ResearchWorks: Rethinking Health in Tertiary Music Education

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An unprecedented international consensus-building exercise brought together 125 contributors across 31 countries and six continents — researchers, clinicians, educators, music students, student representatives, performers, policymakers, and disability advocates — many of whom would never ordinarily find themselves in the same room. Their shared a goal: to agree on what genuine health promotion in music education should look like. What emerged is both practical and ambitious. The group reached consensus that the stress, injury, burnout, and marginalisation so many musicians experience are not inevitable — they are shaped by systems that institutions have the power to change. Together, they developed seven adaptable recommendations: from transforming institutional culture and governance, to empowering students as advocates, to embedding health across the curriculum.

Whether you are a student navigating the pressures of music training, a performer reflecting on your career sustainability, or a leader wondering how your institution can do better — this conversation is for you.

Join us for a panel discussion with contributors to this landmark project, exploring what systemic health promotion in music education looks like, and what it will take to get there.

Panel: Tim Palmer, Raluca Matei, Sean Gregory, David Dolan  

Dr Raluca Matei is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society and a Doctoral Research Supervisor at Birkbeck, University of London. She has spent the past decade researching the health and wellbeing of musicians. Originally trained as a professional violinist, she studied at the Menuhin Academy under Maxim Vengerov. She holds a PhD in psychology and musicians’ health and recently completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Performing Arts and Health at Johns Hopkins University in the United States. She is also a Researcher in Health and Wellbeing at The King’s Foundation, UK. Alongside her academic work, she supports individuals, small groups, and arts organisations through training, coaching, and policy consultancy.

Sean Gregory is Vice Principal and Director of Innovation, Engagement & Lifelong Learning, responsible for the development and delivery of a range of collaborative, socially engaged and wider lifelong learning programmes across Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Alongside working as a composer, performer, and creative producer, he has led participatory arts projects for all ages and abilities in association with many British and international orchestras, opera companies, theatres, galleries, and arts education organisations. Sean has previously held a range of roles at the Barbican and Guildhall School of Music & Drama, including Director of Creative Learning, Head of the Centre for Creative and Professional Practice and Head of Professional Development. He also set up and ran the Guildhall Connect programme which won the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2005 for its pioneering music leadership and creative ensemble activity with young people in East London.

Tim Palmer is Head of Learning & Teaching at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, having previously been Head of Music Education at Trinity Laban. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Music Education, and has published in a range of formats, with a recent focus on play and its relation to conservatoire pedagogies. Tim also maintains a performing career as an orchestral percussionist/timpanist: he performed for many years with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta and is a principal member of the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and the Springhead Constellation.

David Dolan, an international concert pianist, researcher, and educator, has devoted part of his career to reviving the art of classical improvisation and its performance applications. In his worldwide solo and chamber music performances, he returns to the tradition of incorporating extemporisations within the repertoire as well as performing extemporisations.
His research focuses on applying expressive narrative and creativity to repertoire and improvised solo and ensemble performances in close collaboration with Imperial College, London and the Max Planck Institute in Frankfurt.
Professor of classical improvisation and its applications to solo and chamber music performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, he heads the Centre for Creative Performance and Classical Improvisation. He also teaches at the Yehudi Menuhin School and conducts masterclasses and workshops in major music centres and festivals worldwide.

(Illustration credit: Kai Crockett)