CAZENOVIA — Last June, Cazenovia High School graduate Michael Craner was recognized as one of the top music educators in the country for the second year in a row.
Craner, a teacher at Schuylerville High School (Schuylerville, NY), is one of 219 music educators from 204 cities to be named a quarterfinalist for the 2022 Music Educator Award.
Presented by the Grammy Museum and the Recording Academy, the award was established to recognize current U.S. educators (kindergarten through college) 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 schools.
Anyone, including students, parents, friends, colleagues, community members, school deans, and administrators, can nominate a teacher for the award. Teachers are also permitted to nominate themselves. All nominees are notified and invited to fill out applications.
Each year, one recipient is selected from ten finalists.
The finalists for the 2022 Music Educator Award will be announced this month, and the recipient will be recognized during Grammy Week 2022.
According to a Grammy Museum press release announcing the quarterfinalists, the winner will be flown to Los Angeles to attend the 64th 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. Additionally, 15 semifinalists will receive a $500 honorarium with matching school grants.
Craner and the other 2022 award quarterfinalists were selected from more than 1,135 initial nominees from 49 states. Also in the running for the award are 189 legacy applicants from 2021.
Craner was also a quarterfinalist for the 2021 Music Educator Award.
“[This recognition] is still beyond my wildest belief,” said Craner. “I never expected anything like this. I am truly honored.”
According to Craner, his first instrument was the piano, which he played as a child at home and at his grandmother’s house.
He picked up the trombone in middle school and started playing electric and acoustic bass in high school, where he performed with the stage band and the orchestra.
“I picked up the bass guitar in high school with the help of my high school music teacher, Mr. Larry Kelsen, and Mr. Jack Albert, late bassist for [the Syracuse-based rock band Dan Elliott and the Monterays],” Craner said.
After graduating from Cazenovia High School in 1990, Craner went on to earn a B.A. in music performance and a B.S in business administration from the State University of New York at Oswego in 1995. In 1998, he graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston with an M.M. in jazz performance.
Craner explained that while he knew he wanted to pursue a career in music, he did not anticipate becoming a teacher.
“I was inspired by music all around me,” he said. “From my aunt and uncle’s records that I used to listen to when I was a kid, to my schoolteachers and the rock bands of my youth. . . [However,] I came to teaching by accident when I was tutoring music theory and music history in undergrad. I was quite good at it and enjoyed it. I took all of my education classes while in grad school at the New England Conservatory. . . While I was there, I also studied conducting with William Drury and Frank Battisti.”
Craner, who is an active double bassist and electric bassist, has been teaching at Schuylerville for 20 years. Today, he is the director of both the Symphonic Band and the Schuylerville Jazz Ensemble.
He is also the jazz director and an adjunct professor at Castleton University in Vermont; the music director/principal conductor for the Lake George Community Band; a guest conductor of the Saratoga Youth Symphony and other organizations throughout the northeast; a freelance performer throughout the Northeast; and the bassist for both “Better Off Led,” a Led Zeppelin tribute band, and the House Band at the Strand Theatre in Hudson Falls, NY.
In January 2022, he will be playing bass with esteemed English guitarist Albert Lee.
“I am always busy and involved in the [region’s music community],” Craner said. “The bottom line is that my entire career and living is and comes from being a musician.”
Nominations for the 2023 Music Educator Award are now open at grammyintheschools.com.
