Adam Ockelford is Professor of Music at Roehampton University, where he directs the Applied Music Research Centre. He is widely published in music psychology, education, theory and aesthetics. He has particular interests in special educational needs and the development of exceptional abilities; learning, memory and creativity; the cognition of musical structure and the construction of musical meaning.

Graham Welch holds the Institute of Education, University of London Established Chair of Music Education. He is elected Chair of the internationally based Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE), immediate past President of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) and past Co-Chair of the Research Commission of ISME. His publications number over 300 and embrace musical development and music education, teacher education, the psychology of music, singing and voice science, and music in special education and disability.

Angela Voyajolu holds a Masters in Music from the University of York, UK and a Masters in Music Therapy from Montclair State University, USA. She is currently completing a PhD at the University of Roehampton in London. Her research focuses on the musical development of children in the early years.

Ruth Grundy studied Music at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, before completing the MSc in Music, Mind and Brain at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she undertook the research project reported in this volume with Adam Ockelford. She has an interest in the relationship between music and medicine, and is currently working as a junior doctor in Shropshire, UK.

Hayley Trower gained her MSc and PhD at the University of Roehampton. Her research focused on the memory processes that support the development of melodic expectations in the context of familiar music in children and adults with 'typical' brain development, and in children with autism spectrum condition. She is currently working as a research psychologist in the Lifespan Health & Wellbeing Group at the University of Warwick, UK, exploring risk factors, adaptation and positive life outcomes associated with premature birth.