The Music Education Teaching and Learning Lab
Welcome to METAL-LAB
The Music Education, Teaching and Learning Lab (METAL-LAB) conducts research and development focusing on instrumental music education in all contexts, the health, wellbeing and educational benefits of participating in music across the life span, and ecologies and communities created through music making in society. This network has been established with the primary aims of:
- Advancing the field of instrumental music pedagogy,
- Identifying wellbeing, resilience and flourishing from music participation
- Acknowledging and understanding musical communities and the ecologies they inhabit across various contexts in society
- Facilitating the planning, implementation, and dissemination of high-quality research and trials in these fields
Together with the Instrumental and Vocal Music Teaching Research Unit (IVMTRU) we conduct multi-disciplinary research to address critical educational and psychosocial issues, and translate theory to inform effective policy and practice. Our work demonstrates how individuals, communities and organisations can not only just succeed, but flourish and thrive through music.
We acknowledge the wide range of opportunities engagement with music can permeate our lives – instrumental and vocal music in schools and tertiary environments, wide ranging community groups, professional orchestras and organisations spanning a range of vocational performing groups and formal and informal learning experiences.
Dr Leon de Bruin
Senior Lecturer in Music,
Principal Researcher
Our people
Dr Leon de Bruin
Dr Leon de Bruin is Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Melbourne, Conservatorium of Music, and co-ordinator of the Master of Music Performance Teaching degree program (MMPT). He is a staunch advocate for quality instrumental music education and music teacher education in Australia. He is Australian Society for Music Education Past National President and an executive of the ISME Instrumental and Vocal Teaching Commission. His research work spans instrumental music teacher pedagogy and practice, creativity, educational psychology and performance science, community engagement with music, and phenomenological methodologies. He has published over 80 articles, book chapters and edited books, including: Revolutions in Music Education; Music Ecologies- Instrumental music ensembles around the world; and Guerrilla Music.
Dr Stephanie MacArthur
Dr Stephanie MacArthur is an Associate Lecturer in Music at the University of Melbourne where she contributes to the Master of Music Performance Teaching program. Stephanie is a string educator and cellist with over 25 years of experience teaching in school settings and is the Teaching Artist Team Leader for the Pizzicato Effect, a children’s community outreach music education program. Stephanie’s research focuses on the lived experiences of young musicians, with a particular interest in diverse needs. Stephanie aims to enhance understanding and support for young musicians through her teaching and research.
Professor Gary McPherson
Ormond Professor Gary McPherson is a multi-faceted music professional whose career includes performances as a trumpeter and conductor with various ensembles throughout Australia, three major longitudinal research studies involving musicians in Australia and the United States, and over 30 years as a University academic. Gary’s research has provided an increased and deepened understanding of how individuals develop wide-ranging musical skills. Investigating the biological, cognitive and social process involved in acquiring and applying musical competencies, and the personal, environmental and developmental factors that affect musical development, ability, identity, and wellbeing more generally, he is widely accepted as having had very considerable impact on both music education theory and, not least, its everyday international practice.
Linda Barcan
Lyric mezzo-soprano Linda Barcan teaches performance teaching and opera at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Linda’s extensive performance career spans work as Assistante de Langue Etrangère at the Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Lyon, and performances at the Opéra de Lyon and solo and ensemble engagements in France and Germany. Returning to Australia she performs with Opera Australia. Linda’s affinity for 20th and 21st century opera, oratorio and chamber music has seen her collaborate with numerous scontemporary opera and classical music companies. An advocate for contemporary art song, Linda champions Australian female composers including Art and Life (Linda Kouvaras) and The Domestic Sublime (Katy Abbott) and features on recordings for Virgin, Decca, Warner, ABC Classics, Move Records and Toccata Classics. Lindas extensive experience in secondary schools, performaing arts instititions across the world and on the stage supports her passion for quality vocl music eduction
Coady Green
Coady is one of Australia’s busiest concert pianists, and acknowledged as a major talent on the international concert circuit. During his eleven years based in London, he was twice the recipient of a Geoffrey Parsons International Prize (2008, 2012), a prizewinner at the International Two Piano Grieg Competition in Norway, and a recipient of awards from Tait Memorial Trust and the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia. He has performed in over 25 countries in the leading concert halls including Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, St Martin in the Fields, Cadogan Hall, St James’s Piccadilly, Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Recital Centre, Shanghai and Beijing Concert Halls, Salzburg Mozarteum.
Coady teaches piano and pedagogy at the Conservatorium of music, and presents in the MMPT degree program
Dr Anthea Skinner
Dr Anthea Skinner’s research into disability music focuses on professional musicians with disability, their creative output and career pathways, as well as adaptive musical instrument design. Anthea is currently the coordinator of Melbourne Youth Orchestras’ Adaptive Music Bridging Program providing instrumental music education to children with disability. She is currently a McKenzie Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. Anthea has published her research in prestigious journals including Disability and Society and Sexualities and has numerous chapters in books published by Cambridge University Press and Brill.
Dorothy Li
Dorothy Li is an educator, piano performer and researcher in music. She is currently a PhD student in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne, Australia. Her dissertation studies include the learning and teaching of imagery in music practice and performance. She teaches in the Master of music performance teaching degree program, performs as a piano soloist and has published and presented internationally in the areas of imagery and cognitive psychology, and qualitative methodologies.
Dr Margaret Osborne
Margaret Osborne holds an interdisciplinary appointment with both the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. She actively supports the mental and physical health needs of artists to achieve optimal performance and sustainable careers and has developed new curricula in performance psychology. She is notable for research in music performance anxiety, seeking to understand how learning and performance can be improved using self-regulated learning and emotion regulation skills, elucidating best-practice methods to build confidence, health and resilience in order to maximise performance potential in music and other performing arts, sports, public speaking and academic disciplines
Seminars and conferences
Our team regularly present seminars, conferences and research unveiling new research and literature. Contact us for information on our next presentations
FORTHCOMING CONFERENCES/SEMINARS
PD WORKSHOP: INCLUSIVE MUSIC EDUCATION AND STUDENTS WITH A DISABILITY
OCTOBER 19 9AM-3PM MELBOURNE CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC
LIVE STREAM LINK
Dangerous Music, Spaces and Places– Dec 5 and 6, 2025
Master of Music Performance Teaching (MMPT)
Find out more about other music performance teaching programs at the Conservatorium, and meet our teaching staff.
Learn more about the Master of Music (Performance Teaching)
Instrumental and Vocal Music Teaching Research Unit ( IVMTRU)
The Instrumental and Vocal Music Teaching Research Unit (IVMTRU) supports the development of evidence based disciplines of music education worldwide through research and research training. The Master of Music performance teaching degree program was established by Ormond Professor Gary McPherson in 2010 to provide what is now the only bespoke instrumental teacher training program in Australia, collaborating with local, national, and international stakeholders and performance teaching and music education institutions and academics around the world.
Master of Music Performance Teaching (MMPT)
As well as research programs, we also offer pathways for students to become instrumental music teachers through our Master of Music Performance teaching program.
Find out more about other music performance teaching programs at the Conservatorium, and meet our teaching staff.
Learn more about the Master of Music (Performance Teaching)
PhD research in Music Psychology and Music Education
Interested in research in music education or music psychology? Find out more about our PhD program and how you can contribute to the growing body of creative arts and music teaching and learning research.
Learn more about the PhD program
Contact METAL-LAB
Dr Leon de Bruin
E: Leon.deBruin@unimelb.edu.au