The AEC is delighted to announce the speakers for the Annual Meeting for International Relations Coordinators 2018 at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire!

Plenary Session I: Keynote Speech – The changing landscape of music education in the context of the rise of Asia, particularly China; a perspective from Shanghai

Dandan Zhu, Project Manager, International Exchange Center, Shanghai Conservatory.
Dandan Zhu has worked in the area of external relationships at Shanghai Conservatory since 2007, and has published the Chinese translation of Joseph Kerman's Contemplating Music: Challenges to Musicology, with Dr Tang Yating.

Plenary Session II: Link or Sink – UK, Europe and the rest of the world
Vivienne Stern, Director of Universities UK International.

UUKi represents UK universities around the world and works to enable them to flourish internationally. Prior to her role in UUKi, Vivienne was Head of Political Affairs at Universities UK. In this role she led the sector’s response to several major pieces of legislation relating to universities, including the Higher Education Act 2004. 

Plenary Session III: Link and Synch – Case Studies on Internationalisation of Curricula
Lars Andersson, Director of Education and associate professor at Malmoe Academy of Music.

His areas of expertise are within lifelong learning, quality assurance/enhancement, learning outcomes, teaching methods and pedagogy in Swedish music education. Currently, the Lars is involved in the network working group since 2014 and Chairman of the AEC Pop/Jazz Platform network in Europe since 2017. 

Marianne Løkke Jakobsen, Director of International Affairs, Director of Music Confucius Institute; Member of RDAM distance learning development team.

Marianne has been employed by the Royal Danish Academy of Music since 2000. Since 2012, Marianne has been fully engaged in the establishment of the world's first Music Confucius Institute (MCI) in cooperation with the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and has been engaged deeply into the question on how to integrate the diversity of Chinese Music traditions into the tradition of Western Classical Music.
If it is in your interest, you can find out more by reading the full programme of the IRC event. To register, please click on the registration tab of the event page.