muzketier.nl

32nd EAS Conference - 10th ISME European Regional Conference
2025-06-04 00:00 - 2025-06-07 23:59 (Europe/Amsterdam) | University of Évora, Largo dos Colegiais 2, Évora, 7004-516, Portugal
The 32nd annual conference of the European Association of Music in Schools (EAS) will be held at the University of Évora (Portugal).
This conference is also the 10th European Regional Conference of the International Society of Music Education (ISME).
I will mentoring one of the doctoral students in the poster session on Thursday and I will be chair of the day for paper presentations on Friday.
As a board member, I will be involved in the symposium of National Coordinators and the General Assembly and the meeting with music teacher associations on Saturday. You can also frequently find me at the registration desk for membership issues.
Above all, I will take the opportunity to connect with other conference attendees and seek opportunities for collaboration with other institutions and colleagues.
Hope to see you at the conference!

Online Symposium”Geef Muziek De Vijf”
2025-05-21 15:00 - 17:30 (Europe/Amsterdam) | online
The online symposium Geef Muziek De Vijf (“High-vife For Music”), organised by NHL Stenden Hogeschool, Stichting Kunst & Cultuur and Méér Muziek in de Klas, focuses on the theme of cross-curricular teaching.
Alongside musical energisers and a panel discussion featuring Suzan Lutke, Allerd van den Bremen and Johan Sterken, the afternoon offers a range of inspiring workshops for teachers and teacher students, early childhood educators, subject specialists in music, and cultural education coordinators.
I have the pleasure of hosting two of these workshops—both centred on education that connects music, technology, and visual arts in meaningful ways.
In the workshop Hoor Wat Je Ziet (“Hear What You See”), Bert van Uffelen shows participants how music and technology can strengthen one another. Using the tool Watch That Sound, participants create a short soundscape based on an image and explore how music can contribute to digital literacy.
In the workshop hEAR DROPS, Hans Van Regenmortel introduces participants to animated, wordless visual stories. These online videos contain “a dose of playful ideas with sound and music, inviting subtle and sensory interaction with your baby, toddler, young child or pupil.”

Workshop at CVI conference
2025-05-14 16:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Amsterdam) | NH De Koningshof, Veldhoven Eindhoven, Locht 11, Veldhoven, 5504 RM, Netherlands
For the Dutch foundation Méér Muziek in de Klas (More music in the classroom), I am involved in a project promoting Arts and Culture education in schools for tertiary vocational education: Art Camp MBO. After a piloting project last school year, we are now in our first official year of this project. We have already had two editions: in Groningen and Utrecht. (more to come after the summer break).
At the CVI conference (14-15 May, 2025), on Wednesday, 14 May 4 pm CET – 5 pm CET, Christa Bos (Noorderpoort College, Groningen) and I take the opportunity to present this inspiring project to educators and management from other schools for tertiary vocational education. During a one-hour workshop, we will not only interactively share information about the content and experiences with organising Art Camp MBO, but together with the participants, we will also explore opportunities to implement the project in such a way that the implementation is structural.

Exploratory Workshop Subject Integration and Cross-curricular Education
2025-05-13 12:00 - 15:00 (Europe/Amsterdam) | private, Leiden, Netherlands
Together with Johan Sterken, Vivian Knols and others, I am involved in a national working group—set up by Dutch conservatoires and teacher training colleges through the MuziekOpleidersAkkoord. We have been exploring how teachers and partners in education can approach this theme.
Since 2020, the working group has initiated various activities to develop and share knowledge on cross-curricular teaching, including a lesson design competition, the production of knowledge clips, articles in professional journals, and workshops at study days, conferences, primary schools, and, like yesterday, cultural institutions.
The common thread in all these activities is a shared theoretical framework that identifies different forms of cross-curricular teaching, each varying in complexity. The key is to make conscious choices and ensure equality between the subjects you aim to connect.
In this workshop, we explore how cultural organisation can support schools in bringing subjects together, using this framework and the materials we have developed. We also discuss what cultural organisations might need to take on this role effectively.

Workshop: Formative Evaluation and Immediate Feedback
2025-04-11 09:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Amsterdam) | Teacher academy of InHolland University of Applied Sciences, Bijdorplaan 15, Haarlem, 2015 CE, Netherlands
This workshop is about formative assessment in teacher training in music. This workshop especially focuses on immediate, in-action feedback delivery and how this works when supported by interaction technology developed as part of doctoral research conveyed by Benno.

“I often found myself sitting in the back of a classroom, supervising my (music) student teachers as they practiced teaching. Often I wanted to support them by simply whispering a piece of advice in their ear, but I didn’t do that because it would disrupt their flow and undermine their authority. So my feedback approach was mainly based on post-session reflection. And yes, I combined it with cues and other desperate attempts to convey my feedback to the student, such as pointing, lip-synching, gestures, and facial expressions. Get the picture? Well, it never felt like the best approach.”

With the technology, educators can provide such feedback without disrupting the flow of teaching, allowing teachers to give private, actionable guidance at the exact moment it’s needed—helping students correct mistakes, build confidence, and stay focused.
This workshop is part of the study days of the Dutch network of teacher trainers in music. The workshop is therefore a closed session.

MuTechLab: DAW workshop
2025-04-01 09:30 - 12:00 (Europe/Amsterdam) | ROCKLAB, 5 avenue du Rock'n'Roll, Esch/Alzette, L-4361, Luxembourg
Benno will give a workshop for music teachers in Luxembourg on Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) in music education. The workshop is part of the MuTechLab series, organized by the Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences of the University of Luxembourg.
MuTechLab is a series of workshops, funded by the Luxembourgish National Research Fund (FNR, PSP-Classic), for music teachers who wish to dive into the wonderful and exciting world of music technologies, to explore their artistic and educational value and possible integration in the music classroom.
Guided by experienced MuTech teachers, participants will engage in hands-on experiences with different technologies, and afterwards discuss the lived experience of making music, combining their own instrument with the technologies. Discussion will be supported by Prof. Dr. Luc Nijs & Bahareh Behzadaval.
MuTechLab aims at “Promoting Science to the Public,” bringing music technology-related scientific knowledge closer to the Luxembourgish society, in this case the music educational community of practice.

4th European Day of Music in Schools
2025-03-14 11:00 - 11:30 (Europe/Amsterdam) | Limburg
The fourth European Day of Music in Schools (EuDaMuS) will be held online on March 14, 2025.
EuDaMuS is an initiative of the national coordinators for the European Association of Music in Schools (EAS) and European music teacher associations and is celebrated yearly at 15 March. Because March 15, 2025 is a Saturday, the online festivities will be held on March 14.
On behalf of the EAS board, Benno is EuDaMuS lead and coordinator of the EuDaMuS 2025 Team.

Online meeting: Moet muziek leuk zijn?
2025-03-11 19:30 - 21:00 (Europe/Amsterdam) | online
Four years ago, as part of the European Day of Music in Schools, together with LUCA School of Arts and the Dutch music teacher association VLS voor muziekdocenten we started a tradition of organizing an online get-together for music teachers and (music) teacher trainers in Belgium and the Netherlands.
After inspiring presentations from highly respected colleagues and researchers, it is now up to Bert Appermont and myself to give the participants of the meeting a head start on having wonderful conversations about what unites us: the best music education for our pupils and students!
This year’s theme is: “Should music lessons be fun?
Music education in Europe differs from country to country. While music education in Flanders and the Netherlands often is about enabling children to have “fun”, other countries show that we can make different choices.
Bert Appermont and I present videos of music education from Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Southern Europe and Great Britain. In break-out rooms we will discuss the question of what we could learn from this in the Netherlands and Flanders.
If you teach music in schools, please feel welcome to join the event (spoken in Dutch)
We look forward to seeing you there!

Day of the Music Educators' Agreement (MOA)
2024-10-09 10:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Amsterdam) | De Kempel, Helmond, Deurneseweg 11, Helmond, 5709AH, Netherlands
In 2000, all primary education teacher training institutions and all music conservatoires in The Netherlands signed a convenant for 12 years. In this convenant they agree to collaborate in improving music education in schools. The Day of the Music Educators’ Agreement is an annual celebration of the establishment of this convenant.
During the day, students and educators of the teacher training institutions and conservatoires can join workshops, presentations and other sessions about different topics relevant to music education and teaching/learning how to teach music.
For this edition of the Day of the Music Educators’ Agreement, I co-hosted a training session about subject integration. I was also part of a session about innovation in music education. My contribution was about the pilot project Art Camp MBO. This project is about how to engage students in secondary vocational education in practicing Arts and other cultural domains in their future work as primary school teacher assistants and employees in childcare and kindergarten.

National Coordinators' Symposium at EAS conference, Dublin
2024-06-14 16:15 - 17:45 (Europe/Amsterdam) | TU Dublin Conservatoire, East Quad, Grangegorman, Dublin, Ireland
Together with other NCs from different European countries I am part of the Symposium of EAS National Coordinators (NCs). In the symposium we reflect on the formation of the European Day for Music in Schools (EuDaMuS) and its impact on music education.
The abstract for tis symposium:
The European Day for Music in Schools (EuDaMuS), is an initiative of the European Association for Music in Schools and the European Music Teacher Associations which was initiated three years ago, with an attempt to highlight music education in each country as a way to celebrate collaborative musicking in schools from different countries all over Europe. While there are other celebratory days about music, EuDaMuS focuses holistically (vocal, instrumental, and composition) on music across all levels of music education. As there has been no research or official presentation yet on EuDaMuS, the purpose of this symposium is trifold: 1) To discuss the history, mission, and vision of EuDaMuS (and how it has developed over the last three years; 2) To have a sample of National Coordinators share their experiences with EuDaMuS and the impact it has had on their schools and external communities (the NCs will also discuss certain challenges they faced and how they overcame them); and 3) To have an open roundtable for all attendees to participate where we will discuss ideas on how we can make EuDaMuS even more of an enriching experience in the years to come, with a focus on music advocacy, and the role EuDaMuS can play in fostering the development of music education in each country. As such, this symposium will address the conference theme “Traditions in Transformation” and the question “How can music education meet the challenges of the contemporary classroom?”. Attendees will be asked to consider EuDaMuS’ role in curricula and pedagogy in transformation; agency, equality, diversity, and inclusion in the music classroom; music traditions, genres, and the curriculum, and technology in the music curriculum. We will close the symposium by sharing our ideas discussed in the different roundtables, which can then help shape the future of EuDaMuS.

Symposium about digitalization at EAS Conference, Dublin
2024-06-14 10:15 - 11:45 (Europe/Dublin) | TU Dublin Conservatoire, East Quad, Grangegorman, Dublin, Ireland
Together with colleagues from Germany, I will be part of the symposium “Navigating at the interface of digitalization, sustainability, and music education: Four perspectives for a sustainable post-digital music education” at the EAS Conference in Dublin. The symposium starts off with 5-minutes pitches. Then all participants have the opportunity to discuss the topics presented in a world café setting (open space) after we will conclude with a presentation of a summary of the discussions in an exhibition setting.
The abstract of the Symposium:
Our world today is confronted with multiple crises simultaneously. In addition to various approaches to solving these crises, there are high hopes for extensive digitalization efforts in the education sector and educational technology is often uncritically hailed as an “inherently forward-looking and optimistic endeavour” (Selwyn, 2021, p. 497). In contrast Buchborn et al. highlight music education’s dilemma, caught between environmental and social instability and technocratic determinism (2022, p. 265). It is precisely this interface between digitalization, the goals of sustainable education and music education that we would like to examine closely at our symposium. In music education research, examining digitalization processes has been delicate, often adopting a critical perspective in the past, not necessarily based on informed critique, but rather to uphold naturalistic polarizations against perceived ‘unmusical’ technologies and practices (Sachsse, 2021, p. 74). Despite this starting position, we see it as an important task for music education research to address the “substantial challenges” (Selwyn et al., 2021) associated with the increased use of educational technology in music education, especially against the background of increasing influence of commercial interests and the rapid pace of technological transformation.
The symposium will delve into this debate from various perspectives including the analysis of policy implications within European frameworks (Buchborn, Malmberg, Stade), the application of the maker education idea for music education (Treß & Droll), an inclusion-oriented approach to digitalization (Gerland), and professional development for sustainable futures in technology-enriched music education (Spieker).
Structured as a “World Cafe,” the symposium emphasizes interactivity, active engagement, and collaboration. Speakers will deliver concise 5-8 minute pitches, followed by participants freely moving between themed tables. As a joint result, there will be a visual representation of the shared ideas, needs, insights and discussions that were triggered by them and the four different pitches.
The topics that will be pitched and discussed:

Digitalisation from an inclusive perspective – 3 theses as a starting point for discussion. By Juliane Gerland (University of Münster)

Digitalization and sustainability in music education. Mapping European framework documents and policy papers. By Thade Buchborn (University of Music Freiburg), Isolde Malmberg (University of Potsdam), and Philip Stade (University of Music Freiburg)

Sustainably bridging the technology integration gap by transforming music teacher training. By Benno Spieker (University of the Arts Enschede)

Maker Education + Music Education = Maker Music Education?! Towards a sustainable and empowering use of music technology in the classroom. By Johannes Treß and Matthias Droll (University of Education Freiburg)

Workshop at EAS conference, Dublin
2024-06-13 14:30 - 2024-06-15 16:00 (Europe/Dublin) | TU Dublin Conservatoire, East Quad, Grangegorman, Dublin, Ireland
Workshop “Music & Subject Integration: six ways to transform the curriculum” at the EAS Conference 2024 in Dublin. I do this workshop together with Johan Sterken (NHL Stenden University) and Vivian Knols (Maastricht Conservatory). This workshop is like the sessions we did in The Netherlands at at the royal palace Noordeinde (The Hague) and at the Day of the music educators’ agreement (Zwolle) in 2023, and at the Panama conference (Zeist) in 2024.
The abstract of our workshop:
Music and subject integration, the theme of this workshop, is important for music educators because it can significantly transform the way they teach. Besides the debate about whether you are in favour of the subject-oriented approach or the opposite[1], main questions remain: What exactly is meant by integration? And how can we put this into practice in a responsible way?
From a collaboration of all teacher academies and conservatories in the Netherlands, an expert team was commissioned to come up with solutions to promote the integration of music with other school subjects. This has resulted in six video clips that explain a theoretical framework through practical examples. Another outcome was the training of (future) teachers, both generalists and music specialists, in the form of workshops about subject integration. The workshop we would like to present at EAS is based upon this work.
The aim of our workshop would be to collaboratively design lessons or activities (projects) in which music is integrated with another school subject. First we will introduce six forms of subject integration, differing in complexity[2]. Secondly, the participants will design a lesson (or educational activities), thereby focusing on one of the six forms of subject integration.
The structure of the workshop will follow the same methodology as being used in one of the videos. The outcome for the participants is a better understanding of subject integration in general and especially when integrating music with another school subject. Also, very practically, we hope to see designs that deserve to be shared with colleagues too!
[1] De Baets & De Vugt (2016). Muziekpedagogiek in beweging: verdieping of verbreding?
[2] Our work is based upon a theoretical framework described by Gresnigt (2018): Integrated curricula: an approach to strengthen science & technology in primary education. PhD Thesis Eindhoven University of Technology

ArtEZ DME Showcases
2024-06-04 16:30 - 17:30 (Europe/Amsterdam) | ArtEZ Conservatorium Enschede, Van Essengaarde 10, Enschede, Netherlands
Presentations of the results of research by students of the bachelor Music in Education (year 3) in a poster and demo session. The research was conducted by the students as part of their weekly moLab course. In this course, students innovate music education through or based on technology or in a setting with technology.
Students worked on the following technology and subjects:
– Symphonic Emotions, an app with which can convert movement into music: how can you apply such an app in music lessons at primary school?
– Synthesizers for composing in the classroom (secondary education and conservatory)
– Virtual reality for practicing music pedagogy: differentiation in listening exercises

Panama conference, Zeist, Netherlands
2024-05-31 13:45 - 15:15 (Europe/Amsterdam) | Woudschoten Hotel en Conferentiecentrum, Woudenbergseweg 54, Zeist, Netherlands
Workshop together with Johan Sterken about integration of the subjects music and arithmetic/mathematics.

TEDxTwenteU, Enschede, Netherlands
2024-05-29 18:00 - 21:00 (Europe/Amsterdam) | Concordia, Oude Markt 15, Enschede, Netherlands
Presentation at the TEDx TwenteU event about what you can do to benefit from music.
