Sharpen your pencils: ARIA Music Teacher Award submissions are open now!

Do you know a music teacher who deserves to be recognised with the Australian music industry’s top honours? It’s time to enter them for the 2024 ARIA Music Teacher Award: celebrating music education and the essential role that music teachers play in inspiring and championing the next generation of young creators, their schools, and communities.

Head to the ARIA Music Teacher Award website to enter now!

Last year, after 268 Australians submitted their teacher for a shot at being top of the class, and an even bigger 47,506 voted; Irish singer-songwriter Dermot Kennedy presented the ARIA Music Teacher Award to Sue Lowry of Southport Special School, Yugambeh Country, Gold Coast.

Watch what the award is all about here.

Shortlisted nominees will be surprised by an artist ambassador who will connect with the school and tell each music teacher’s story, with the announcement of the winner taking place at the 2024 ARIA Awards. Past ambassadors have included Jessica Mauboy, Tones and I, Ben Gillies, Baker Boy, Guy Sebastian, The Wiggles and Amy Shark.

2023 award-winner, Sue, said: “The ARIA Music Teacher Award brought with it so much opportunity. Opportunities to advocate for the importance of quality music education for students with disability. Opportunities to connect and share best practices with teachers teaching music across special and mainstream settings. Opportunities to showcase what students are capable of – regardless of how profound their disability – if they are given the right investment of time, resources, and commitment. The award has also provided the profile to begin to broaden the opportunities afforded to these students by chipping away at the barriers which impede their inclusion. It is still a work in progress and a job that I know is much bigger than me, but I will be forever grateful that, in 2023, ARIA recognised and celebrated the importance of music for all.”

ARIA CEO, Annabelle Herd, said: “Eight years in and the ARIA Music Teacher Award has become one of the most loved and celebrated moments on the Aus music calendar. Over this time we have been privileged to see artists and the music industry engage with schools right across the country, surfacing incredible and inspirational stories every year. All of us at ARIA can’t wait to meet this year’s round of teachers.”

The Song Room CEO, Alice Gerlach, said: “Every day at The Song Room we see the power of music education. Students gain confidence, experience joy and learn to collaborate. A great music teacher can inspire a life-long love of learning that transcends the music class. This award is an amazing opportunity for parents, schools and students to share stories of their music teacher and the impact that they are having on their community.”

In addition to Sue, previous winners of the Telstra ARIA Music Teacher Award include; Matt Orchard (2022, Apollo Bay P-12 College, Apollo Bay, Gaduband Territory, Victoria), Zoe Barry (2021, Fitzroy Sacred Heart School, Fitzroy, Victoria), Sarah Donnelley (2020, Wilcannia Central School, Wilcannia, NSW), Antonio Chiappetta (2019, St Andrews College, Sydney, NSW), Scott Maxwell (2018, Grant High School, Mount Gambier, South Australia) and Renee McCarthy (2017, Woodcroft College, Adelaide South Australia).

Entries can be made on the ARIA Music Teacher Award website

For more information, please contact:

Andrew Knowles

M: 0449 510 357

E: andrew@skmediagroup.com.au