Long Beach Middle School music teacher Christina Farrell is among 216 quarterfinalists for the 2021 Music Educator Award, presented by the Recording Academy and GRAMMY Museum. Nearly 2,000 initial nominations were submitted, and quarterfinalists are now eligible to advance in the program with the prospect of earning monetary prizes, school grants and prominent recognition. 

The Music Educator Award was established to recognize 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. 

Ms. Farrell has been teaching in Long Beach for seven years and currently serves as 6-8 chorus and general music teacher, LBMS Singers director and middle school musical co-director. Her students have excelled in NYSSMA Majors, the Long Island Music Festival and All-County festivals, and she was selected as this year’s honorary Tri-M staff member inductee at Long Beach High School. 

Outside of Long Beach, Ms. Farrell is the chairperson for the Nassau Music Educators Association All County Treble Choir, a New York State School Music Association adjudicator and a member of the EVOCO Treble Choir, conducted by Dr. David Fryling. She is a graduate of Westminster Choir College, where she studied under esteemed musicians and performed with the Westminster Symphonic Choir and New York Philharmonic Orchestra. This is her second consecutive year as a Grammy Music Educator Award quarterfinalist.