Dr. Guadalupe López-Íñiguez is a Spanish researcher, cellist, and educator whose interdisciplinary work bridges music performance, educational psychology, and pedagogy. She is dedicated to supporting musicians across all stages of development—nurturing their physical and cognitive growth, fostering socio-emotional wellbeing, and guiding the next generation of scholars and performers through mentorship and doctoral education.
She holds a permanent position as University Researcher in Instrumental Pedagogy and Performance Science at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki in Finland—one of the world’s leading institutions for music research and education. Since 2009, she has led or collaborated in multiple national and international research projects and received recognition through numerous awards and honorary titles, including Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia, and Docent (Associate Professor habilitation) at the Sibelius Academy. She earned her Doctorate in Psychology, applied to music education, from Madrid Autonomous University with honours and received the extraordinary prize at her alma mater, laying a strong foundation for her interdisciplinary research.
As an Academy Research Fellow funded by the Research Council of Finland, Dr. López-Íñiguez currently leads the major international project “The Politics of Care in the Professional Education of Children Gifted for Music” (2022–2027). This initiative explores how caring educational ecosystems can support gifted children in music to develop into healthy, agentic individuals while pursuing excellence and professionalism. Her broader research expertise also includes constructivist pedagogy and conceptual change, lifelong learning, musicians’ career development and employability, identity, motivation, wellbeing, and the psychology of music performance.
Dr. López-Íñiguez is co-editor of Learning and Teaching in the Music Studio – A Student-Centred Approach (Springer, 2022), Research Perspectives on Music Education in Ibero-America (Routledge, 2025), and Caring for Gifted and Talented Music Learners (Oxford University Press, in press). She has authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications, including journal articles, book chapters, and scholarly essays with leading academic publishers. Her expertise is widely sought after in the international research community—as a keynote speaker, peer reviewer, and expert advisor for academic journals, doctoral programs, research councils, and scientific committees.
Although her performing career is currently paused due to her academic commitments, Dr. López-Íñiguez is a classically trained cellist. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance from the Madrid Royal Conservatory and a Master’s degree in Period Cello Performance from the Sibelius Academy. Her recordings of the complete cello works by Gabrielli and Scarlatti (2018) and Mendelssohn (2019), released by Alba Records, received strong critical praise. Throughout her performing career, she has appeared at leading venues and festivals across Europe and the U.S., performing on baroque, classical, and modern cellos.
