Lee Higgins (UK), Chair
Subject head for the integrated MA of Performing Arts Education,
Dance Theatre Practice, Contemporary Theatre Practice,
Community Music and Community Arts,
Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, UK

Lee Higgins is chair of the International Society of Music Education's (ISME) commission for Community Music Activity and joint editor of the International Journal of Community Music http://www.intellectbooks.com/. As a community musician he has worked across the education sector as well as within health settings, prison and probation service, youth and community, and orchestra outreach. As a musician he play guitar, mainly electric popular styles, Brazilian hand held percussion and Cuban congas. He has worked as a composer, primarily in collaboration with other art forms, particularly dance. His professional practice embraces a gamut of music genres, most notably samba drumming, improvisation, pop/rock, and music technology also combining the non-traditional performance space such as the use of site-specific and environmental possibilities in performance.

Joel Barbosa (Brazil)
Universidade Federal da Bahia
Escola de Música
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Joel Barbosa studied at the Tatuí Conservatory and UNICAMP. With scholarships from the Braziliam Government, he obtained his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Washington, Seattle. His research includes music education at community bands and in NGO, and clarinet performance. It has been published by ABEM, ANPPOM and ISME. He wrote the first Brazilian band method. He was editor of the ABEM and president of the Brazilian Clarinet Association. As clarinetist, he has appeared as soloist in Brazil, USA, Austria, Germany and Colombia. He teaches at the School of Music of Universidade Federal da Bahia and coordinates social projects.

Sylvia Chong (Singapore)
Associate Professor, Visual & Performing Arts AG
Associate Dean, Programmes Planning & Development, 
Foundation Programmes Office
National Institute of Education
Nanyang Technological University
1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore 637616
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Syliva Chong is an associate professor with the Visual and Performing Arts Academic Group, National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore. She is also the Associate Dean for Programmes Planning and Development. She is responsible for the planning and development of all the initial teacher preparation programmes at NIE. Her main music education interests are in  interdisciplinary studies and mass media and how these support local music curricula. Her research projects include an interdisciplinary project of music and language acquisition. She has conducted several school-based workshops and led the Nanyin Opera Troupe to perform in  the 2004 ISME World Conference in Tenerife.  Sylvia was a commission member on Music in Cultural, Educational and Mass Media Policies (1998 - 2002) and is currently a board member for Asia Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research (APSMER).

Don Coffman (USA)
Professor & Head of Music Education
2003 Voxman Music Bldg, 300 N. Riverside
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242-1795
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http://www.uiowa.edu/~musiced

Don Coffman is professor and head of music education. He teaches undergraduate courses in conducting, instrumental methods, and introduction to teaching music. His graduate courses include the psychology of music and techniques for researching and measuring musical behaviors. An active researcher in lifelong music learning, he is the former Chair of MENC’s Adult and Community Special Research Interest Group. He has served on the editorial board of the Music Educators National Conference's Journal of Research in Music Education and currently serves on MENC’s Music Education Research Council, the executive board of the Society for Research in Music Education. He is also a board member for the Community Music Activities Commission of the International Society for Music Education. His writings have appeared in the leading music education research journals. Professor Coffman directs the Iowa City/Johnson County Senior Center New Horizons Band, which provides an opportunity for "chronologically gifted" adults to learn or reacquaint themselves with wind and percussion instrumental music.  In 2006 he was honored for his work with his New Horizons Band with The University of Iowa President's Award for State Outreach and Public Engagement and the State of Iowa Governor’s Volunteer Award. 

Phil Mullen (Ireland/UK)

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Phil Mullen is an Irish community musician based in London and working in Southern England and internationally. He specialises in training community musicians which he did for Goldsmiths College, London University from 1990 to 2007. He now continues this work with a number of universities and community based training organisations. He directs a performance based educational project, the Open Ear Orchestra for the London Philharmonic Orchestra which focuses on composition and improvisation. He runs a 12 person community music team Soundpeople in London and the South east of England specialising in working with young people both inside and outside school environments. Phil has been involved with the ISME CMA since 1996 and was chair of the commission in 2004.

Nur Intan Murtadza (Canada/Malaysia)
Department of Music
York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Nur Intan Murtadza is an interdisciplinary researcher, curriculum consultant and musician. She is currently a Ph.D candidate in Ethnomusciology at York University, Canada and her research examines pedagogy as social practice. Her analysis draws from synthesizing theories and methodologies from ethnomusicology, philosophy of music education, phenomenology, movement analysis and non-textual paradigms. She received her Masters in Music Education from the University of Toronto where she examined world music programs, particularly the gamelan ensembles in elementary and high schools. As a curriculum consultant, she has worked collaboratively with other team members in creating and implementing the Toronto District School Board’s World Music Learning Resource Program. In addition, she has conducted gamelan workshops/seminars at universities, museums and art galleries. Her community music activities include setting up a children’s gamelan group in Toronto, directing the York University Gamelan Orchestra and performing with various gamelan ensembles in North America.