Micheál McCarthy has been teaching Musicianship/Aural Training and Choral Training to students of every age from 2 years through to university level for over 30 years.
Micheál spent 14 years studying violin, piano and double bass at the Cork School of Music, Ireland. He was Principal Double Bassist in the Irish Youth Orchestra and played with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in Dublin before pursuing postgraduate studies overseas. He graduated from University College, Cork with a Bachelor of Music and a Higher Diploma in Education. He pursued his postgraduate studies at the Zoltán Kodály Pedagogical Institute of Music of the Liszt Academy in Hungary, where he studied under world renowned conductor and pedagogue, Péter Erdei. He graduated with the Advanced Diploma of the Kodály Institute, then the Institute’s highest award.
Micheál has held senior lecturing positions at the Canberra School of Music – Australian National University, the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music – University of Tasmania, and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) – Edith Cowan University, specialising in the areas of Aural Training, Harmony, Chamber Music and Choral Conducting.
In 1993 he presented demonstration classes and choral concerts with children from the Canberra School of Music ‘Primary Music Program’ at the International Society of Music Education Conference in Korea. In 1994 Micheál was founding director of the Young Conservatorium program at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music. In 1998, along with Danielle Joynt, he established Cottage School of Music, and in 2008 he established the Cottage Music Institute.
His choirs have featured a number of times on the ABC’s Classic FM. For 5 years he was director of VocE, a university chamber choir he started at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music. He was also founding director of ‘Eneksis’, a vocal ensemble based at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts which for over 20 years had a reputation as one of the finest choirs in Australia. He also directed the Cottage Children’s Choir for over 20 years. For five years he was director of the male-voice choir, the Spooky Men of the West, which won the music award at the 2014 Adelaide Fringe Festival.
For 8 years Micheál worked closely with Annie Stainer focusing on the integration of Feldenkrais movement into acting & singing training at her Total Theatre school in Perth.
In 2009, Micheál was awarded the Edith Cowan University Vice-Chancellor’s award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2010 he received a national teaching award, a ‘Citation for Excellence in Teaching’, from the Australian Learning & Teaching Council for University Teaching.
Micheál conducts regular workshop for teachers, students, and community organisations in Australia and overseas. He has been invited to present his work at national and international conferences – including the National Conference of Orff-Schulwerk and the Kodály Australia National Conference (Keynote presenter). On numerous occasions he has been invited to teach on the Chamber Music Summer School in Mount Buller, and at the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp.
In 2016 he was invited to work as a consultant to the Singapore Ministry of Education in the development of their ‘creativity through music education’ project. In 2017 he was invited to be a choral director at the Perth Choral Institute.
In 2018, Micheál featured as the ‘on-screen classroom music and choir mentor’ in the ABC’s 3-part documentary TV series, ‘Don’t Stop the Music’. Over the course of some 18 months he was instrumental in transforming the music culture at a disadvantaged school in the southern suburbs of Perth.
He has also been a guest teacher at the Australian National Academy of Music, the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide, the Adelaide ‘Cello Festival, the University of Queensland and the University of Western Australia. He was invited by Géza Szilvay (creator of the Colourstrings method) to teach the Musicianship component of Géza’s professional development courses for string teachers. He was invited to be a member of the jury at the Musica Viva ‘Strike a Chord’ Chamber Music competition Grand Final at the Melbourne Recital Centre in 2023.
In 2024, Micheál established the School Music Mentoring Program, offering mentoring to general classroom teachers and music specialists in schools. In 2025 he began developing pedagogy for the teaching of music to Deaf children.
He is also the proud father of six children: Tadhg, Éilis, Conor, Rory, and twins, Flora & Adeline.
Enrolments, Class Information
