University of St. Thomas

Nyssa Maria Brown serves as Music Education Coordinator for Minnesota's Perpich Center for Arts Education whose mission is to improve K-12 education for all Minnesota students and educators through innovative programs and partnerships centered in the arts.

Ms. Brown taught elementary school vocal and general music at Park Spanish Immersion School in St. Louis Park, MN from 1998-2007. In 2006, Nyssa was chosen by Education Minnesota, a state affiliate of NEA and AFT, to represent Minnesota at the national level in NEA's Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence. Ms. Brown was one of ten finalists for 2004 Minnesota Teacher of the Year and received a prestigious Milken Educator Award in 2004 from the Milken Family foundation.

Nyssa is a faculty member of the Kodály levels courses at Indiana University and James Madison University. She has spent time in Nambia and South Africa teaching and learning music and has participated in Eastman School of Music's Umculo: The Kimberley Project. She also studied in Hungary at the Kodály Institute's summer seminar. Nyssa released her first CD, Packwood or Paradise,  in October 2000.

Ms. Brown graduated from the Hartt School of Music and Hartford College for Women in 1998 with a B.M. in Education and a B.A. in Women's Studies. Her Kodály certification was earned at Brigham Young University in 2001. In 2008 she completed her M.A. in Music Education at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN.