What is the MayDay Group?
The MayDay Group functions as an international think tank of music educators that aims to identify, critique, and change taken-for-granted patterns of professional activity, polemical approaches to method and philosophy, and educational politics and public pressures that threaten effective practice and critical communication in music education. Ongoing debate about these matters has resulted in a more formal, two-fold purpose:
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to apply critical theory and critical thinking to the purposes and practices of music education, and
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to affirm the central importance of musical participation in human life and, thus, the value of music in the general education of all people.
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The MayDay Group holds annual colloquia, based on the group’s Action Ideals, aimed at furthering critical thought in the music education profession.
MayDay Group members include musicians, music educators, social and cultural theorists from over 25 countries. There is no membership fee, and anyone can become a member just by registering.
The MayDay Group operated for many years on a voluntary, ad hoc basis. As the group has grown, a more formal governance structure and steering committee has emerged.
Action Ideals
​The Action Ideals are an articulation of MayDay Group’s aims, beliefs, and overall vision for music education. We provoke inquiry and change through these ideals, which ground our annual colloquia, publications, dialogue, and practice. Our work in and related to music teaching and learning is guided by the Action Ideals as articulated herein.
Important to the context of this document are the terms “music” and “musicians.” While we recognize that many species produce sounds that hold meaning for them, we delimit our definition of music to sounds that humans embody, create, interact meaningfully with, and learn from, situated in social, cultural, spiritual, geographical, historical, and political contexts. Consequently, we define musicians as humans who interact with or produce music through learning, teaching, and creative activities. Musicians engage with diverse musical actions that mirror and create value systems and ways of knowing.
Through the Action Ideals, we examine historical and contemporary ontologies (ways of being), axiologies (values), and epistemologies (ways of knowing) to consider how musicians may contribute to producing and maintaining inequities, and/or challenge taken-for-granted practices in order to open up possibilities for change in music education. We also actively work against—in our field at both local and global levels—entrenched, hegemonic colonial ideologies and practices that alienate many individuals and collectives.
MayDay Group’s Action Ideals are not intended to be hierarchical, rather are iterative and dialogic, and can be read in any order. To that end, we list them alphabetically to denote equal prioritization and increase ease of accessibility. Each keyword/phrase will hyperlink to the specific Action Ideal on the website: anti-oppression and justice; collaboration across cultures; collaboration across disciplines; curriculum; ecological consciousness; policy; technology and digital media; theory and philosophy.
Anti-Oppression & Justice
​We engage in anti-oppressive actions that challenge and oppose injustices and hate crimes, including white supremacy and cultural elitism, and contribute to equitable experiences in teaching, learning, and musicking.
We create, sustain, and contribute to ways of knowing, doing, and using music in order to address, transform, and/or embrace the conditions of our world. Musical activity and educational conventions—dynamic, living processes rife with power asymmetries and individual and collective biases—develop within diverse contexts and communities of practice. All participants in the teaching and learning process bring a knowledge base that has the potential to extend benefit to one another.
Collaboration Across Cultures
​​We engage in mutually beneficial collaboration(s) and thoughtful inter-, intra-, cross-, and trans-cultural exchange(s) with musicians outside our own cultural practice(s) to further understanding of one another’s worldviews and related ways of being and doing.
Music and its modes of transmission take place in contexts created by the relationships that connect us to one another and to the myriad modes through which we construct knowledge. Acknowledging that power differentials are embedded in each inter-, intra-, cross-, and trans-cultural exchange, we commit to ethical ways of engagement, which support multiple modes of thinking and doing that lead to meaningful musical actions. Because we participate and collaborate in living cultural praxes, discussions of music’s meanings and educative values must concern not just sound itself and how we listen to it, but also how we engage with, respond to, and perpetuate music’s (de)humanizing functions.
Collaboration Across Disciplines
We collaborate across disciplines to seek new forms of knowledge and spheres of activity and interest.
Issues in music education are inextricably linked to knowledge and inquiry in other disciplines. Therefore, we embrace opportunities for insight and innovation presented by encounters with multiple disciplines that question normative discursive paradigms. Because music takes place in networks of social practices in action, and these practices are connected with and reflective of peoples’ beliefs and theories, our collaborations must continuously examine regimes of truth and taken-for-granted practices.
Curriculum
We collaborate across disciplines to seek new forms of knowledge and spheres of activity and interest.
Issues in music education are inextricably linked to knowledge and inquiry in other disciplines. Therefore, we embrace opportunities for insight and innovation presented by encounters with multiple disciplines that question normative discursive paradigms. Because music takes place in networks of social practices in action, and these practices are connected with and reflective of peoples’ beliefs and theories, our collaborations must continuously examine regimes of truth and taken-for-granted practices.
Ecological Consciousness
We collaborate across disciplines to seek new forms of knowledge and spheres of activity and interest.
Issues in music education are inextricably linked to knowledge and inquiry in other disciplines. Therefore, we embrace opportunities for insight and innovation presented by encounters with multiple disciplines that question normative discursive paradigms. Because music takes place in networks of social practices in action, and these practices are connected with and reflective of peoples’ beliefs and theories, our collaborations must continuously examine regimes of truth and taken-for-granted practices.
Policy
We investigate systemic decisions, contributions, and policies of institutions to determine the extent and directions of their influence on music learning and teaching.
Teaching and learning are inherently political endeavors, as are decisions and mandates by various arts, educational, and governmental organizations. The current climate of privatization, competition, and profit undermines a vision of education that fosters an ethic of care and social wellbeing. Through corporate lobbying, policymakers have inserted neoliberal frameworks into educational spaces that often induce harm and alienate participants. Such frameworks hold individual stakeholders accountable while providing corporations latitude to shirk responsibility. In order to improve existing structures and influence institutional change, we actualize a frame of mind oriented toward policy, with inquiry that leads to action, adaptation, and implementation made manifest through practice.
Technology & Digital Media
​We critically examine ways in which humans and technologies interact, and how these interactions contribute to the development and/or destruction of forms of musical knowledge and practice.
Technologies evolve within socio-cultural contexts as responses to shifting needs and modes of encounters among humans and their surrounding environments. The use of technologies alters the very ways in which we interact, communicate, and make meaning of our world—transforming individual and collective perceptions of knowledge, truth, and justice. Yet, surrounding the creation, introduction, manipulation, and use of each technological tool is an ideological bias with the potential to induce benefits and harms. Implementation of existing and emergent technologies must be balanced with ongoing critique of the commodification of musics, teaching, and learning; inequitable distribution of and access to technological resources; and concerns about corporate power and overreach.
Theory & Philosophy
​We critically examine ways in which humans and technologies interact, and how these interactions contribute to the development and/or destruction of forms of musical knowledge and practice.
Technologies evolve within socio-cultural contexts as responses to shifting needs and modes of encounters among humans and their surrounding environments. The use of technologies alters the very ways in which we interact, communicate, and make meaning of our world—transforming individual and collective perceptions of knowledge, truth, and justice. Yet, surrounding the creation, introduction, manipulation, and use of each technological tool is an ideological bias with the potential to induce benefits and harms. Implementation of existing and emergent technologies must be balanced with ongoing critique of the commodification of musics, teaching, and learning; inequitable distribution of and access to technological resources; and concerns about corporate power and overreach.
Steering Committee
The Steering Committee functions collaboratively and non-hierarchically. Contact ex officio members with questions concerning their respective responsibilities, and contact any member at large with general questions or concerns.
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Ex-officio Members:
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Colloquium Coordinator — Hector Vazquez, hvazquez@uvic.ca
Editor of ACT — Lauren Kapalka Richerme, lkricher@indiana.edu
Editor of TOPICS — Danielle Sirek, dsirek@uwo.ca
Associate Editor of TOPICS — Warren Churchill, wnc1@nyu.edu
Production Editor of TOPICS— Matt Koperniak, koperniak@gmail.com
Editor of the MDG Newsletter — Kelly Bylica, kbylica@bu.edu
Associate Editor of the MDG Newsletter — Thomas Fienberg, thomas.fienberg@sydney.edu.au
Membership/listserv Coordinator— Danielle Sirek, dsirek@uwo.ca
Website and Social Media Manager — Jesse Rathgeber, jcrathgeber@wisc.edu
Treasurer — Vincent Bates, vincentbates@weber.edu
Original co-conveners — J. Terry Gates, JTGates@aol.com and Thomas A. Regelski (deceased)
Advisors — Deborah Bradley, debbradley42@gmail.com and Scott Goble, scott.goble@ubc.ca
Members at large (with ending year of office):
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Nasim Niknafs, nasim.niknafs@utoronto.ca, 2026
Juliet Hess, jlhess@msu.edu, 2026
Kelly Bylica, kbylica@bu.edu, 2028
Antía González Ben, antiaben@antiaben.com, 2028
Lorenzo Sanchez-Gatt, sanchezg@bu.edu, 2030
Nadia Moberg, nadia.moberg@oru.se, 2030
Amended and revised 5, June, 2025
Governance
​MayDay Group Steering Committee
Membership
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Editor and Associate Editor of ACT.
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Editor and Associate Editor of TOPICS.
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Website and Social Media Manager.
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Editor of the MDG Newsletter.
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Membership Chair.
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MDG Colloquium Coordinator.
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Original co-conveners of the MDG (for along as they choose to participate).
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Treasurer.
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Ex-officio members not yet named here as new MDG roles are created (e.g., see secretary).
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Six or more members-at-large, nominated, approved, and invited by Steering Committee. Members-at-large will be asked to serve for six years, with the start-up year group holding staggered terms (2 for 2 years, 2 for 4 years, 2 for 6 years). After that, two positions will be open in even-numbered years.
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Duties
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Coordinate, manage, and oversee all working functions of the MDG.
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Provide a discussion forum for issues concerning the operation of the MDG website, listserv/newsletter, Colloquium planning (e.g., agreeing on locations, dates, CFPs, etc.), new projects, etc.
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Set policies concerning collaborations with other organizations, including listing of other organizational sites on the MDG website, and concerning any proposed project, cooperation, or affiliation (etc.) between the MDG and other organizations.
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Seek out, select, recruit, and recommend future choices of Manager of the MDG website, TOPICS editor, membership/listserv/newsletter coordinator, Colloquium planning coordinator, Editor in Chief, new roles (e.g.,secretary), members-at-large, Webmaster(s).
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As requested by the ACT editor, provide feedback and advice concerning choices of future ACT editors.
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Operations – Discussion and Dialogue
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Issues/proposals can be brought to the Steering Committee by any of its members, or at the request of any MDG member.
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Members at large may bring an issue to the Steering Committee by contacting any Steering Committee member.
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The Steering Committee member becomes the sponsor of the issue or proposal, and functions as the Convener of the Steering Committee for that issue or proposal.
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The Convener of the Steering Committee leads the discussion and reports the results of the deliberation to the members through the listserv.
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Decisions are arrived at by consensus, soliciting input from members at large when appropriate and desirable.
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Meetings are held as the need arises, ordinarily by email.
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Any decisions/policies that affect the entire membership shall be announced to the membership.
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For disseminating certain types of report, the Steering Committee may direct the use of the web site in addition to the listserv.
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ACT (Action, Theory, & Criticism for Music Education)
Editor​​
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Is recruited and appointed by the Steering Committee, in consultation with past editors, and serves for a term of up to five years. Reports yearly to the steering committee on current ACT accomplishments and future plans.
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Assumes all customary editorial responsibilities for ACT (e.g., receives submissions, oversees the blind review process, accepts manuscripts for publication, communicates with authors, works with guest editors, oversees the work of the production team, maintains indexing agreements with online databases).
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Delegates responsibilities, as appropriate, to the Associate Editor and members of the Production Team.
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Solicits the advice of the Editor in Chief on the day-to-day workings of ACT as warranted (e.g. controversial or ethical issues, conflicts with other MDG publications, developing trends, overall status of the submission and publication queues).
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Counsels with members of the Editorial Board (past editors in particular) on matters pertaining to their individual areas of expertise and experience.
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Consults the Editor in Chief always and in advance of any action taken on major ACT projects or innovations (e.g., the development of special themed or dialogue issues of ACT, changes in editorial board or production team memberships, policy revisions, major website updates).
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Actively seeks material for publication, drafting invitations and calls for papers in consultation with the Editor in Chief.
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Maintains high scholarly standards in the content and presentation of articles published in ACT.
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TOPICS (Theory, Innovation, Policies, and Strategies for Music Education Praxis)
Editor
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After one year start-up, to be selected by the Steering Committee.
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Serves for a 5 year term.
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Assumes all customary editorial responsibilities for TOPICS (e.g., receives submissions, oversees the blind review process, accepts manuscripts for publication, communicates with authors, works with guest editors, oversees the work of the production team, establishes and maintains indexing agreements with relevant online databases).
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Delegates responsibilities, as appropriate, to the Associate Editor and members of the Production Team.
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Solicits the advice of the Editor in Chief on the day-to-day workings of TOPICS as warranted (e.g. controversial or ethical issues, conflicts with other MDG publications, developing trends, overall status of the submission and publication queues).
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Consults with the TOPICS Editorial Board (past editors in particular) on matters pertaining to their individual areas of expertise and experience.
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Consults with the Editor in Chief always and in advance of any action taken on major TOPICS projects or innovations (e.g., the development of special themed or dialogue issues of TOPICS, changes in editorial board or production team memberships, policy revisions, major website updates).
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Works in conjunction with the Associate Editor and MDG Webmaster in posting new articles/issues.
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Works in conjunction with ACT editors concerning submissions that might be better suited for ACT than for TOPICS.
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Editorial Board
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Is advisory to the Editor regarding submissions.
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Up to 15 MDG members who will vet submissions.
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Members selected by TOPICS Editor, with approval of Steering Committee.
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Rotation off the Board/replacement of 2 New Members each year (after the first-year start-up rotation).
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Website and Social Media Manager
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Sought out and appointed by Steering Committee.
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No set term of office; position re-filled as it becomes available.
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Manager coordinates MDG social media presence by moderating groups and discussions as well as working to extend the visibility of the MDG through social media.
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Manager acts as the Webmaster of the MDG website (www.maydaygroup.org), handling all technical issues related to website functionality.
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Manager consults with Chair, MDG Website Editor and Listserv/Newsletter Editor on major proposed changes to website functionality and social media presence that may diverge from existing policy or practice, or otherwise deserve consideration by and consensus of the Steering committee.
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Coordinates with Chair, MDG Website Editor and editors of online journals to develop web content that may enrich and extend discussions begun in MDG publications and at MDG Colloquia.
Colloquium Coordinator
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Sought out and appointed by Steering Committee.
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No set term of office; position re-filled as it becomes available.
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In conjunction with the Steering Committee, seeks out local sponsor for the next MDG Colloquium, at least one per year.
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Coordinator works with the local sponsor for all MDG events and the Steering Committee concerning theme(s), dates, CFPs, program development, fees, and details of accommodations, etc.
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Sets agenda for each business meeting in conjunction with input from the Steering Committee.
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Runs business meeting (if present), including collecting of donations from those present.
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Takes notes and reports to general membership in a timely fashion.
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Posts report on MDG website.
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Until such time as a MDG-wide dues structure is implemented, and a treasurer appointed by the Steering Committee, donations collected at meetings will be given to the Editor of ACT for use in production costs, honoraria (e.g., webmaster), and the like.
Listserv/Newsletter Editor
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Sought out and appointed by Steering Committee.
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No set term of office; position re-filled as it becomes available.
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Sends announcements and notices to membership according to Policies established in consultation with the Steering Committee.
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Editor works with the advice of the Steering Committee and, for major changes (movement of the Newsletter to a new hosting service, etc.), approval of the Steering Committee, implementing consensus decisions it reaches and policies it sets concerning the Newsletter.
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Manager consults the Steering Committee on major proposed changes to the Newsletter, operations, policies, practices, etc., that might diverge from existing policy or otherwise deserve consideration by and consensus of the Steering committee.
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Manager coordinates and manages all aspects of the MDG Newsletter, including the processes for updating of the membership list in the service that distributes the Newsletter.
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Coordinates with the editors of online journals when submissions for publication in the Newsletter warrant consideration by other editors.
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Maintains high ethical and professional standards in the content and presentation of items published through the Newsletter.
Membership Chair
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Sought out and appointed by Steering Committee.
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No set term of office; position re-filled as it becomes available.
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Receives membership applications and maintains an updated membership list.
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Coordinates new-member procedures and current-member record updating procedures with the Website Manager and/or the Webmaster.
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Works with the Website Manager and Webmaster on ways to provide membership lists to registered members.
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Sends announcements and notices to membership through the Newsletter or through other MDG publications in collaboration with the editors.
Additional Working Areas
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Volunteers in each of the working areas of the MDG are under the leadership of the respective coordinator, editor, or manager of the area.
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Titles, job descriptions, etc., are made according to the area in question (e.g., staff positions of ACT, e-column coordinators of MDG website, etc.) and are monitored and coordinated by the head of each area.
Treasurer
The treasurer is a volunteer, approved by the Steering Committee, who has access to and control of an institutional account at a bank, school district, or university, funds in which can be sequestered for MayDay Group use. All revenue (for The MayDay Group from any source) and expenses (solely for MayDay Group projects and services) are to be received and disbursed from that account. The treasurer shall keep records of all revenue and expenses, and shall give a summary report to the members during business meetings at colloquiums.
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