Marek Sedláček

Masaryk university, Faculty of Education, Department of Music, Brno Czech Republic
www.ped.muni.cz/en/departments-and-institutes/hv/about-the-department

Doc. PhDr. Marek Sedláček, Ph.D. (1971) works at the Masaryk University (Department of Music, Faculty of Education) in Brno as an associate professor, focusing primarily on aesthetics and semiotics, the relationships between the arts, popular music, the relationships between art and non-art music, but also the practical disciplines: the piano and keyboards playing and multimedia computer applications. Externally he also co-operates with the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno and the University of Ostrava. Moreover, in the educational field he also attempts to utilise computer technology in the process of music education and analyses contemporary music with regard to semantic interpretation and receptive education.

Dear colleagues,

For more than two years I have been honoured to be the EAS National Coordinator for the Czech Republic and thus a member of a great professional community, that is not indifferent to the fate of music education in schools.

For thirty years my teaching practice at the elementary art school along with my academic experience at the Department of Music at the Masaryk University and Janáček Academy of Performing Arts allows me to connect music theory with practice in my profession.

Professionally, I focus on the issues of receptive music education, listening to music, with a focus on semiotics and aesthetics, relationships between types of art, pop-music. I am also interested in the use of digital technologies in the process of teaching and learning, which I perceive as a highly topical issue, mainly due to COVID-19. Nationwide music sociological researches in the field of youth music preferences, been conducted for more than ten years together by myself and my colleagues with our doctoral students, prove how important music is for children and young people – they cannot imagine their lives without it. In my opinion, music education should focus, among other things, on education for the value orientation of young people. Within multicultural and transcultural approaches, it is necessary not to forget the preservation and development of national musical traditions, which is not always the case in contemporary music education. In the Czech Republic, school reform with curriculum revisions is currently underway. I hope that despite the tendency to combine education into higher content units (Art education, Aesthetic education, etc.) it will be possible to preserve music education as an individual subject. I consider this to be essential for maintaining quality school music education, fulfilling all its set goals.

I am looking forward to meeting and discussing with you, either personally or online at some of the forthcoming EAS conferences.

Marek Sedláček