Gary E. McPherson is the Ormond Professor of Music at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has served as President of the International Society for Music Education and National President of the Australian Society for Music Education, and in 2021 was the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from Lund University, Sweden. His research interests are broad and his approach interdisciplinary. His most important research examines the acquisition and development of musical competence, and motivation to engage and participate in music from novice to expert levels. He has published over 250 articles and book chapters and coauthored, coedited, or edited fourteen books for OUP, including The Child as Musician, Musical Prodigies: Interpretations from Psychology, Education, Musicology and Ethnomusicology, and The Oxford Handbook of Music Education.