Coming March 4th, 2025 . . .

Brian J. Wagner-Yeung is the Neurodiversity & Accessibility Chairperson for the New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA). He is a music educator for New York City Public Schools, where he was a finalist for the NYC Big Apple Awards in 2019. He is an adjunct faculty member at CUNY Brooklyn College, where he currently teaches coursework to undergraduate and graduate students. He completed his BA and MSED in Music Education from CUNY Queens College and an Advanced Certificate in Autism Spectrum Disorders from CUNY Brooklyn College. 

 

Throughout his teaching experience, he has mainly taught music in a center-based special education program, in addition to inclusion classrooms and a gifted and talented program. He has taught K-8 general music, 6-12 adaptive string orchestra, and K-8 musical theatre. His teaching philosophy is to incorporate a strength-based learning environment for all students and utilize Universal Design for Learning (UDL). He has spent his teaching career developing a curriculum and music program that is meaningful, empowering, enriching, inclusive, and diverse. Through accessible content, he has seen significant success for all learners.

 

In addition, he has taken on leadership roles within the music education professional community. As Neurodiversity & Accessibility Chair for NYSSMA, he is responsible for bringing on current clinicians at the annual winter conference and providing resources and professional development to music educators across New York State. He is an advisory board member of the Music Educators’ Association of New York City (MEANYC). He was previously an executive board member, where he was the membership chair, professional development chair, the District 75 teaching representative, and the editor of the digital journal Presto! 

 

As an independent educational consultant, he has presented workshops and published articles at the local, national, and international levels. He has presented for NAfME National Conferences, NAfME Eastern and Western Division Conferences, ABLE Assembly, The Kennedy Center Arts in Education and Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD), NAfME State Conferences (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusets, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington DC), collegiate music education programs, organizations such as Arts for All Abilities Consortium, Music ConstructED, Wharton Arts, ZUMIX, Segerstom’s Center’s Arts School for All Abilities, Play on Philly - and virtually to Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the Arts. His publications can be found in NAfME’s Music in a Minuet, Teaching Music, School Music News, DARTS Newsletter, and Tempo Magazine. 

 

Brian’s work focuses on empowering all students to succeed through music-making and giving music educators the resources, strategies, and tools to make their own music classrooms and programs accessible for all. He aims to give music educators strategies to create a sense of true inclusion and belonging for all.