Prof Brydie-Leigh Bartleet

Professor Brydie-Leigh Bartleet is known worldwide for her work in community music and community engagement. She has been a key catalyst in the creation of research projects that explore the social impact of music making, and connect students, educators, industry and community partners both inside and outside university walls. 

She has worked on a range of leading national and international projects in community music, arts-based service learning with Australian First Peoples, arts programs in prisons, music and social justice, health and wellbeing and global mobility. Many of these projects have been realized in partnership with a wide range of NGOs, arts and community organizations, and colleagues across Australia and the Asia Pacific. 

Brydie has worked on four successive ARC Linkage projects (two of which she is currently leading), led a major OLT Innovation and Development project, secured over a millions dollars in research funding, and produced well over a 100 research outputs. In 2014 she was awarded the Australian University Teacher of the Year. 

She has also worked at the forefront of new and interdisciplinary developments in music research that intersect with health and wellbeing, corrections and criminology, Indigenous and cultural policy, social justice and regional arts development. 

She is on the Board of Australia’s peak music advocacy body, Music Australia, and has served as Chair and Commissioner of the International Society for Music Education’s Community Music Activities Commission. She is the co-founder of the Asia Pacific Community Music Network, and is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Community Music.

She is regularly in demand as a keynote speaker across Australia and overseas (most recently Japan, Germany, Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand), and is known for giving dynamic speeches about the role of the arts and music in addressing some of the most pressing issues of our time.