EP. 56 – Shaping your primary music curriculum around cultural celebrations w/ Tomos Nicholls

Tomos Nicholls is a music teacher at Alice Smith School in Malaysia.

Tomos began his journey in international education as a teaching assistant in Myanmar before training as a music teacher under the mentorship of Asta Hodgson (who also featured on the podcast here). Since 2021 he has been based in Malaysia, where he teaches primary music, leads large-scale cultural performance projects, and works within a rapidly evolving arts landscape.

Outside school, Tomos co-directs the Kuala Lumpur Men’s Chorus (KLMC), a musical theatre–focused show choir that recently premiered its first original musical.

Tomos is passionate about cultural integration in primary music, Dalcroze-inspired movement-based learning, and helping students connect meaningfully with Malaysia’s multilingual, multicultural heritage. 

In this episode, we explore:

• Tomos’s journey from the UK to an international teaching assistant post in Yangon, and then music teacher in Malaysia.
• The growth of Malaysia’s arts scene and Tomos’s role co-directing the Kuala Lumpur Men’s Chorus.
• What deep cultural integration looks like in an international school setting
• How his school builds cultural understanding through 9–10 week performance projects for all Year 1–6 students
• The shift from traditional cultural “events” to immersive, collaborative curriculum experiences
• Tomos’s commitment to learning Mandarin, Malay and Tamil to deepen cultural access and relationships
• How Dalcroze Eurhythmics has transformed his teaching practice
• Developing sustainable cultural programmes that can outlast individual staff members

Please do check out the links below for everything mentioned in the show!