RIAM at the Cluj-Napoca Art and Education National Conference with International Participation – Music Technology in Education and Culture (17th edition, May 8th-10th 2025)
Exploring Innovation, Inclusion, and Collaboration in Higher Music Education
Kim Fallen Bailey (RIAM)
Representatives from the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) travelled to Cluj-Napoca, Romania, to attend the Art and Education National Conference hosted by the “Gheorghe Dima” National Academy of Music (ANMGD) on May 8th and 9th, 2025. The event brought together educators, researchers, and practitioners from across Europe to explore how digital innovation and inclusive pedagogies are shaping the future of Higher Music Education Institutions (HMEIs).
Kim Fallen Bailey, specialist music educator and lecturer at RIAM, opened RIAM’s contribution with an engaging presentation titled “Technology in Music Education”.
Her session introduced a variety of assistive technologies, AI tools, and digital resources designed to enhance inclusion for students with neurodivergence and additional educational needs. Practical examples included:
- Notebook LM – converting written notes into audio podcasts to support auditory learners.
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) – transforming handwritten notes into editable digital text.
- Text-to-speech and speech-to-text applications – enabling greater accessibility for reading and writing tasks.
Kim demonstrated how thoughtfully integrating these technologies can help educators create more inclusive, responsive, and flexible learning environments, empowering students to engage with music education in ways that suit their individual learning profiles.
A highlight of RIAM’s participation was a joint presentation by Jessica Harris, Senior Music Therapist at RIAM, and Kim Fallen Bailey, alongside PhD and researcher Paula Mladin, from ANMGD entitled “Exploring Inclusion and Diversity in Music Education”. Together they presented on Work Package 4 (External Testing) of the IncluMusic Project, an Erasmus+–funded initiative involving five European universities and the Association of European Conservatoires (AEC).
Their presentation, reflected on the development of the IncluMusic e-learning course and training manual, designed to support HMEI teachers and administrative staff in fostering inclusivity for students with Special Educational Needs (SEN).
They discussed the transition from Work Package 3 (Internal Testing) to Work Package 4 (External Testing) — outlining the challenges initially encountered, such as inconsistent feedback and complex manual registration procedures — and the subsequent improvements introduced by partners during this phase. These included self-registration access links, embedded digital feedback forms, and clearer instructions for testers, resulting in more structured data collection and higher engagement rates.
The IncluMusic project aims to deliver two freely accessible online courses, accompanied by a comprehensive training manual available in four languages (English, Italian, Romanian, and Greek), focusing on both pedagogical and institutional practices for inclusivity.
Within the same plenary session held on May 9th, Jessica Harris led an interactive exploration of how music influences mood and emotion, inviting participants to listen to short musical excerpts — from Ella Fitzgerald to Ennio Morricone’s “Gabriel’s Oboe.” Attendees were asked to reflect on their individual emotional responses to these contrasting styles, emphasising how each person’s interaction with music is unique. Drawing from the work of scholars such as Tia DeNora and Robert Zatorre, Jessica illustrated how emotional engagement with music involves both psychological and physiological processes, linking listening to empathy, mood regulation, and self-awareness.
To close the session, Kim Fallen Bailey led an experiential workshop demonstrating how inclusive teaching can be achieved through multi-sensory learning. Participants were invited to engage actively in body percussion, rhythmic games, harmonic singing, and call-and-response exercises, illustrating that true understanding of music theory arises through doing, feeling, and experiencing.
Drawing from RIAM’s research on experiential and kinaesthetic learning, this segment showcased methods such as:
- Visual and oral association (using colour, imagery, and repetition)
- Movement-based activities (using rhythm and gesture to internalise tempo and phrasing)
- Collaborative music-making (to enhance communication and inclusion)
This interactive element reflected the IncluMusic project’s ethos: that inclusion in music education begins with active engagement, diversity of expression, and accessibility of experience.
In addition to the IncluMusic session, PhD researcher Paula Mladin of ANMGD presented the academic paper IncluMusic Course: An E-learning Platform for Building More Inclusive Conservatories (authors: Paula Mladin, Cristina Eleonora Pascu, Kim Fallen Bailey, Jessica Harris, and Andrea Lawrence) published in the ICT in Musical Field (vol. XVI, No. 1 / 2025) at the dedicated symposium Information and Communication Technology in Musical Field on May 8th, on behalf of the project consortium, followed by a Q&A discussion.
The wider conference featured speakers from several institutions, exploring the intersections of music therapy, technology, and pedagogy.
The Cluj-Napoca “Art and Education” Conference and this year’s edition entitled “Music Technology in Education and Culture” offered RIAM an invaluable opportunity to share expertise, strengthen partnerships, and exchange ideas with international colleagues. The presentations by Jessica Harris and Kim Fallen Bailey, highlighted RIAM’s leadership in developing inclusive practices within the IncluMusic project and their own conservatoire in Ireland and demonstrated how technology, creativity, and empathy can converge to make music education more equitable for all learners.
The conference reaffirmed the shared European commitment to inclusion, innovation, and collaboration in Higher Music Education — values that remain central to RIAM’s teaching, research, and outreach work.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the National Agency for Community Programs in the Field of Education and Professional Development. Neither the European Union nor ANPCDEFP can be held responsible for them.