Keynote Speakers

Professor Graham Welch holds the Institute of Education, University of London Established Chair of Music Education and is Head of the Institute's Department of Arts and Humanities. He is elected Chair of the internationally based Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE) and a recent past Commissioner and Co-Chair of the Research Commission of the International Society for Music Education (ISME). He holds Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Sydney (Australia), Limerick (Eire), Helsinki (Finland) and Roehampton (UK) and has recently been appointed as a member of the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) review college for music. He has acted as a special consultant to (i) the USA National Center for Voice and Speech (NCVS) in Denver, the Swedish Voice Research Centre in Stockholm and UK Government agencies on aspects of children's singing and vocal development; (ii) the British Council in the Ukraine and Ministry for Education and Youth in the United Arab Emirates on education and teacher development; and (iii) the National Research Foundation of South Africa and British Council in Argentina on the development of national research cultures in music. Publications number over two hundred and embrace musical development and music education, teacher education, the psychology of music, singing and voice science and music in special education and disability. Publications are primarily in English, but also in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish and Chinese. He is on the Editorial Boards of the world’s leading journals in music education, including IJME, JRME, RSME, BJME and MER.

Lenia Serghi is Emeritus Professor of Music Education at the Department of Music, Ionian University. She studied Music at the Greek Conservatory and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Education at Bretton Hall College, University of Leeds, and Musicology at the Sorbone, Universite de Paris IV. She attended special seminars at the Orff Institute in Salzburg. She holds a Master's of Education from Boston University, USA and a Doctorate in Music Education from the University of Athens. She taught at the Pedagogical Academy of Cyprus, the Pedagogical Institute of Cyprus and the Department of Education at the University of Thessaly. She has published the books "Creative Music Education for our children" (1982/1995), "Drama Expression and Education of Children" (1987/1991), "Issues in Music and Music Education" (1994), "Preschool Music Education" (1995). She has published many articles and studies on education and musicology. She has participated and organized educational and musicological conferences. She has written music mainly for the theatre and for children.

Athanasios Dritsas was born in Athens 1960. Studied medicine in the University of Athens, qualified as an MD (1984). Specialized in Cardiology, he worked as registrar in the Dept. of Cardiology at Guy’s Hospital London (1987-1990). He worked as Research Fellow in Cardiology (1990-1994) at Hammersmith Hospital, Royal Postgraduate Medical, London. He has published scientific papers in high citation impact factor journals (Lancet, Journal of American College of Cardiology, American Journal of Cardiology, British Heart Journal, Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology etc) on subjects like cardiac arrhythmia, pacing, and cardiomyopathies. In addition to medicine he has studied harmony, counterpoint and composition in Athens with professors K. Kydoniates and G. Ioannides and also took seminars on composition in UK. He has composed works for piano, chamber music, songs on modern Greek poetry, music for movie documentaries and also for full symphony orchestra. His works have been presented in live concerts and recorded by National Radio 3, performed by groups of musicians members of the Orchestra of Colours (founded by M. Hadjidakis) and the National Symphony Orchestra of Greek Radio-Television (ERT). In Greece he was the first to introduce music as a clinical therapeutic tool in hospital practice (at the Onassic Cardiac Surgery Center) and he researches on music-medicine studying the hemodynamic and neuroendocrine effects of music in cardiac patients. He made a radio production (1999-2001) for Greek National Radio 3 under the title The Magic Flute during which he commented and presented music on the subject of the healing power of music. He is a member of the Hellenic Society of Cardiology, Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC), member of the American Association of Music Therapy (AMTA), International Society of Music in Medicine (ISMM). He has released the following CDs with his music: STRING IMAGES (chamber music for flute and strings, MUSICA VIVA 2002, Athens), HYDATOGRAFIES-WATER COLORS (chamber music for 1-8 instruments, PROTASIS MUSIC, Athens 2004), TWO CHILDREN STORIES FOR NARRATOR AND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (LYRA, Athens 2005). He has also produced CDs with work related to music therapy applications like THERAPEUTIC SOUNDS OF THE WORLD (a selection of pieces from classical and ethnic music indicated for the treatment of stress) produced by the well known Greek newspaper Eleutherotypia and MORFEAS-A sleep CD (Info Health eds, Athens 2005) in which the colaboration with the American anesthesiologist Dr. Fred Schwartz produced womb sounds and music which are utilized in order to introduce relaxation and sleep. He is also the author of a book titled MUSIC AS MEDICINE (Athens, 2003, eds. Info Health, Greek edition) in which all aspects of music therapy and music medicine are presented and discussed with emphasis on clinical applications of music in modern medicine. He is also the editor of the books MUSICAL ACTIVITIES AS THERAPEUTIC TOOL (eds. National Institute of Research, Athens 2003) and ART AS THERAPY (Eds. National Institute of Research, Athens 2004).