Sneak peek: What to expect from our 2025 Annual Conference
9th July 2025
Tickets are selling fast for our 2025 Annual Conference, where we’ll be exploring Ambition and Quality in music education at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham. It’s set to be an exciting and dynamic two days!
Earlier this year, we shared a call for content to allow you to shape the programme, and we received over 60 fantastic submissions. Whilst this made the selection process tricky, it provided an opportunity to create a balanced programme covering a wide range of topics, relevant to everyone working in the music education sector – whether you’re a teacher, a researcher, or working for any kind of music education organisation. Our Advisory Board reviewed the shortlist and provided their feedback to ensure the decision-making process was fair and representative of our membership before we made the final decisions.
You’ll have to wait until autumn to see the full programme, but here’s a sneak peek at what we’ve got planned!
Day One – Monday 17th November
We’ll be kicking off slightly earlier this year, with the first performance taking place before midday. We’re excited to have multiple performances from the Music Education Hubs East Midlands region across both days. The earlier start means we’ve extended our usual programme for the first day to bring you even more content, with four sessions in the main hall. Join us for registration from 11am, and start exploring our exhibition, featuring Industry Partners who can support your work!
You can expect to hear panel discussions explore what ambition and quality mean and look like in practice, and how to empower young people by embedding their voices into your work.
You’ll continue to be inspired into the evening as we hold the Music Mark Awards during the conference dinner. Across five categories – the This Is Not A Rehearsal Sustainability Award, Talk into Action Inclusion Award, Youth Initiative of the Year, Digital Project of the Year, and Unsung Hero – we’ll be celebrating the fantastic work taking place around the country. There’s still time to make your nominations – but hurry, they close on Monday 14th July at 5pm!
Day Two – Tuesday 18th November
Get ready for a day packed with inspiring content, starting bright and early at 9am. Highlights of the day’s 18 breakout sessions include a live podcast recording of ‘Make Your Mark: Notes on Music Education’, allowing you to get involved in our conference special, and a live Research Shorts, chaired by Dr Sarah K. Whitfield, providing a snapshot of just some of the research taking place in the higher education world, and beyond.
As usual, there’ll be performances, a keynote session, and plenty of refreshments throughout the day for you to enjoy as you explore the exhibition. We’ll be running Exhibitor Bingo again this year, giving you the chance to win a fantastic prize package provided by our exhibitors and sponsors. Hopefully by Tuesday afternoon, you’ll have filled in your card after having lots of productive conversations with our exhibitors, and be ready for the prize draw!
So, what are you waiting for? Early bird tickets are now available for a limited time, so book your place to join us in Nottingham.
