Paul Draper is Deputy Director of Research at the Queensland Conservatorium. He holds the Griffith University chair in digital arts and has a research background in higher education and music technology. Publications include commercial music recordings and articles on music education, sound production and web culture. He serves on editorial boards including AUC CreateWorld, the Art of Record Production, and the Journal of Music, Technology and Education.

Martin Fautley is a Professor of Education at Birmingham City University. Following many years in the classroom teaching music in comprehensive schools in England, he then undertook doctoral research looking at creative acts in lower secondary school general music classes, and how they might be assessed. In his current position he divides his time between being involved with the preparation of new entrants to the teaching profession, and researching teaching and learning. His research interests lie in the areas of music learning and assessment, with a particular focus on the ways in which assessment can be used in a developmental fashion.

John Finney is Senior Lecturer in Music Education at the University of Cambridge. His research interests include the relationship between public policy and classroom practice, assessment and the varieties of musical knowledge, and the professional lives of secondary school music teachers. John's recently published book Music Education in England 1950–2010: The Child-centered Progressive Tradition represents in some part a longstanding interest in the nature of the teacher–pupil relationship and the knowledge that they together share.

Jo Glover studied for a BA Music and Education degree and PGCE with the late Professor John Paynter at York University, 1969–1972. Since then she has taught in schools and higher education becoming Subject Leader for Music Education at Bath Spa University and Honorary Research Fellow in Music Education at University of Central England, now Birmingham City University, in 2001. She was a founder member of the editorial board of the British Journal of Music Education, and with Susan Young established and edited Primary Music Today magazine, also co-authoring books on music education with Stephen Ward and Susan Young, and publishing Children Composing 4–14 in 2000, all much influenced by Paynter's work. Since 2001 Jo has worked in community music and currently co-directs Castaway–Goole, a charity creating music theatre opportunities for adults and young people with learning and other disabilities.

Elizabeth Haddon is a Research Fellow at the Music Department, University of York, where she also teaches piano. Her book Making Music in Britain: Interviews with Those Behind the Notes was published by Ashgate in 2006. From 2006–8 she was a Research Officer for the ESRC-funded project ‘Investigating Musical Performance’ which led to international conference presentations and output in peer-reviewed journals. In her current work she explores aspects of instrumental and vocal pedagogy, particularly within higher education institutions.

Grenville Hancox has enjoyed a long career in music education teaching in primary, secondary and higher education. For the past 28 years he has worked in Canterbury Christ Church University both as Head of the Music Department and as Director of Music, appointed the first Professor of Music in the university in 2000 and awarded the MBE for services to music in higher education in 2005. For the past six years he has been a co-director of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health and is a performer and conductor.

Scott Harrison is the higher degree research coordinator at the Queensland Conservatorium. He teaches music and music education and publishes in the fields of masculinities and music and teacher identity. An accomplished singer, he has sung roles with major Australian companies and conducted choral and music theatre performance in Australia, Asia and the UK. He is a past president of the Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing (ANATS).

Janet Hoskyns is Acting Head of the School of Education at Birmingham City University. She has been a music teacher in secondary, primary and special schools as well as a teacher educator at Birmingham City University. She undertook her BA, PGCE and D.Phil under the supervision of the late Professor John Paynter at the University of York. Her D.Phil. thesis examined a ‘European Dimension in Music Education’ and her research has included a number of evaluations; most recently ‘Banded About’, a partnership project for music organisations and schools in Birmingham.

Stephanie Pitts is a Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Sheffield, with research interests in musical participation, concert audiences and music education. From 2002–7, she was joint editor of the British Journal of Music Education, and remains review editor of the journal. She is the author of A Century of Change in Music Education (Ashgate, 2000), Valuing Musical Participation (Ashgate, 2005) and, with Eric Clarke and Nicola Dibben, Music and Mind in Everyday Life (Oxford University Press, 2010).

William Salaman read music at Cambridge University, then trained as a teacher at the University of London Institute of Education. He played the French horn professionally for about eight years, then taught music in schools, lectured at University College, Cardiff, and served with Her Majesty's Inspectorate. Prior to retirement he worked as a freelance registered inspector, a lead inspector for the Independent Schools Inspectorate and as an advisor to the Government on Arts college applications. He served as co-editor of the British Journal of Music Education for five years and has had books, music and many articles published.

Jonathan Savage is a Reader in Education at the Institute of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University. He has a number of research interests, including implementing new technologies in education, cross-curricular approaches to teaching and learning, creativity and assessment. He is Managing Director of Ucan.tv (www.ucan.tv), a not-for-profit company that produces educational software and hardware. Free moodle courses are available at www.ucan.me.uk. Jonathan runs an active blog at www.jsavage.org.uk and can be followed on Twitter@jpjsavage.

Lauri Väkevä is a Professor of Music Education at Sibelius Academy, Finland. A co-author of two books, he has also published several book chapters and numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, as well as presented papers in international conferences in the fields of music education, musicology, music history and popular music studies. His main research interests cover Afro-American music, popular music pedagogy, history of popular music, pragmatist aesthetics, philosophy of music education, informal learning and digital music culture. Outside of his academic career his work assignments have covered working as a musician, music journalist, general music teacher and instrumental teacher.

Heidi Westerlund is a Professor of Music Education at the Sibelius Academy, Finland and is responsible for the doctoral studies in music education. She has published nationally and internationally in the field of philosophy of music education and has a special interest in musical agency and cultural pluralism. She is also conducting research in developing music teacher education and doctoral studies in music education. She is the editor of the Finnish Journal of Music Education and review reader in several international journals.