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
From Perfection to Authenticity, Orchestra-style
At what point in the music-learning process can creativity be [...]
Music Beyond the Classroom: Interview with Stage Manager, Sami Slovy
For this installment of our music beyond the classroom series, [...]
I wrote a song a day for a month. Here’s what I learned.
Are you a songwriter? Do you want to be a [...]
Viral teaching: How the coronavirus has changed my work
The start of corona It would be extremely difficult to [...]
Music Beyond the Classroom: Interview with Britt Daniel from Spoon
I still remember the day that my graduate advisor casually [...]
Research in action: Student perceptions of a composition project within a concert band setting
Background This past year, I spent a lot of [...]