Music, Education and the Arts: Issues, Ideas and Connections

From the perspective of music, this presentation will highlight current issues in arts education. Links will be considered between music and arts education, and the broader field of research in education. Drawing on the music, writings and practice of the Russian composer and educator Dmitri Kabalevsky, Professor David Forrest will discuss ideas around music and the arts for children. The place of the teacher is discussed along with pedagogical implications in the education and arts policy contexts.

David Forrest is Professor of Music Education in the School of Art at RMIT University, where he is the Higher Degree Research coordinator and program manager of the MA (Arts Management).

He has been a member of the National Executive of the Australian Society for Music Education since 1995. He is the editor of the Australian Journal of Music Education and the Victorian Journal of Music Education, and a member of the numerous national and international editorial boards. From 2006–2010, he was a Board Member of the International Society for Music Education, and later Chair of ISME’s Commission on Music Policy.

He has published six books on doctoral education in music, art and arts education, as well as three books on the Russian composer and educator Dmitri Kabalevsky. In 2006 he was awarded the inaugural Fellowship of the Australian Society for Music Education, and in 2015 an Honorary Life membership of ASME.

This session will be moderated by Dr Edmund Chow, Programme Leader of LASALLE’s MA Arts Pedagogy and Practice. As an applied theatre practitioner, he has used the arts for training, education, research, and therapy in schools, psychiatric hospitals, prisons, and in conflict zones.

Image credit: "Selected Works by J.P.E. Hartmann” by Sigfrid Lundberg is licensed under CC BY 2.0