With this compelling, if sometimes startling, work, Alexandra Kertz-Welzel has staked her place among leading scholars internationally in calling for a reconceptualization of music education in ways that are nested in utopian thinking that is both imaginative yet honest, visionary yet realistic. It is a brilliant assessment of music's complement of social and artistic-aesthetic dimensions, and it lands squarely on an imperative for professional musician-educators to
harness their utopian energies to rethink, refine and reinvent music education's societal mission.
Alexandra Kertz-Welzel is Professor and Chair of Music Education at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich (Germany). She obtained her PhD in musicology from Saarland University in Saarbruecken (Germany), as well as master's degrees in music education, German studies, philosophy, piano, and harpsichord. From 2002-2005, she was Visiting Scholar and Lecturer in Music Education at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA (USA). With research
interests in international music education, philosophy of music education, music education policy, and community music, she has regularly presented at national and international conferences. She is author and editor of several books and a frequent contributor to leading journals in music education. She was Chair of the
International Society for the Philosophy of Music Education (ISPME) from 2017-2019 and Co-Chair of the ISME Commission on Policy from 2016-2018.