Nicholas Patrick Quigley (he/they) is a compassionate, inquisitive educator, and creative musician based in Fall River, MA. A proud Fall River Public Schools teacher at Durfee High School, their radically inclusive instruction and project-based curriculum empowers students to write and produce original music stemming from themes of identity and culture. Quigley’s varied, but dedicated service throughout their career has included founding an alternative high school’s modern band, creating a trauma-responsive music group for elementary students, forming a middle school guitar/ukulele program, co-coordinating state-wide music education festivals for contemporary musics, facilitating a high school expressive arts club, leading beginning band classes, conducting elementary choirs and beginner–intermediate string ensembles, and organizing educators for student-centered schooling policies. In addition to K–12 teaching, Quigley facilitates Boston University’s only music education elective open to all BU undergraduates, and serves as an alumnus assistant in Salve Regina University’s graduate expressive arts program.
As an artist, Quigley started writing songs in high school and exploring meditative improvisation early in university. Their discography now spans a diverse array of acoustic, electronic, generative, soundscape, ambient, and alternative musics. Inspired by integrative and avant-garde approaches, Quigley has studied in creative workshops with Brian Eno, Laraaji, Meredith Monk, and the Center for Deep Listening at Rensselaer. With a particular interest in composing to develop ecological consciousness, Quigley earned a certificate in Ecopsychology from the Pacifica Graduate Institute. Their body of work includes themes of climate change and terrapsychology, neurodiversity, contemporary global political issues, and the worlds of dreams.
Quigley has presented at research- and practice-oriented conferences, and published in the Journal of Popular Music Education, Impact: The Journal of the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning, Teaching Music, and the Massachusetts Music Educators Journal. In their scholarship, they have focused on the educational backgrounds of DIY musicians, applying eco-literate and eco-conscious pedagogy and philosophy in praxis, and integrating intermodal expressive arts in formal music learning environments. They are a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Lowell (BM, cum laude, Music Business), Boston University (MM, Music Education, Pi Kappa Lambda), and Salve Regina University (CAGS, Expressive and Creative Arts). In 2026, Quigley will commence doctoral studies in education at Northeastern University.