Sarah Hennessy is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and holds a P.G.C.E. in music teaching from the Institute of Education, London University. She is a senior lecturer in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. She is president of the European Association for Music in Schools, a past chair of the National Association of Music Educators and chair of the Orff Society (UK). She is a teacher educator, training and working with generalist and specialist primary music teachers and also teaches on masters and doctoral programs. Her teaching and research investigates the factors and implements strategies that support effective teacher education for primary music education, the role of professional musicians in education, and the creative development of young people. She is editor in chief of the international refereed journal, Music Education Research and director of the international biennial research conference, RIME.