Two Aiken County music teachers will have some help instilling a love of music in their students.
The Aiken Singers has awarded grants to two music teachers in the Aiken County School system. The grants, in the amount of $500, are designed to help promote music education in Aiken County schools. Winners of the 2024 grants are Tycia Wright of Aiken High School and Megan Granquist of Greendale Elementary School.
Wright is a 2014 graduate of USC Aiken. She began working as the chorus teacher at Aiken High in December 2014. The program has seen tremendous growth over the past eight years and has been able to offer beginner level chorus and piano classes. Chorus Club, musical theater and music appreciation courses have also been added.
Wright currently oversees Aiken High’s Key Club and recently earned a Master of Education in special education in April 2023. In her spare time, she serves as the minister of music at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church and spends time with her family.
She plans to use the money from the Aiken Singers Grant to improve music literacy skills for novice students and provide them with relative resources to enhance their learning experience.
Granquist is an elementary music educator at Greendale Elementary in New Ellenton. This is her first year at Greendale and her ninth year teaching elementary music. Before moving to Aiken, she helped to open River Ridge Academy in Bluffton where she met her husband, who is a band director.
She grew up in Tennessee before moving to South Carolina to begin her teaching career. She graduated cum laude from Middle Tennessee State University with a Bachelor of Music in instrumental music education. She is a member of the National Association for Music Education, the South Carolina Association for Music Education and the Feierabend Association for Music Education.
In her free time, she enjoys playing flute with the Aiken Concert Band, crocheting and spending time with her husband and their two cats. Granquist is excited to receive the Aiken Singers grant which will allow students who need a recorder the opportunity to continue their music education through instrumental performance.
Students will begin playing recorder in third grade and continue their practice through fourth grade with a culminating performance at the Orchestra Sings, a Carnegie Hall Link Up Program with the Aiken Civic Orchestra. Students will also demonstrate their recorder playing at their spring concert.
