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!
Get in touch with Tomos:Links and resources from this episode:
EPISODE SPONSOR: This episode is brought to you by Trinity College, London. Trinity works worldwide to support the music education of hundreds of thousands of students with assessments across a wide spectrum of styles, including in Classical, Jazz, Rock & Pop and theory of music. If you’re looking for music exams that are super flexible, learner-centred and come with plenty of local on-the-ground support, then Trinity College London could be the perfect option for your international school setting.
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