ARIA Announces First Ever Music Teacher Of The Year Award In 2017

For its 31st birthday this year, ARIA have unveiled a brand new ARIA Award, shining light on the unsung heroes of the music industry — the music teachers.

Aiming to celebrate the passion and hard work behind these teachers, the ARIA Music Teacher Of The Year Award will be open to any teacher working in a school, kindergarten, early childhood centre, youth centre or private tuition music school running a music program around the country. 

The four final nominees will be partnered with one of ARIA's four ambassadors — Jay Laga'aia, Jessica Mauboy, Katie Noonan and Missy Higgins — who will head to each music teacher's school to help share their success and story. 

Higgins says, "Teachers can change the course of your life. I had several that played a huge part in helping me decide who I wanted to be when I grew up. Most importantly they gave me the confidence to feel that I could pursue a creative career; that I might have something to offer the world that didn’t involve numbers or spreadsheets!"

Jimmy Barnes also adds, "Just recently my son and daughter, Jackie and Mahalia, got to go out to a school in Cairns and talk about music and singing with some kids. I think it’s incredible that in a country like ours, only one in four schools have music teachers. I think that’s something we’ve really got to work on… Music can change people and I think it’s important that it gets started at a really early age. The sooner the better."

ARIA's Chief Executive, Dan Rosen, says the decision to add the award "highlights our commitment to music education". 

"For every performer who makes it to the ARIA stage, there was a teacher or mentor who played a critical role in getting them there. Starting this year, we are celebrating our music teachers on the ARIA national stage and to bring attention to the inspiring and impactful work being done by thousands of music teachers across Australia."

You can nominate your own music teacher for the gong with entries now open. The ARIA Music Teacher Of The Year Award will be publicly voted on ahead of the 31st ARIA Awards this year.