Michael Driscoll’s Advice: ‘Try Something New’

Unexpected things can happen when you try something completely new. That’s the lesson Michael Driscoll ’97, MS ’99, passes on to his students, and he uses an anecdote from his youth to illustrate his point.

While a high school sophomore planning on a career in engineering, he was required to take an arts elective. He was really hoping for photography, but it didn’t fit into his schedule. Chorus was his only option.

This unplanned class uncovered a new passion, and he soon became ever more involved in chamber groups, choruses, and Glee Clubs—even conducting some. Still, the idea of a career in music seemed far-fetched and economically challenging. He continued to pursue engineering until the tug of music became irresistible. Several years after graduating from WPI with degrees in electrical engineering, he finally gave in, plunging into the field as a high school music teacher.

The takeaway of all this: “Try something new that you may think is not for you. You may find that it changes your life,” says Driscoll, who has taught music at Brookline High School in Brookline, Mass., for more than 20 years.

Driscoll’s young life was an intertwining path of music and science. While he participated in chorus and took jazz and theatre organ lessons, he thought he was destined for a path in engineering.

“I enjoyed music, but I didn’t ever consider myself good enough to try to make a career of it.” he says. Not to mention, it can be difficult to make it as a professional musician. Driscoll initially opted for an engineering career path, with the idea that he could remain involved in music in a complementary way, such as designing electronic instruments and music software.

Still, he wanted to continue pursuing music on at least a partial basis, so he minored in the discipline while studying at WPI. As a freshman, he joined the Glee Club and was a founding member and director of Simple Harmonic Motion. It was “my first foray into the world of conducting and I loved it,” he says.

When not studying for his engineering and other classes, he spent “hours and hours” in Alden Hall doing music-related work, he recalls. “I spent more time there than any other place while I was at WPI.”

By design, both his Interactive Qualifying Project and Major Qualifying Project were related to music or sound. For instance, in electrical and computer engineering professor David Cyganski’s lab, Driscoll developed a system that used a camera to follow a conductor’s beat, then directed a controller to keep the tempo. “I was given musical opportunities as an undergraduate at WPI that I would never have received elsewhere,” he says.

In addition to Cyganski (now professor emeritus), Driscoll cites several WPI faculty as influential in his life, including the late Louis Curran, professor emeritus and former Glee Club director.

“I am grateful to have known him, to have worked with him, and ultimately to be both friends and colleagues with him,” he says of Curran.

While working toward his master’s in electrical engineering, he worked in Cyganski’s lab in Atwater Kent doing machine vision research. He finished his master’s and worked at Data Translation for two years before moving to a contractor position while pursuing a master’s in choral conducting at New England Conservatory. But, he recalls, every time he was in his “little cubicle in a windowless office,” he couldn’t stop watching the clock.

“I found engineering as a concept really interesting, but the day-to-day of it I found tedious and often frustrating,” he says. “Once I started music school, I realized that music is what I really enjoyed most.”

While in his second year at the conservatory, he finally made the jump into music full-time, taking on the role as chorus director at BHS. “My days are busy,” says Driscoll, who today serves as BHS’s director of choirs in addition to teaching piano classes and AP music theory. “I never find myself looking at the clock wishing the workday was over.”

While every now and then he does pine for the relative simplicity and stress-free (and lucrative) life he had working as an engineer, Driscoll says he loves teaching, getting students engaged and excited about music, and helping them grow as human beings. He points out that being in a music ensemble requires everyone to give their best, and also actively listen to one another. “In an era where so many of us are distracted by our phones and social media, I find that more than ever young people need opportunities to connect, listen, and work with others,” he says.

Driscoll also has directed adult community choruses for nearly a quarter century and says, “I think the world would be a nicer place if everyone participated in a music ensemble.”

Today, Driscoll carries forward lessons learned at WPI. Notably, he says, Cyganski taught him to break large problems down into baby steps. “It’s such a simple concept, but it helped me immensely and I’ve used it as a guiding principle ever since,” he says.

In his day-to-day teaching, he presents concepts in simple, sequential ways and strives to help students think similarly. In music literacy, for instance, students learn to read and hear music just by looking at the notation on the page—and conversely, how to hear music and know how to notate it.

And much like his mentor Cyganski, Driscoll has been influential in his students’ lives. Recently, for example, a former student auditioned for his adult community chorus and aced the sight-singing portion. Eight years out of high school, she remembered what she had learned under his tutelage.

“It was a proud-teacher moment for me,” he says.