Cottage School of Music (later Cottage School of Music Junior and Cottage Music Institute) was founded in Western Australia in 1998 by Micheál McCarthy and Danielle Joynt. Micheál and Danielle graduated from the ‘Zoltán Kodály Institute of the Liszt Academy’ in Hungary – they were subsequently invited to teach in the specialist Primary Music Program at the Canberra School of Music, Canberra Institute of the Arts, Australian National University. The Primary Music Program was established as a pilot program aimed at emulating the extraordinary standards in music education being achieved in Hungary since the 1950s.
Danielle and Micheál continued to develop the work started in the PMP by establishing the community-based Cottage School of Music in Western Australia. For over 30 years they have brought this pedagogical knowledge to the WA community through Musicianship and Choral Training programs for children aged 2-16 years, and by offering professional development for teachers.
The aim of the Cottage Music Foundation is to bring this work to the wider Australian community, mainly through the mentoring of teachers, but also by offering specialist Musicianship/Aural Training programs.
Many teachers value the role that music plays in education. However, teachers often lack training, and tend to be less-than-confident when it comes to incorporating music into the classroom. There is a widespread need for professional development for early-childhood, primary and high school teachers.
The Cottage Music Foundation provides music programs for children with special needs as well as music mentoring for educators in education-support schools, hospitals and hospices.
Micheál is also developing innovative pedagogical approaches for the teaching of music to Deaf children.
We are interested in supporting remote indigenous communities in the creation of culturally-relevant music materials in the language of their choice for the purpose of music education.
The Savanna Griechen Fund was established to provide music programs for children with special needs in education-support schools, hospitals and hospices.
Savanna Griechen was passionate about the provision of music therapy to children in need. A former student of Micheál’s at WAAPA, she completed a Masters in Music Therapy while bravely battling gastric cancer. Sadly, after a number of years in remission, her cancer returned. Savanna passed away in February 2025 at the age of 38.
If you would like to support music projects in education-support schools, enter ‘SAVANNA’ under the ‘Preferred School code’ on the Donations page.
Cottage Music Foundation’s primary aim is to work with classroom teachers on the inclusion of music in the school day.
We employ highly-experienced music teachers to provide music mentoring to teachers in early childhood, primary and high school settings.
In time, this leads to the development of quality school music programs in many more schools.
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 Bass with the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland and played with The RTÉ Concert Orchestra (Ireland’s National broadcaster) 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.
Micheál conducts workshops for teachers, students, and community organisations in Australia and overseas. His age-specific workshops for children aged 2-16 focus on a range of areas including aural & listening skills development, use of games to promote creativity and dynamism in a group, exploration of the role of the individual within an ensemble, aural/visual reactions and interaction, movement, stage management skills, performance-related anxiety, development of performance focus and communication skills, memory development, group awareness & use of space, voice blending, group sound development, promoting multi-layered part thinking and development of gross motor skills. These inclusive workshops cater for different learning styles, and include activities in which all students thrive.
His workshops for teachers focus on ways of teaching music in a fun, exciting and challenging way. Specific skills covered include pitch, rhythm, memory skills, reading/writing, creativity, composition, improvisation, inner hearing, part thinking, form, and stylistic awareness. The sessions also include dynamic teaching approaches that suit all styles of learning.
His choral workshops focus on the fundamental nature of choral singing, and include highly detailed warm-ups, choral ensemble skills, aural/visual reactions & interaction, Feldenkrais-related movement, stage management, performance focus, creativity, communication, and innovative rehearsal techniques. These workshops explore highly effective ways of improving choral sound using methods tried and tested by Micheál over 30 years.
