Q&A with Professor Lucy Green

Lucy is Emerita Professor of Music Education at IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society.

Most particularly I have been concerned with issues of access, inclusion and equality, and with finding ways to tap into the inner musicality of children, which can remain totally hidden from teachers.

During the Covid lockdown period, I found myself making a couple of CDs of music from the 17th and 18th centuries, where I sang and played the spinet (a type of harpsichord) at the same time.

As with some of my other work, perhaps classical musicians and teachers can learn something from popular musicians’ practices...

Watch What can teachers learn from popular musicians? | UCL IOE on YouTube.

Being in the centre of London presents amazing opportunities. Not only do we get the most wonderful students from all over the world, as I said, but the city is so full of life and so vibrant.

IOE is almost like a different planet now, to how it was when I first arrived, when there were lots of small departments, lots of space, and it seemed like everybody knew each other.

Overall though, for me, the subject of music education – which has of course itself also developed enormously – has and remains at the centre of all this, and Music Education at IOE will always be my intellectual home.