Michael Currie
Michael has been a music educator in Metro Nashville Public Schools for over fifteen years. He is currently the music specialist at Sylvan Park Elementary in West Nashville, where he teaches kindergarten through the fifth grade.
He takes a “hands on” approach to music education, putting instruments in his students’ hands as often as possible, and believes in what he calls the ”power of performance” – the idea that the process of learning, rehearsing, and performing a collection of songs that tell a story is an invaluable experience for elementary music students of all ages. All grade levels at Sylvan Park take part in their own unique performance each year.
Michael is an avid composer and has written a variety of songs for the classroom and the stage, including several of the musicals that his students perform. “The Journey” is one such example and is his first published work. He enjoys playing a variety of instruments, primarily focusing on the piano and guitar.
Michael has a bachelor’s degree in Professional Music from the Berklee College of Music and a Master of Music in music education from Belmont University. He was named a Music Teacher of Excellence by the CMA Foundation in 2016.
Michael Currie
eBooks by Michael Currie
Posts by Michael Currie
The Essential Work of the Arts: A Productive Response for Teachers
This post is a response to the post "The Essential [...]
Musicast Episode 5: Young Band Directors Panel- Finding and Remembering Your “Why”
\A panel of high school band directors who have been teaching for 6 years or less come together to discuss the good, the bad, and the inspirational parts of being a band director. The discussion includes topics about leadership, COVID era teaching, and finding and remembering why they became music teachers. This episode will feed your soul! [...]
The Essential Work of the Arts
As a young educator, I was always tasked with the [...]
Musicast Episode 4: Kirsten C. Kunkle – Passionate Pioneering
Soprano Kirsten C. Kunkle has been hailed as an outstanding singing actress with a voice that has been described as beautiful, ethereal, powerful, fiery, and bewitching. he attended Bowling Green State University and the University of Salzburg for her undergraduate studies, majoring in voice performance with minors in Italian and German. Her graduate degrees are in voice performance from the University of Michigan. A voting member of the Muscogee Nation, Dr. Kunkle commissioned and premiered sixteen original compositions, including one of her own, based upon the poetry of her ancestor and highly-acclaimed poet of the Native American Muscogee Nation, Alex Posey. [...]
Research to Practice: Using Data for More than Just Grades
I used to think that research was complicated and couldn’t help me in my classroom. I used to see the Music Educators Journal arrive in my mailbox, flip through, sigh, think to myself – “If I only had time….,” and then add the issue to a growing pile on my dining room table. [...]
Musicast Episode 3: Lucky Chops – Streets & Stage: Funkifying Music Education
Lucky Chops has been unleashing high-energy brassy funk on the world since forming in NYC in 2006. The intensity of the band’s energy is fueled by their desire to share the healing and inspirational power of music with others. That power has resonated with audiences around the globe, giving the band hundreds of millions of views on their online videos and leading to live performances in more than twenty five countries. Lucky Chops maintains a busy schedule touring across several continents. [...]