Prof. Dr. Thomas De Baets is Professor of Music Education at LUCA School of Arts and KU Leuven. He is currently Head of Music and Group Head of Performing Arts at LUCA. Prior to this, he coordinated the Bachelor and Master programmes in Music Education and the Specific Teacher Training in Music. He has led the recent transition from the postgraduate Specific Teacher Training programme to the Educational Masters in Performing Arts. He holds a Master’s degree in Music Education (Lemmensinstituut, 2005), a degree of Advanced Studies in Music Education (Lemmensinstituut, 2008), and a PhD in Music Education (KU Leuven, 2012) entitled ‘On-the- spot Music Teaching – The Music Teacher in ‘Immediate’ Musical Interactions’. His main research interests are professional development, innovation and practitioner research in music education. He has been a board member of the European Association for Music in Schools since 2009 and was the president 2019-21, currently he is the EAS Past President.

De Baets is currently editorial board member of the peer reviewed journals Music Education Research (Routledge), Cultuur+Educatie (LKCA) and TOPICS (The Mayday Group).