Dr. Anand Sukumaran specializes in instrumental music education. He is director of bands and teaches courses in secondary-level instrumental music methods and administration, brass and woodwind techniques, folk guitar and world music. He also provides reflective supervision to future music educators during their off-campus internships and is a faculty advisor for Hope’s chapter of the National Association for Music Educators (NAfME). 

Prior to working in higher education, Dr. Sukumaran spent a decade teaching band, piano lab, guitar, songwriting and general music in the Chicago Public Schools. During his time in Chicago, he was awarded the prestigious Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching, which provided funding for a sabbatical at Northwestern University. In his time there, he undertook coursework in teaching composition in schools and conducted research into the characteristics of highly successful urban music educators. These experiences inspired him to pursue a Ph.D. in music education with a focus on performing arts technology.

Dr. Sukumaran’s research is oriented towards the phenomenon of multi-musicality and its pedagogical impact. These interests emerged in part from the intersections of his own musical pathways, which include orchestral horn playing, contemporary piano gigs, leading worship on guitar, ensemble conducting and teaching in diverse contexts. Dr. Sukumaran enjoys finding ways to channel his (and his students’) multi-musical affinities into academic and performance settings. His creative output draws inspiration from his multi-hyphenated identity as a Malaysian of Indian descent who has put down roots in the United States. An example of this work is his composition “Trade Winds,” written to help bridge the spaces between two global music traditions through merging Indian ragas (scales) with Western harmonies. 

Before dropping anchor at Hope in the spring of 2024, Dr. Sukumaran was the coordinator of music education and director of bands at Piedmont University in Georgia, where he revamped the music education and music history curricula to emphasize hands-on experiences and creative projects. He also supported local school band programs as a guest conductor, ensemble clinician and festival adjudicator. He is excited to continue this type of professional outreach in Holland, West Michigan, and the wider region.

AREAS OF Expertise

• K–12 music education 
• Wind band conducting 
• Music technology  
• Folk guitar

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., music education, University of Michigan, 2022
• M.M.Ed., music education, VanderCook College of Music, 2010
• B.M.Ed., music education, Michigan State University, 2006

HONORS, GRANTS & AWARDS

• Finalist, Outstanding Dissertation Award, Council for Research in Music Education, 2022
• Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching, Golden Apple Foundation grant, 2014

Selected Recent Presentations & Publications

• “Many Streams, One River: Multimusical Educators in the K-12 Music Classroom,” dissertation, University of Michigan, 2022
• “Strangers No More: Integrating Refugee and Immigrant Students in the Music Classroom,” presentation at the International Society for Music Education (ISME) World Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, 2018
• “Technology Resources for Collaborative and Creative Music Making,” Michigan Music Educator, 2018
• “Making Their Own Kind of Music: Teaching Songwriting in the Music Classroom,” presentation at Illinois Music Education Conference, 2018
• “‘TradeWinds’: A Pedagogical Composition to Introduce Indian Classical Music in Western Ensemble Settings,” poster presentation at the Big Ten Academic Alliance Music Education Conference, 2018
• “A Report on the 2017 Society for Music Teacher Education Symposium,” with M.K. Baugh, Michigan Music Educator, 2018
• “Cooperative Learning in the Large Ensemble,” Smart Music Blog, 2017

Outside the College

Dr. Sukumaran’s “happy places” are those that encourage free-range wandering and wonderment. These include museums, bookstores, gardens and nature trails. He relishes discovering “new” musical genres (Christian reggae!) and attempting to play unfamiliar instruments such as the banjo. Dr. Sukumaran lives with his wife (a Hope alumna!) and son in Holland. They look forward to exploring more of this beautiful region as a family.