Memphis teacher named 2025 Grammy Music Educator of the Year

Cordova High School teacher and choir director Adrian Maclin has been named the 2025 Grammy Music Educator of the Year.

The honor — presented by the Recording Academy and the Grammy Museum — was announced Wednesday as part of a segment on Maclin during the "CBS Mornings" show.  The Grammy prize includes a $10,000 honorarium for Maclin and a matching $10,000 for his school's music program.

The Music Educator Award was created to recognize current educators "who have made a significant and lasting contribution to the field of music education and who demonstrate a commitment to the broader cause of maintaining music education in the schools," according to the Grammy Museum's website .

In November, The Commercial Appeal wrote about Maclin after he was named as one of 25 semifinalists for the Grammy Music Educator of the Year award, out of an original pool of more than 2,400 candidates.

The story noted that "the students in Adrian Maclin's Concert Singers class bleed talent. They have won countless competitions, so many the classroom is starting to run out of room to hang their awards."

On Wednesday, as news of the honor was broadcast, Maclin said he was inundated with calls, texts and congratulations.

"It's been a crazy day, but a very good day," said Maclin who had been given a secret heads-up about the award in December in order to coordinate press and travel for the announcement this week.

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On Thursday morning Maclin will fly from Memphis to Los Angeles to accept his honor as part of the Grammy weekend festivities, where he will be recognized on the awards ceremony broadcast Sunday evening on CBS. "I'm looking forward to the whole experience," he said.

As November's profile of Maclin noted, "He emphasizes to students the need to be focused in his class while also excelling in their other courses. In the beginning of the year, Maclin meets with parents and students, laying out his expectations for their academics. Maclin said his message for parents is simple: The expectation is for their child to excel everywhere, not just with the Concert Singers, and anything less is failure on his part."

With the Grammy honor, Maclin hopes the attention will allow him to help mentor young emerging educators.

"I would like to be able to help novice teachers out, show them the do's and don'ts," he said. "But also to show that it's not about the awards, or even getting the best performances from your students. What's important is that you are literally dealing with young lives. 

"The more that you instill into those kids, the more you build their esteem, the better their performances will be because now they have the confidence, they have the pride, they have the knowledge behind the craft. If I could use this acknowledgment to share that with others, that would be a joy."

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis teacher Adrian Maclin named Grammy Music Educator of the Year