Since the 1970 publication of the English translation of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogia de Oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) brought the Brazilian educator’s innovative thinking to an international audience, his revolutionary pedagogical philosophy has inspired education and community development practice across the widest range of disciplines and contexts. Music educators and community musicians with a commitment to social justice and inclusive educational practice in countries throughout the world have drawn on his thinking to develop strategies for making the music classroom or workshop space a place for the construction of autonomy, collective transformation and the exercise of freedom.In this panel we will consider how Paulo Freire’s thinking is currently manifest in music education contexts in Brazil and the UK, and how we might deepen and extend the application of his principles to animate fresh perspectives on music as a territory for liberation education - for students and teachers alike. Participant 1 (the Chair) will set out the context, frame the questions, and facilitate the debate. Freire’s pedagogy was fundamentally political - learning to read, he argued, must simultaneously involve "reading the word and reading the world” (Freire & Macedo, 1987). Through an inclusive, dialogic pedagogical process centred on connecting personal experiences to broader social and political contexts, his goal was to empower learners as active subjects — agents of change — rather than allowing or using education to reinforce their condition as objects of oppression. In Freire’s pedagogical praxis — the interplay between reflection and action — people work together to critically analyse their individual and collective realities in order that they may act to transform them. This proposition upends the ‘banking’ model of education, in which the teacher (expert) fills the student with information, which can later be retrieved through teacher-controlled means; replacing it with a dialogic model in which questioning, listening and co-construction of meaning make the student the agent of their own growth (Freire, 1970). In this panel we will ask: what does this look like in the music classroom or workshop setting? Freire was a political thinker. His pedagogical proposition was rooted in a commitment to the liberation of the oppressed. His purpose in developing his initial literacy project was clear - to create a methodology for teaching and learning such that individual learners could become aware of themselves in the world as agents and actors in their lives, with capacity to create change for their communities. In this panel we will ask: what might this mean for music education in Brazil and the UK today? Participant 2 will describe the 18-year trajectory of a music education programme founded on Freireian principles in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. They will discuss how the pedagogical plan was developed, how teachers were trained and supported, how children and young people engaged with the proposition and how the programme has had to flex and adapt to the changing political context of the country. They will consider what has been most and least effective in terms of developing a Freireian music pedagogy that might outlast this specific project, and propose some thoughts for future programmes.Participant 3 will discuss the application of Freireian principles to the specific case of vocal pedagogy in the Brazilian context, considering how autonomy and protagonism can be nurtured through somatic vocal exercises, the awakening of critical consciousness through aesthetic reflection, and the integration of emergent selfhood with collective responsibility in the choral sphere.Participant 4 will chart the influence and application - or otherwise - of Frereian thought in the development of musical pathways from early years to higher education in the UK context, with particular focus on the experience of young children and their teachers. They will reflect on how introducing Freireian principles more widely into mainstream music education practice might transform access to music and drive equity, inclusion and social justice within the UK music education system.Participant 1 (the Chair) will conclude with a reflection on teacher education in Brazil and the UK, considering how Freireian practice coupled with models of coaching and mentoring can empower music educators to support children and young people’s development of artistic citizenship and creative confidence in these challenging times. The four panelists will present for a total maximum of 45 minutes, leaving 40 minutes for facilitated discussion and 5 minutes for Chair’s conclusion.