Designing a Coherent K–12 Music Journey Through Musical Futures
The CIA FIRST International School music team at a recent staff development session
At CIA FIRST International School, music education is treated as a long-term, coherent journey rather than a collection of disconnected units.
Operating across four campuses in Cambodia, the programme is led by Head of Music Pavel Lipski and is currently undergoing a comprehensive K–12 curriculum redesign grounded in clarity, alignment, and student agency.
Check out this interview with Head of Music, Pavel Lipski:
The department’s work is guided by Understanding by Design and the National Core Arts Standards, but its defining feature is the decision to place Musical Futures values at the structural core of the curriculum.
Rather than adopting Musical Futures as a set of activities, CIA FIRST is using it as an audit lens for the entire programme, ensuring that inclusion, informality, creativity, and relevance are present from Kindergarten through to graduation.
Chair Drumming time!
Music is compulsory across all campuses, reinforcing the belief that high-quality music education is a right, not a privilege. Students create, perform, and produce music regardless of prior experience, with engagement deliberately placed before theory. Classrooms operate as collaborative rehearsal spaces where peer learning, ensemble dynamics, and constructive critique mirror professional music-making.
The school offers three clearly defined, industry-aligned High School pathways:
- Instrumental Performance,
- Vocal Performance, and
- Music Technology.
With facilities including a 24-station Ableton Live lab and fully equipped band rooms, students experience music as a professional practice. Composition, arrangement, improvisation, and production are central, not peripheral.
Students use Ableton Live as a core part of the curriculum
Following participation in the Big Gig Phnom Penh in 2024, CIA FIRST began introducing Musical Futures strategies such as Just Play and classroom band models across multiple year levels. This implementation is intentionally iterative. In Elementary School, informal learning approaches are carefully balanced with foundational skill development. In Middle School, the focus shifts to informed choice, with curricula explicitly designed to expose students to all three High School pathways before they specialise.
Students learning the ukulele using Everyone Can Play Ukulele
Across all levels, the programme prioritises student voice in repertoire selection, validates cultural identity, and applies a sound-before-symbol philosophy even in technology-rich contexts. Whether students are exploring acoustic band instruments or experimenting with sound design in Ableton Live, creativity is the driving force.
Whole class keyboard using Everyone Can Play Keyboard
At CIA FIRST International School, Musical Futures values are not moments within lessons. They are the structural DNA of a 13-year musical experience designed to empower students as confident, reflective, and creative musicians.