David Casali

David Casali is a Ph.D. candidate (Music Education) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an educator in the Springfield (MA) Public Schools. His focus has been on using music technology to make music more accessible for all students. He has also developed a series of applications for teaching music production concepts to young students. David has spoken on music technology in the elementary music classroom at many conferences, including the 2024 Association for Technology in Music Education conference, the Massachusetts Music Educators Association’s All-State Conference, the Michigan Music Conference, the National Association for Music Education’s National Conference, and the 2025 New Directions in Music Education conference. He also recently published an article in the Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction. His current dissertation research focuses on how music educators use generative artificial intelligence to increase the accessibility of their teaching.

David received his bachelor’s degree in double bass performance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2012 and his master’s degree in double bass performance from Indiana University in 2015 before switching to music education. As an educator, David has taught in a wide variety of settings, from adult ukulele classes to running an infant and toddler music program. In each case, his focus is on making his teaching relevant, accessible, and fun for students. While he has spent most of his career in the Springfield Public Schools, where he helped write the elementary curriculum for the district, he has also spent time working at the state level with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

He was the Music Arts Education Ambassador for western Massachusetts, helping DESE roll out their 2019 Arts Curriculum Framework to educators in the state. He was also a DESE Arts Expert Advisor, where he evaluated curricula for use in Massachusetts. David has also been involved in the Massachusetts Music Educators Association – Western District as a low strings adjudicator for Senior and Junior Festival auditions for the last three years. While he does not have the time to perform as much as he would like, he subs with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and performs at UMass Amherst music events, such as the Bach Festival.