Lukas Pairon founded the international scholarly platform SIMM (Social Impacts of Music-Making) on the role of music-making plays in social and community work. In 2022 he created with a team at the University and the University College of Ghent the first academic chair on social action and music-making (Chair Jonet). Following his work as co-founder…
Ellen Waterman is Professor and Helmut Kallmann Chair for Music in Canada at Carleton University. Her interdisciplinary research in music and sound studies engages with improvisation, community-engaged research-creation, Deaf and disability-led music, and participatory sonic arts for social change. She is also a flutist/vocalist specializing in creative improvisation. Ellen is Founder and Director of the…
Marco Battaglia MD is Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus at the University of Toronto. Before moving to Canada in 2012, he served as an academic and a clinician at leading biomedical institutes in Europe and North America. His research interests are in developmental genetic epidemiology, preclinical models of anxiety and psychobiology. Additionally, he plays traditional Irish…
In 2015, Eric Booth was given his nation’s highest award in arts education, and was named one of the 25 most influential people in the arts in the U.S. He began as a Broadway actor, and became a businessman (his company became the largest of its kind in the U.S. in 7 years), and author…
Emma Cunliffe is the Director of School Partnerships and Pathways at the Music in Secondary Schools Trust (MiSST). With over 25 years of experience in music education, Emma began her career as a secondary classroom music teacher and went on to become Head of Music at a large comprehensive school. She has since held leadership…
Dr. Erin Parkes holds a Ph.D. in music education from McGill University with a focus on adaptive music education and teacher training. In 2012, Dr. Parkes founded Lotus Centre for Special Music Education, a charitable organization committed to providing access to music education for people with exceptionalities. Dr. Parkes presents at conferences and guest lectures…
Gabor Maté is a retired physician who, after 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience, worked for over a decade in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness. The bestselling author of five books published in 43 languages, including the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts:…
Dr. Imogen Flower is a researcher based in Montréal, Canada. Her work focuses on the potential of community music-making within grassroots feminist and 2SLGBTQIA+ activist movements. Funded by the Guildhall-SIMM studentship, her PhD (2018-2023) examined the social impact of making music within the sex worker rights movement, focusing on the case study Sex Worker’s Opera….
A musicologist and sociologist, Irina Kirchberg is the Executive Director of the Centre for Innovation and Applied Research in Arts and Social Engagement (Artenso). She produced the first Panorama des pratiques de médiation de la musique au Québec (2020), edited an issue of the Revue musicale de l’OICRM (2020) and an issue of Intersections (2025)…
MusiCounts teacher of the year for 2025, Jeannie Hunter is currently head of Special Education and Fine Arts at Nepean High School in Ottawa, Jeannie Hunter has taught instrumental music, percussion, vocal music, band, choir, guitar, piano, orchestra. jazz and music for community living over the past 30 years. The recipient of an OCDSB Director’s…