This Monday September 15 I am presenting alongside the inspirational John Hendry OAM for Box Hill Institute. This professional learning session will cover a lot of salient topics for creative art education right now: cultivating curiosity in the classroom, building rewarding relationships, and understanding the neurobiology behind our learning habits, the learning habits of our students, and what we can do to guide them toward engagement. If you, or you know someone who is interested in cultivating creative spaces, fostering quality relationships, and understanding how our neurobiology shapes our learning experiences, then please come along or share this link to other like-minded educators. https://info.boxhill.edu.au/music-and-creative-teacher-development-day/

I’m delighted to be presenting on Monday 15 September at Box Hill Institue alongside the incredible John Hendry OAM. My session, “Using Neuroscience to Cultivate Creative Learning Spaces” will bring to light the importance of understanding barriers to learning and ways in which we can facilitate positive experiences in the classroom or creative arts studio. In this current climate of hijacked attentions and short-span concentration, our responsibility to encourage active learning through tangible, hands-on experiences rather than passive production via third-party interfaces is more crucial than ever. I am honoured to present alongside John Hendry OAM, who is an accomplished and incredibly generous educator with over 50 years experience. He is a foundation member and consultant to The Flow Centre, has been a consultant to UNESCO on bullying and school violence, and is an all-round brilliant font of knowledge on relationships. Interested? Please click the link and register! https://info.boxhill.edu.au/music-and-creative-teacher-development-day/

Although the alarm is set to the horrific time of 2:45am, I am ultra excited to speak with Boston University Music Education doctoral students about writing a dissertation, doing research things, and organising data. I may not be all the way awake, but maybe the pure stream of consciousness may hit the mark nicely. We will see!

I am absolutely delighted to share that I have just signed a book deal with Routledge! I can't wait to bring "Multiple Memory Music Learning" to fruition. I hope that this work contributes meaningfully to unraveling the wholly unique and brilliant ways in which we learn music. From brain pruning to auto(in)correct, from flow state to the frustrations we musicians (and young learners) face when things go wrong, this book is intended to be a compassionate guide to knowing how our brains work specifically in the context of playing an instrument.

Nice to be laying down some tracks in the studio. Recording soundtrack bits and pieces for an Aussie remake of a BBC TV series… exciting!

Very very excited to be presenting next week at the Asia-Pacific Symposium for Music Education Research in Perth. This work, the automatic retrieval of recently-learned musical material, raises some fascinating questions about automaticity in instrumental music learning. I am looking forward to sharing my research into this topic!

Another huge day in NYC yesterday. Tour of NBC Studios, burgers, raccoon spotting, Central Park, a game of chess, Knicks vs. Pacers at Madison Square Gardens, lots and lots of celebrities cheering on the Knicks, snacks at the Seinfeld cafe, Bill fricken’ Murray.

Big day yesterday in the Big Apple. Oscar learnt about Canadian politics, a visit to Ghostbusters HQ, a trip to ‘Inter’ - a sort of science art museum installation thing, then to the Statue of Liberty (from afar), the to the 9/11 Memorial. This was sobering and required an immediate visit to a cat cafe. Then onto dinner in SoHo, then home time so Oscar could do his maths homework.

New York City. The Lion King on Broadway, a visit to the Empire State Building, cheesecake sampling, a bit of Times Square, and another broadway show, Glengarry Glenross with the amazing Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr. What a trip so far!!