Keynote speakers
Suvi Saarikallio
Professor of Music Education
, Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies
Is music and emotion research an act of building a socially sustainable future?
Suvi Saarikallio is a Professor of Music Education at University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She holds a title of Docent in Psychology and her work broadly addresses music as a resource for psychological growth and wellbeing, emotions, embodiment, and social interaction. Saarikallio is a co-editor of the Handbook of Music, Adolescents, and Wellbeing (OUP, 2019) and she has conducted pioneering research particularly on music as emotion regulation in youth. Her work is published in journals ranging from music psychology to music education and music therapy. Saarikallio is the vice-president of ESCOM (European society for the cognitive sciences of music) and she is the European Commissioner for the Research Commission of ISME (International Society for Music Education). She is currently leading a 5-year ERC grant labeled MUSICONNECT – Music as youth empowerment: creating connection to self and others. She acts as a co-PI for the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain and for the University of Jyväskylä’s profiling area Social Sustainability for Children and Families.
Blanka Bogunović
Professor of Psychology and Education Science
University of Arts Belgrade, Faculty of Music
Personality of music students and its relationship to musical skills and accomplishments
Blanka Bogunović, with а Ph.D. in Psychology and B.A. in Мusic Performance (Flute), is affiliated as a Full Professor of Psychology and Education Science at the Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia, where she holds courses at Bachelor, Master and Doctoral studies. She is a guest professor at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade and Sarajevo Music Academy, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hercegovina. Having broad experience in teaching in the fields of music, education, and psychology, her research interests encompass topics that often have practical implications, covering the psychology of music, psychological foundations of music giftedness, development of music performance skills, emotional and creative processes in making music, specialist music education and its outcomes, and interdisciplinary studies in music and science. She is (co)author of six books, publishes extensively in journals, collective monographs, and proceedings, is a reviewer of international and national publications, and gives presentations at conferences in Serbia and abroad. Blanka Bogunović received the National Award “Dr. Borislav Stevanović” for outstanding contribution to Psychology in Serbia (2009) and was president of the Music Psychology Section at the Serbian Psychological Association (2006 – 2016) when it got the prize ‘’Ljuba Stojić’’ for contribution to the development of the psychology profession (2012). She is a member of the ESCOM EC (2018-2024), ESCOM representative for Serbia (since 2018), co-founder and coordinator of the Regional Network Psychology and Music (RNPaM, 2019), and originator of the Psychology and Music – Interdisciplinary Encounters Conference (PAM-IE Belgrade 2019 and PAM-IE Belgrade 2022).
Gary E. McPherson
Ormond Professor of Music
Melbourne Conservatorium of Music
The roles of self-determination and self-regulation in novice to expert musicians
Gary E. McPherson studied music education at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, before completing a master’s degree at Indiana University, and a PhD from the University of Sydney. He also holds a Licentiate and Fellowship in trumpet performance through Trinity College, London, and was awarded an Artium Doctorem Honoris Causa, Honorary Doctorate at the Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts, Lund University, Sweden in 2021. He is currently the Ormond Professor of Music at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and has served as National President of the Australian Society for Music Education and President of the International Society for Music Education (of which he is an Honorary Life Member). His research interests are broad and his approach interdisciplinary. His most important research examines the acquisition and development of musical competence, and motivation to engage and participate in music from novice to expert levels. With a particular interest in the acquisition of visual, aural and creative performance skills, he has attempted to understand more precisely how music students become sufficiently motivated and self-regulated to achieve at the highest level.
Fredrik Ullén
Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main
Gene-environment interplay in skill learning and expertise: what have we learned from research on music?
Scientific and musical CV: https://www.aesthetics.mpg.de/en/the-institute/people/fredrik-ullen.html