Biography
Lee Bartel is Professor of Music Education and Music and Health and was the Founding Director of the Music and Health Research Collaboratory (MaHRC) at the University of Toronto. He is the Chair of the Artists' Health Alliance Research and Education Committee. A Member of the Collaborative Program in Neuroscience he has taught a graduate course on Music and Brain. With extensive early experience as a music teacher at all levels and as a performing choral conductor, singer, violinist, and guitarist, he has special interest in conditions of learning, pedagogic culture, social psychology, and music in human development. He has focused strongly on music for children developing 60 albums with Fisher Price. In music education his research has included cognition and perception, social psychology, and curriculum, and in general education ranges from international education to issues of evaluation, professional development, homework, and 21st Century learning. He was editor of the Canadian Journal of Research in Music Education, editor of the CME Journal, and senior editor of the CMEA Research to Practice book series. In Music and Health Bartel has a broad interest ranging through music therapy, music medicine, music neuroscience, health in culture, musician’s health, music performance science, and music in human development. He is a board member of the Artists’ Health Alliance. He has a special interest in applications of music in health conditions of aging and is well known for his research and design of music for brain effects with 24 albums on Solitudes and SonicAid. He currently has research studies underway in: music enjoyment ability retraining (Music-EAR) approaches for cochlear implant recipients at Sunnybrook Health Sciences; Rhythmic Sensory Stimulation (RSS) for Cardio Rehab at Toronto Rehab; RSS and Fibromyalgia at Mount Sinai Hospital; RSS and major depression at UHN, and RSS and Alzheimers at Baycrest.
Professional Activities
1. Music and Health initiative and the development of MaHRC, establishing a music medicine concept related to rhythmic sensory stimulation, leadership to establish a collaborative program of research on Music Medicine in Aging, a Music and Health degree program, and currently 5 research studies in music medicine.
2. Research in cognitive, psychological, and neurological response to music applied in the scientific design of all music composition parameters and EEG response testing of body and brain-wave entraining music for 24 recordings on Solitudes, SonicAid, and Motherlove labels. In addition contributing to concept, design, and use for 60 Fisher Price children’s albums.
3. Research, writing, and advocacy on conditions of learning music with Linda Cameron, OISE. This program of research has included personal narratives, surveys of teachers on self efficacy, and interviews with elite performance teachers, extensive media coverage, and numerous presentations and publications including a topical issue of Orbit, and the book Questioning the Music Education Paradigm.
4. Conducted the first and largest study of K-12 homework in Canada (2007-2008) with Linda Cameron, OISE. This resulted in extensive media coverage – in print, radio, and TV, and direct consultations to change homework policy in Toronto District School Board and Simcoe County Board of Education.
5. Alternatives in music education. Two examples: (1) Guitar – creating one of the first guitar programs in Manitoba, the text Get into Guitar, the curriculum guides in Manitoba, MA thesis on evaluation of guitar programs. (2) Improvisation -- using collaborative learning communities to develop greater place for improvisation in schools in Ontario with a Ministry funded KNAER project.