The people behind Musical Futures International
Classroom teachers, touring producers and long-time advocates for student-centred music education — working together to bring informal learning to schools around the world.
Chris Koelma
Director of Operations
Chris is the current Director of Operations at Musical Futures International, and Director of Music Teachers In International Schools (MTIIS) — the global community for international school music teachers. He previously worked as a Music Teacher in NSW public schools, then Head of Music in international schools in Argentina and Malaysia.
Chris leads on exploring how electronic music can be taught in schools using various software and hardware. Over the past two years he has delivered over 100 student and teacher workshops in 25 countries using the ‘Electronic Music Pedagogy’ framework, built around the innovative Roland AIRA Compact instruments.
Sam Meredith
Lead Content Creator
Sam is one of the lead content creators for Musical Futures International. Sam builds recreates, playalongs, groove your classroom, and many other resources you see on the Musical Futures International platform.
Sam is a trained Secondary Music Teacher who has worked in schools in NSW, Australia. He is an experienced multi-instrumentalist, producer, recording engineer, and informal learning-based teacher.
Beren Gaston
Events Support and Resource Developer
Beren Gaston is an experienced primary and secondary music educator who has worked in Spain, Netherlands, Malaysia, Dubai, Germany and is now at the British School Jakarta, Indonesia.
Beren is an experienced percussionist and Musical Futures teacher who has supported the planning and delivery of Big Gigs in Asia, most recently the Big Gig Bali. Beren also develops recreate resources and provides admin support for the organisation.
Pavel Lipski
Resource Designer & Consultant
Pavel is an international school music lead in Cambodia and a professional media composer with an MA in Music Production and Sound Engineering. He works with Musical Futures International as a resource designer and consultant on composition for film and games.
Pavel created the Emotion by Design pedagogical framework at the heart of our Movie Music and Game Music units, translating the way music is scored for screen and games into work students can do in a classroom.
Anna Gower
Advisor & Workshop Guide
Anna has taught music since 1998 in both primary and secondary schools in the UK and overseas. Since 2016, she has worked with teachers in many countries including China, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, the UAE, USA, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Anna is Head of Primary Music at St Andrews International School, Bangkok, where her interests lie in developing and adapting informal learning approaches across all of her music teaching. She is proud to be leading the Roland Aspire Young Producers Programme at St Andrews, opening up music technology pathways to even the youngest learners in the school.
Jason Holmes
Soul Sonics Workshop Lead
With well over a decade of experience as an international touring performer, DJ, producer, musical director and educator, Jason specialises in creating engaging arts and music education programs that bridge contemporary creative practice with meaningful learning outcomes.
Jason has spent the past eight years with Musical Futures, delivering professional learning for educators and developing student-centred teaching resources. He is also entering his fourth year of delivering workshops across Victoria through Soul Sonics, engaging thousands of young people in music production, songwriting, sound design and digital creativity.
Rebecca McPhail
Admin Support & Research
Rebecca provides admin support and research for Musical Futures International, helping keep our resources, events and day-to-day operations running smoothly.
Alongside this, she is a Middle School Music Teacher at Haileybury (Brighton Campus) and a seasoned musician and dedicated educator with a career spanning two decades. Her teaching philosophy revolves around fostering a love for music alongside achieving excellence — balancing inquiry-based learning with traditional musical skills.
Ken Owen
Advisor & Board Member
Ken has played an influential role with Musical Futures International, championing practical, student-centred music education for many years. During his time as a director, the rollout of Musical Futures across Australia was supported by the Victorian Government and the Department of Education and Training — Ken delivered many of the professional development days through which teachers first discovered Musical Futures in Australia.
His work reflects the belief that learning happens best when young people are actively making music. He co-developed the popular Just Play resources and training programmes with Ian Harvey and Anna Gower, leaving a lasting legacy in inclusive, learner-led music teaching.
This is our current core team. We also have regular guest workshop guides at our events, usually from our Champion Schools.