Jane Davidson is the Callaway-Tunley Chair of Music at The University of Western Australia in 2006, taking up the role on a full-time basis in 2008. Previously, she held the position of Professor of Performance Studies at the University of Sheffield, UK, having worked there from 1995-2006.

Jane Davidson comes to the role of President of MSA with a broad-ranging music background. As a researcher, she has worked in the area of performance studies, investigating musical expression from structural, analytical, perceptual and production perspectives. This work has ranged from empirical investigations of classical piano performances to historical enquiries into Hispanic Baroque (Spanish and Peruvian) performance practices. She has also researched the development of musical skills in various Western, Asian and African contexts. More recently, she has undertaken research pertaining to the therapeutic applications of music, working with music to enhance social capital and wellbeing experiences of isolated and marginalised groups such as older people and people living with a disability. Jane has served as Editor of Psychology of Music (1997-2001), and Vice-President of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (2003-2006).

In parallel to these research-related activities, Jane has also maintained a career in classical singing in UK and Europe, performing roles such as the alto soloist in The Messiah and Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte. She also has worked as an opera director with collaborators including the English virtuoso harp-soloist Andrew Lawrence-King and organisations such as Opera North and Dramma per Musica.

Esmeralda Rocha is currently a doctoral candidate in the School of Music at The University of Western Australia. Esmeralda’s research explores operatic performance practice across the British Empire during the Victorian Era, with the cities of London, Bristol, Calcutta and Melbourne serving as case studies. The study uses a multi-disciplinary approach to the examination of nineteenth-century performance practice, locating operatic practices and culture within each city’s unique social, political, economic and cultural context. Her research has seen her build a close relationship with scholars in the UK, particularly Professor Stephen Banfield at the University of Bristol and fellow affiliates of CHOMBEC (Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth). She is on the organising committee of CHOMBEC’s 2010 Conference ‘Worlds to Conquer’. She will also present a paper focusing on opera as a tool of colonisation in Victorian Calcutta at 19th Century Music’s 2010 conference at the University of Southampton.

Esmeralda enjoys teaching at UWA’s School of Music as a sessional tutor and lecturer, and hopes to pursue a career in academia. She is deeply committed to encouraging fellow postgraduate students to engage with the rich world of academia, and hopes to build MSA membership during her time as National Membership Secretary.

Robert Faulkner is presently Assistant Research Professor in the School of Music at The University of Western Australia. Previously, he lived and worked in Iceland for more than a decade and, prior to that, in London, UK. While living in Iceland, Robert played a leading role in national curriculum development, both in general school music and in community/instrumental music school contexts, especially in areas of early childhood arts and music, and children composing and improvising. He also instigated the first world music performance project of its kind in Icelandic schools – involving Zimbabwean marimba, mbira, dance and song. Robert has been head of a community music school, part-time lecturer in Music Education at the University of Akureyri and the Icelandic Academy of Arts in Reykjavik, and deputy chair of the Icelandic Music Schools Examinations Board since its founding in 2002 until 2008. He has extensive experience as a choral director of both children and adult choirs, notably the male voice choir Hreimur which has sung all over Europe and made several CD recordings.

Born in England, Robert studied singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, before obtaining an honours degree in music and a licentiate diploma in singing from the Royal Academy of Music. He completed a postgraduate certificate in music education at the University of Reading, and MA in music psychology with distinction at the University of Sheffield. Robert completed his PhD at the University of Sheffield with an investigation into vocal identity and the role of singing in Icelandic men's everyday lives – a study that spans phenomenological psychology, ethnomusicology, music sociology and gender studies. With Professor Gary McPherson (University of Melbourne) and Professor Jane Davidson (The University of Western Australia), Robert is currently engaged in an Australian Research Council project entitled Music in Our Lives – one of the largest longitudinal studies of young peoples' musical experiences from primary school to adulthood ever undertaken. Other present research projects also include: the role of music in the everyday lives of teenage girls through the use of visual auto-ethnography, the role of songs in migration.

Apart from articles in leading international journals, based both on his PhD research and research investigating children's composing, world music in the classroom, musical motivation, music and health, Robert has also written teachers' handbooks and journal articles in Icelandic. He has given papers and workshops in Sweden, Denmark, the UK, Northern Ireland, Canada and Australia.

Jonathan McIntosh is Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology in the School of Music at The University of Western Australia. Educated at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), Northern Ireland, in ethnomusicology, music and social anthropology, Jonathan was awarded his PhD in 2007. Whilst still a postgraduate student, Jonathan lectured and tutored on both the QUB Ethnomusicology and Social Anthropology undergraduate and postgraduate pathways. In addition, he directed several university world music ensembles, including: two Balinese gamelan ensembles (gamelan gong kebyar and gamelan gender wayang), a Balinese dance group (tari lepas), a Central Javanese gamelan ensemble, as well as a Korean percussion group (samul nori). Shortly before leaving QUB, Jonathan received a high recommendation from the Vice-Chancellor of the university for a Balinese masked dance performance (topeng) presented at an Arts and Humanities Research Council showcase event. Moreover, as a classical performer, Jonathan has held the position of principal flute with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland; he has also performed with Camerata Scotland.

Jonathan’s research spans the areas of movement, music and power in ethnomusicology and anthropology. Since 2003, he has conducted fieldwork on children’s practice and performance of dance, music and song in Bali, Indonesia, returning most recently in 2008 to research children’s dance competitions. Jonathan also conducts research in the area of applied ethnomusicology, particularly in relation to the use of gamelan in community music settings. He has acted as a consultant for the Curriculum Council of Western Australia, and is currently working on a new project focusing upon the musical experiences of Indonesian Australian adolescent boys living in Perth, Western Australia.

Since commencing his employment at The University of Western Australia in 2006, Jonathan has established the first tertiary ethnomusicology programme in Western Australia. In the School of Music, he coordinates ethnomusicology units which are open to both music students and students from other degree courses. He also teaches on the Musicology honours programme and the Master of Music Practitioner’s Studies degree. Currently, Jonathan is a member of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology, the International Council for Traditional Music, the Society for Ethnomusicology, and National Secretary for the Musicological Society of Australia.