For nearly two decades, Adrian Maclin has changed lives inside and outside of his classroom.

Maclin, a music teacher at Cordova High School in Memphis, Tennessee, is the winner of the 2025 Music Educator Award, which is presented by the Recording Academy and the Grammy Museum.

“We don’t refer to ourselves as a choir class,” Maclin said. “We refer to ourselves as a choir family.”

Impact on his students

Maclin’s current and former students say he is a father figure to many.

“He had this energy, it’s like an attracting energy that you just want to be around,” said Jo Aguilar, a student at Cordova High School. “He’s given me life lessons. It’s not just about choir.”

Maclin’s dedication and determination has changed the course of some of his students’ lives.

“When I first moved here, me and my family, we were having a little bit of some financial problems and some transportation issues, and Maclin would pick me up at 5:30 in the morning, take me to school,” former student Zachary Head said.

Sean Hunt, a current student, said a schedule change put him in Maclin’s class and quickly made an impact on him. 

“I came into high school and I hooked up with a couple of people I thought were friends. I got myself into a little bit of trouble,” said Hunt. “One day they told me my schedule had changed and I go to room F-163.  I went maybe like two weeks telling him I don’t want to be in here, get me out. By that third week, I was singing everything.”

Now, Hunt plans to go into music education, thanks to Maclin.

“That brings tears to my eyes when he told me that at the beginning of the school year,” Maclin said of Hunt.

Dedication to academic excellence

Maclin, who began singing in church as a child, decided to dedicate his life to teaching when he was in high school. 

For almost 20 years, he has taken his choirs around the country to showcase their talents.

“There are kids that come in, they’re dealing with things. They’re troubled. I’ve had kids come in homeless and my smile, me caring for them, I know that I’ve made a change in them,” he said.

Maclin insists his students’ talents need to include academic excellence in addition to their singing abilities. In his class, you’ll find the school’s top three academic achievers. 

“A funny saying he has is, he’s not going to take around a bunch of singing dummies around the country,” Aguilar said, laughingly.

He also reminds his students they are representing not only themselves, but a community.

“It was a lot of pressure because we’re a choir of predominantly African Americans or like minority students. So we already have a vision in other people’s minds of what we are,” said Natalya Crosby, who was her class valedictorian. “It was just like, ‘OK, let’s go in whenever we sing, whenever we perform and let’s show them that we’re more than whatever they could think that we are.'”

His students say they’re grateful for Maclin’s unwavering support.

“Thank you for believing in a kid who probably sometimes didn’t believe himself,” Aguilar said. “You mean the world to me. I love you so much.”

For Maclin, he’s happy to have been a part of their journey.

“It’s the joy of seeing them be successful, knowing that the little part that I did made a change in your life,” he said.