interested in inclusive approaches to instrumental music teaching. As a performer, she is active in orchestral and chamber music on both modern and baroque cello. 

Dorothy Conaghan has a multidisciplinary background and professional experience in teaching mathematics, music performance, orchestral conducting and project management. This background served as an appropriate springboard for research in the fields of equality studies, social justice and human rights law. The president of University College Dublin (UCD) awarded her work the Mary Kelly Scholarship for Social Justice in recognition of "a lifetime commitment, passion and outstanding record of activism for equality and social justice in music education". An Irish Research Council awardee, research fellow and member of the Centre for Human Rights at the School of Law at UCD, Conaghan has served two terms on the board of the UNESCO-affiliated International Music Council and is an advisor for Arts for Health Austria. Guided by principles of equality and social justice, Dorothy Conaghan's research focuses on the legal, ethical and constitutional application of music education as a public good.

Júlia Espinet Alegre is an educator, researcher, and musician working at the intersection of music, education, and social justice. She has coordinated and taught music education programmes and community projects in high-complexity schools in Barcelona, where she developed interdisciplinary, arts-based learning approaches. She holds a BA in Music Pedagogy from ESMUC, with a specialisation in early childhood arts education, and an MA in Education Policy and Society from King’s College London, supported by a La Caixa Foundation fellowship. Her research explores access to arts education for migrant families in Catalonia, using qualitative and arts-based methods to examine educational and cultural policy. Alongside her work in Catalonia and the UK, she collaborates on international projects and teacher training initiatives in Mexico, and currently serves as an education advisor with the NGO Red Pioneros in Andalusia.

Csilla Gál was born in Veszprém, Hungary, and received her master's degree as a violin teacher at István Széchenyi University, Faculty of Arts, Győr. In her home town, she was deputy principal for eight years at the Antal Csermák Elementary School of Arts which counts nearly 1000 students majoring in music, folk dance or ballet. In recognition of her work, she was awarded the Certificate of Merit from the Ministry of Human Resources in 2020. Gál is currently a violin teacher at the school of arts, a public education expert appointed by the Ministry of Education, and a teacher educator for future kindergarten teachers at Pannon University. She co-organised several projects as a citizen of Veszprém, European Capital of Culture, as well as the MusiColours Seminar on early childhood music education in December 2022 and the MusiColours European Youth Music Festival in May 2023. Since 2021 she has been a presidium member of the European Music School Union and since November 2025 a board member of MusiQuE. 

Michaela Hahn's professional career brings together practice, research and European networking and advocacy in the field of music and art schools. For more than two decades, she headed the Music and Art School Management Lower Austria, significantly shaping the development of Austria’s largest music school system. Today she coordinates the Conference of Austrian Music Schools (KOMU), and works as a senior researcher at the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. During her professorship in music school research at the same university (2018–2021), she contributed to the development and visibility of this emerging field and initiated the European Music School Symposium in collaboration with KOMU and the European Music School Union (EMU). Since 2024, she has been president of the EMU. In this role, she is particularly committed to strengthening the active participation of young people and to making music and art schools more visible as essential educational and cultural actors in a changing society.

Anne Jordhus-Lier is Associate Professor of Music Education at the Norwegian Academy of Music. She has recently been involved in the research project The social dynamics of musical upbringing and schooling in the Norwegian welfare state (DYNAMUS), funded by the Research Council of Norway. Jordhus-Lier is educated as a music teacher and flautist and has worked for several years in compulsory school education and schools of music and arts. She has recently published in the journals Music Education Research, International Journal of Music Education and Research Studies in Music Education. Her research interests revolve around schools of music and arts, children's and young people's access to music activities and music education, cultural and educational policy, discourse theory, and sociology of music education.

Taru Koivisto is a postdoctoral researcher at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, working at the intersection of music education, music therapy, well-being, and socially engaged arts practices. She completed her doctorate in 2022 with a multiple case study on music practices in neonatal intensive care, eldercare hospital wards, and hospice contexts. Her areas of expertise include creative well-being, research methodology and ethics, and boundary-crossing professionalism. Alongside her research, Koivisto brings extensive professional experience across the lifespan, from early childhood to later adulthood, in education, healthcare, and diverse community settings. She has also led early childhood education services with a focus on music and ecological education. Currently, she serves as Secretary General of a national social and healthcare NGO, promoting healthy lifestyles and advancing social equality and equity among people of all backgrounds.

Marek Korbélyi is director of the Eva Randová Elementary Art School in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic. He is a member of the board of the Czech Association of Basic Art Schools (AZUŠ ČR) and serves on the board of the European Music School Union (EMU) where he actively contributes to the development of European cooperation in music and arts education. Within the EMU, he has been involved in strengthening collaboration between national music school organisations and has supported the establishment and activities of the Visegrad Regional Group. Since 2008, he has been the organiser of the Virtuosi per musica di pianoforte, one of Europe's longest-running international piano competitions for young pianists. He also leads the Youth with Philharmonics project, which connects outstanding students from Czech music schools with professional orchestras, enabling them to gain valuable artistic experience through public performances. Korbélyi's professional interests include international cooperation, cultural exchange, talent development, and the promotion of accessible, high-quality music education across Europe.

Chun Li is a doctoral researcher in the Research Study Programme at the Sibelius Academy Doctoral Programme and Research Centre. She holds a Bachelor of Education from East China Normal University and a Master of Education from Beijing Normal University. Her current research, Aesthetic care in music education professionalism: An action research project in a specialist music program in Finland, is funded by an EDUFI Fellowship awarded by the Finnish National Agency for Education and the University of the Arts Helsinki’s salaried positions for doctoral researchers.

Judith McGregor studied Instrumental Pedagogy (Viola) at the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and completed the master's programme in Music Mediation at the Anton Bruckner Private University Linz. She holds a doctorate from the mdw, where her dissertation examined music mediation in the context of instrumental pedagogy and the reconstruction of a collective professional self-understanding among instrumental teachers. Since 2022, she has been working at the mdw's Department of Music Education Research and Practice. From 2016 to 2022 she held positions at Music & Art Schools Management Lower Austria (MKM), with a focus on music mediation development and teacher training. She also contributes to professional networks and committees at both national and university level, including the Austrian Conference of Music Schools’ (KOMU) federal specialist group for string instruments.

Siw G. Nielsen is Full Professor of Music Education at the Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo, where she is co-director of the Centre of Educational Research in Music (CERM). She has published widely within the disciplines of sociology of music education and music education psychology. Recently, she co-authored and co-edited the 2025 book The Double Game of Music. Paradoxes of Power, Status and Class (Manchester University Press). She has also contributed to The Routledge Handbook to Sociology of Music Education (2021) and the Routledge Handbook of Music Psychology in Education and the Community (2021). Nielsen has led the Nordic Network of Research in Music Education (NNRME) for several years, co-editing ten of the NNRME’s yearbooks. She has worked as a music teacher in compulsory school education and in extracurricular schools of music and art and has served as a church musician and a choir conductor for amateur choirs.

Anna Pflügl was born in Graz, Austria, where she began her musical education at a local music school. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in instrumental and vocal pedagogy (IGP), majoring in flute, at the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, having also completed her bachelor's degree at the same institution. For the past five years, she has been teaching flute at a music school in Styria, combining her academic training with practical teaching experience. She has also recently begun training in psychotherapy in order to enrich her work as an instrumental teacher. 

Katherine Spencer is a flutist and music teacher originally from New Zealand. She teaches flute and JeKits at Bochum Music School, where she is also co-conductor of the school's junior youth orchestra. In addition, she teaches classes in woodwind didactics at the University of Music and Dance in Cologne. She holds master's degrees in research-based music pedagogy (Cologne), historical performance practice and instrumental pedagogy (Frankfurt) as well as under- and postgraduate degrees in flute performance (Auckland, Melbourne, Mannheim). In her master's thesis, What is Guilt doing in the Classical Instrumental Lesson?, she examined the historical contingency of the relationship between musical practice and discipline from a Foucauldian perspective. She is particularly interested in how forms of musical engagement outside the classical canon can inform and extend music school practices in innovative ways, as well as in the development of pedagogical talent within the music school context.

Edmar Tuul is an Estonian music school principal, conductor, and cultural manager whose work focuses on accessibility, inclusion, and community engagement in music education and cultural life. He is the founder and project leader of the Concert of Inclusion initiative, launched to promote accessibility in cultural events and equal participation in music. Through this work, he established Estonia's first Estonian Sign Language choir and has developed concert models integrating sign language interpretation, audio description, Braille materials, easy-to-read language, and other accessibility practices into artistic concepts. Tuul currently serves as principal of Viimsi Music School and has held leading roles in several major Estonian cultural institutions and national music events. In 2024, the Estonian Chamber of People with Disabilities recognised the Concert of Inclusion as an "Act of Significant Social Impact", and in 2025 he received the Estonian Ministry of Defence Gold Badge of Merit for his contribution to cultural life.

Robert Vroegindeweij has served as director of Muziekschool Zeeland since 2019. Based in the southwest of the Netherlands, the school supports 2,500 students and reaches 20,000 children each year through programmes in primary and secondary schools. Muziekschool Zeeland also runs major initiatives in the social domain, including programmes for elderly people in nursing homes, guided by its slogan, “A long life of music, long live music!” Vroegindeweij joined the presidium of the EMU in 2021 and, in 2025, became a member of the EMC board as representative of the EMU, AEC, and AES. He is also co-founder of the Cultural Board Zeeland, which develops new strategies to connect culture with other domains and works closely with the Economic Board Zeeland to strengthen local livability and the investment climate. He began his career as a professional flautist, deepening his love of art and music – a passion he believes must be passed on to children.