Welcome to the APME Liverpool 2025 conference. Here, you’ll be able to register for the conference and update your Sched profile. We encourage you to browse the various presentations and to create a custom schedule. If you have any questions, please visit our conference website or contact us at conference@popularmusiceducation.org We look forward to coming together as a community July 22–24, 2025!
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As modern band programs continue to expand across the U.S., so too has the presence of modern band honor ensembles. This session will explore the process, challenges, and innovations of modern band honor ensembles, from audition to performance, with an emphasis on student agency and musical diversity.
Students are often initially hesitant to participate in musical activities, due to cultural differences, or the fear of making a mistake. One method of overcoming this reticence is to incorporate the principles and games of improvisational comedy into the lesson plan. Designed by Jake Cassman, a former music director and performer at Second City theater in Hollywood, this workshop gives educators the chance to learn about and participate in the activities that improvisers have used for generations to encourage play, focus and community.
This doctoral research explored the development of a framework aimed at transforming UK music education to be more inclusive, diverse, and equitable, particularly for Black pupils. This research aims to offer concrete recommendations for educators and policymakers to foster a more culturally responsive and equitable music education system that resonates with and benefits all students.
Metadata is the key to connecting artists with their ideal audience and unlocking lucrative sync opportunities. This demonstration will discuss its significance, how it boosts discoverability, and how it can supercharge your music career. Additionally, this session provides educational tips on teaching good metadata habits to young aspiring artists.
The presentation of a simple visual decision-making model for use by musicians and music educators that guides all types of musicians to identify the different types of day-to-day decisions they encounter and make more informed choices.
This paper considers the implications and impact of social media algorithm biases which – rather than serving to diversify the types of musicians represented in the mainstream – may actually serve to reinforce status quo societal and cultural norms, biases and stereotypes against female musicians, musicians outside the gender binary, fat musicians, musicians of colour, and disabled musicians.
his presentation introduces a four-step framework for hybridising metal and Iranian classical music as a model for inclusive, student-centred music education. It explores the facilitator’s role in guiding students through cross-genre composition, fostering cultural diversity and creativity. The session invites feedback on implementing this approach in diverse educational contexts.
This presentation will nuance the treatment technology's enculturation and audibility in order to suggest a growing area between the audibility of technology and its understanding and perception. This therefore leads to a conflation of technological sonorities and human vocal technique which can have a huge effect on the vocal health of new learners.
This study analyses gender representation in the German Top 100 Charts (2014–2024), focusing on songwriters, producers, and artists. Using web scraping and a pronoun-based self-identification system supported by Chartmetric, it compares this approach to traditional methods, offering a replicable framework for tracking gender diversity in the music industry.
Songwriting camps, structured for intensive collaboration, have influenced higher education by highlighting essential creative skills. This paper, based on the Songwriting Camps in the 21st Century (SC21) project, examines how these camps teach interpersonal dynamics, adaptability, and teamwork, preparing students for professional songwriting through immersive, industry-aligned educational experiences.
Teaching students to think independently requires a reexamination of ingrained cultural biases. This demonstration will discuss some of the ways in which curricular structures, creative projects, and collaborative experiences in popular music education may be designed to interrupt the feedback loop of social normalization and foster independent artistic thinking.
In teaching performance, we rely on conceptual analysis to assess and feedback on performance quality. But audiences experience performance as something far more immediate and visceral. In this talk, I discuss a method for measuring audience experience as a series of visceral responses. But is this valid or hopelessly flawed?
The promotion of technology often attempts to associate with prevailing trends: words such as 'crypto', 'metaverse' and 'A.I.' can be used almost to the point of meaninglessness. This paper discusses historical and current examples of algorithmic processing, machine learning and generative A.I. and their changing use in music production and pedagogy.
This presentation explores how strategic collaboration can sustain Lancashire’s grassroots music ecosystem. Through practice-based research, we identify key challenges, propose solutions, and highlight efforts to build a talent pipeline with local education services—ensuring industry growth, stronger networks, and long-term sustainability for the region’s music sector.
The PLR Toolkit: Practice-led Research and Inclusivity in Postgraduate Music Industry Education presents results from the introduction of PLR to a postgraduate MA in Music Industry HE which pushes the boundaries and conventions of academic research and extends the possibilities for future practitioner researchers, creating an inclusive and diverse learning space and a vital toolkit which connects students to music industry employment opportunities early on in their careers,
The BIG question: How can we balance the old with the new... academics with originality? In this session, we’ll explore ways to update music curricula so students get the best of both worlds, strong foundational skills alongside the creative tools they need to thrive in today’s professional music scene.
