Arinze E. Mbagwu

I teach General Music and Chorus to 11th and 12th graders at Wings Academy High School in the Bronx. I built my curriculum around the music they already know – Hip-Hop, Reggaeton, Afrobeats, R&B – and expanded from there into music technology, production, and social commentary.

I am Igbo, from Biafra in West Africa. I grew up singing in church, learned organ in seminary, and trained in Western classical music at Queens College. That mix – Igbo hymns, Catholic liturgy, West African rhythms, American choral tradition – shaped how I hear music and how I teach it.

In June 2026, I will commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve, Military Intelligence branch. My military training runs parallel to my teaching career and directly informs how I approach leadership, discipline, and service in the classroom.

My research focuses on preparing music educators to implement trauma-informed positive education in their classrooms – a gap in the field I identified during MUSIC 678 and am building into a publishable study through MUS 688.