Matt Martindale, band director at Shelby County High School and Columbiana Middle School, has been named a quarterfinalist for the 2022 Music Educator Award presented by the Recording Academy
and GRAMMY Museum.

Martindale is one of 219 music teachers from 204 cities who have been selected as a quarterfinalist for the award. He is one of six teachers from Alabama to be selected. Semifinalists will be announced in September.

The Music Educator Award was established to recognize current educators (kindergarten through college, public and private schools) who have made significant and lasting contributions to the field of music education and who demonstrate a commitment to the broader cause of maintaining music education in the schools. The overall recipient will be recognized during GRAMMY Week 2022, as part of a joint partnership and presentation of the Recording Academy and GRAMMY Museum.

The award is open to current U.S. music teachers. Anyone can nominate a teacher — students, parents, friends, colleagues, community members, school deans, and administrators. Teachers are also able to nominate themselves, and nominated teachers are notified and invited to fill out an application.

Each year, one recipient is selected from 10 finalists and recognized for their remarkable impact on students’ lives. The eighth annual honoree will be flown to Los Angeles to attend the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards and a range of GRAMMY Week events. The nine additional finalists will receive a $1,000 honorarium, and the schools of all 10 finalists will receive matching grants. Fifteen semifinalists will receive a $500 honorarium with matching school grants.

The matching grants provided to the schools are made possible by the generosity and support of the GRAMMY Museum’s Education Champion Ford Motor Company Fund. In addition, American Choral Directors Association, National Association for Music Education, The NAMM Foundation, and the National Education Association support this program through outreach to their constituencies.