Music education in collaboration with ISME

Funded by Making a Difference Awards

Recipient: Sandra Oberoi and colleagues

Date: December 2015 – present

For over a decade now, the Society for Education, Music, and Psychology Research (Sempre) has played a vital role in supporting music education initiatives in South Asia, particularly through its collaboration with the International Society for Music Education (ISME) and the involvement of Professor Graham Welch (UCL), past ISME President, and Chair of Sempre with fellow Sempre Trustees, Professor Adam Ockelford (Roehampton) and Professor Ian Cross (Cambridge), and other international colleagues, especially Professor Margaret Barrett (ISME) and Professor Richard Widdess (SOAS, London). Recognising the growing need for research-driven and culturally relevant music education, Sempre has provided financial and scholarly support for conferences and professional development programmes in the region, seeking to bridge the gap between global best practices and local pedagogical traditions.

Sempre has contributed to strengthening ISME’s efforts in South Asia by enabling knowledge exchange, grant funding, and facilitating networking opportunities for educators and researchers. In December 2015, Sempre’s collaboration with ISME, following seminars in Bangalore and New Delhi, led to the creation of the New Delhi Statement on Music Education and Engagement. This document identified pressing issues for the promotion, development and sustainability of music education and engagement in India for all people. These policy and practice recommendations were also discussed with leading national politicians at that time.

The region has since hosted four ISME South Asia Regional Conferences. The first was in Bangalore in November 2017 at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, followed by Kathmandu in 2019, online with the University of Visual and Performing Arts in 2021, then in 2023 at the KM Music Conservatory in Chennai. The 2025 conference is scheduled for Katmandu, Nepal. Sempre’s partnership with ISME has significantly enhanced the visibility and impact of music education research in the South Asia region, ensuring that educators have access to the latest research-based advancements in the field.