Keynote speaker Focus Area I - across borders and musical cultures
Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Professor of Music, Composer and Director of the Irish World Music Centre, Ireland

Homepage: www.ul.ie/~iwmc/micheal.html

Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin's composition and music performance activity is mirrored in his work as an Ethnomusicologist. Along with the development of a uniquely Irish piano style, much of his composition to date has explored the diametrically opposed sounds of traditional and classical music. The case of border crossing in education in Ireland between the Western classical tradition and the traditional music of Ireland has raised many issues of international relevance. In his welcoming message at the Irish World Music Centre homepage professor Ó Súilleabháin maintains, "it is the combination of reflective practice along with the cross-genre aspect which lies at the core of the Irish World Music Centre. This cross-roads of learning is for all of us here - staff and students alike - a sacred space within which educational journeying takes place".

Keynote speaker Focus Area II - across music and other disciplines
Liora Bresler, Professor of Education, University of Illinois, US

Homepage

Liora Bresler is a Professor at the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She is also a faculty in the Campus Honours Program and Affiliate Professor in the School of Music. Bresler has been involved in a number of National research projects in the U.S., including the National Arts Education Research Centre and the College Board/Getty Institute's evaluation of Arts Integration in Academic Subjects. Her co-authored book Customs and Cherishing (with R.Stake and L.Mawbry) is based on a series of case studies of arts education in the U.S.

She has published numerous articles in several international journals of education, and has contributed chapters in various books including the first and second Handbooks for Research in Music Teaching and Learning. Liora Bresler has been a co-editor (1998-2001) of Arts and Learning Research journal and the electronic International Journal for Arts and Education (1999-). She is on the editorial board of several other journals i.e. the Journal of Aesthetic Education, Research studies in Music Education, Council of Research in Music Education, the Asia-Pacific Journal for Arts Education and the British Journal of Music Education. Two co-edited books: Multiple Paradigms for International Research in Education: Experience, Theory, and Practice and Culture and Context in Arts Education will be published in April 2002. Liora Bresler has visited universities in five continents, giving keynotes, seminars and courses.

Keynote speaker Focus Area III - across virtualities and realities
Morton Subotnick, Composer, the California Institute of the Arts, US

Homepage: www.mortonsubotnick.com

Morton Subotnick is one of the United States´ premier composers of electronic music and an innovator in works involving instruments and other media, including interactive computer music systems. He has composed for theatre and multimedia productions, for example "The Double Life of Amphibians", utilizing live interaction between singers, instrumentalists and computer, premiered at the 1984 Olympics Arts Festival in Los Angeles. He also has constructed several music making computer programmes for children, with the aim of providing an environment for them to experience creative play in the creation of music, just like playing with drawing tools, building blocks, puppets etcetera.

Morton Subotnick has received several awards, i.e. from the Rockefeller Grants, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Composer Award, and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Kunstnerzprogramm. Currently, Subotnick holds the Mel Powell Chair in composition et the California Institute of the Arts. He tours extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe as a lecturer and composer/performer.

Keynote speaker - opening ceremony:
Bergljót Jónsdóttir, Director of the Bergen International Festival

Bergljót Jónsdóttir is currently Director of the Bergen International Festival (Festspillene i Bergen), a position she has held since 1995. Ms Jónsdóttir has had a variety of positions in her homeland, Iceland, including the post as Director of the Iceland Music Information Centre. She has been active as music teacher for many years and teaching different levels from primary to university level. She has also been highly active in other professional activities, such as being board-member of the European Festivals Association and the NOMUS committee. Ms Jónsdóttir has a Diploma in Cultural Management and has a Master degree in Music Education from the University of Illinois, USA. In 1999 she was appointed Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

Plenary Speaker - SAMSPEL
Joan Armatrading, Singer and composer, UK

Homepage: www.joanarmatrading.com

For 30 years singer and composer Joan Armatrading has given the world songs,- songs crafty, subtle and sublime.

"I write," she says, "because I love it."
She was nominated twice as Best female vocalist for the Brit awards and also nominated twice for the American Grammy Award of Best Female Vocalist. She has received the Ivor Novella Award for Outstanding Contemporary Song Collection in 1996.

Her most recent achievements have included being nominated as one of the 100 most influential women in rock in the VH1 poll at the end of 1999. Joan graduated in June 2001 with a BA (Hons) degree studying history and in that same month was made an MBE. She received her award from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace in October 2001. Joan is also an Honorary Fellow of the John Moores University of Liverpool.

At the end of 1999 Joan was asked to write a tribute song for Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa. On April the 6th 2000, Nelson Mandela made a private visit to London and Joan, backed by The Kingdom Choir, had the honour of singing that special song entitled 'The Messenger' to him.

Joan recorded new songs at the end of 2001 for release in 2002.