Author Description

The SEMPRE 40th Anniversary Conference was hosted by the Institute of Education, London (UK) from 14-15 September 2012. The event showcased leading international research and celebrated SEMPRE's activities and achievements over the past 40 years. In order to reflect the celebratory nature of the conference, a range of special sessions was offered, bringing together distinguished members of the Society as well as other eminent researchers, enabling discussion of the challenges and opportunities for future work. It featured keynote presentations as well as addresses and roundtable panels by distinguished members of the Society, including current and former Chairs and Journal Editors: Professors Graham Welch and Eric Clarke, Dr Desmond Sergeant, Professors Raymond MacDonald, Susan Hallam, Jane Davidson, David Hargreaves, John Sloboda, Margaret Barrett, Gary McPherson and other distinguished colleagues, including Professor Alf Gabrielsson (SEMPRE Lifetime Achiever), Professor John Baily (SEMPRE Ambassador for Afghanistan), Dr Charles Plummeridge and Dr Gordon Cox. The event afforded opportunities for small-group discussion, while postgraduate students were given the opportunity to sign up for individual tutorial sessions with established scholars from the Society. The Conference Dinner (Friday evening) took place at The Russell Hotel and included the launch of Special Issues of the Society's journals Psychology of Music and Research Studies in Music Education as well as enabled scholars to meet with publishing representatives at SAGE. The conference also included comprehensive displays of material associated with the Society by SAGE (journals) and ASHGATE (SEMPRE book series).