With all the time a student spends in school with their teachers going through lessons based on class material, it can become difficult to picture a teacher as anything other than that. However, for Spanish teacher Scott St. Denis, his passion for music is always something that is demonstrated throughout his classroom. Whether it is through using lyrics from Spanish songs to further students education, or simply using a playlist during classwork time, St. Denis’ class is rarely silent. As of recently, St. Denis has been able to turn his passion for music into a side business to accompany his full time teaching job.

Press Play Curation is St. Denis’ business centered around playlist-making and DJing for events. The plan for a business focused on these topics was born after St. Denis took a few courses in business and was searching for ideas of how he could further utilize this newfound knowledge. According to St. Denis, the idea originally sprouted from him simply asking several people in his life what they felt he was good at and piecing common threads among the responses he received. From here, the business was officially born in June 2025.

“One of the overwhelming [topics I received] was music recommendations, which is something I had already been doing [for] forever anyways,” St. Denis said. “After that, my wife and I started brainstorming, ‘what can we do with this?’ and ‘how can we maybe capitalize on that?'”

Originally, the plan for this business did not involve the DJing aspect it now contains. According to St. Denis, he realized this was a pivotal part his business required soon after developing the playlist aspect.

“One of the first questions we got anytime we were pitching [the business] idea and putting it out there was ‘that’s really cool — do you DJ?'” St. Denis said. “I realized it was something we have to look into.”

The idea of adding DJing to the business seemed overwhelming at first as it would involve a large part of St. Denis’ already busy day being taken up, plus factoring in a few hours of travel to arrive at the event itself. However, St. Denis was able to find a balance for adding DJing into his business that corresponds with his schedule.

“I just wanna have fun with [DJing], so we started tip toeing into it little by little,” St. Denis said. “We have been doing more local events like small catered events and that sort of thing, so we get to pick and choose, which is definitely more relaxing.”

Even when a client does not book St. Denis as a DJ, the main factor of the business, playlist-making, is always at play. Although to some this may seem like an unheard of concept to center a business around, it can become useful to St. Denis’ target crowd.

“Some people at the [high school age] are probably wondering who would pay for [playlist-making], but at my age, people don’t have the time to do this or might need help doing it,” St. Denis said.

On the Press Play Curation website, St. Denis offers a myriad of options for playlists. When pressing on the “Playlists” tab, shoppers can find premade playlists ranging from a rock themed October playlist to an Irish themed March playlist.

When visiting the “Store” tab of the website, there are options to choose event playlists ranging from one hour to six or more hours, as well as an option for business playlists for a companies store or workspace. According to St. Denis, these custom playlists take hours of curation, as they are made with specific tastes in mind and scheduled to begin playing right at the beginning of the event and finish right as the event is ending.

The first step of the creation process involves clients filling out an intake form detailing the event that will be put on, the age group that will be at the event, how well known they prefer the songs to be, along with a variety of other questions to give St. Denis the clearest idea of what the client wants as possible.

“From there, it’s just research on my part,” St. Denis said. “I sit down for hours and just start curating [music] and finding songs that don’t or do go together.”

After the playlist creation process has been complete, St. Denis sends the finished product to an unexpected critic — his children. In fact, despite St. Denis being the face of the company, it is somewhat of a family affair.

According to St. Denis, his daughter has begun to learn the inner workings of the DJing aspect of live events, including having a pre-planned playlist as well as being able to work guests’ requests in. As for the Press Play Curation website, it was entirely put together by St. Denis’ wife.

Although Press Play Curation isn’t even a year old, St. Denis’ love for music is something that has followed him his entire life. According to St. Denis, he has played in bands throughout his home state, Connecticut, since he was 15, carrying with him a long standing passion for drums and guitar as well.

This passion for music is something St. Denis brings to his Spanish classroom daily. Whether it be playing some music to wake up students on a rainy day, or playing some calming music during quiet work time, St. Denis’ classroom is almost always full of tunes.

“I definitely try to use what I know [about Spanish music] to try and help with learning because it’s powerful and can create a memory,” St. Denis said. “It’s also a situation of what can [the students] understand at the level they’re at and finding that happy medium.”

Despite running Press Play Curation along with his teaching career, St. Denis says he finds balance in taking snippets of free time he has and using those to work on whichever project he is working on at that moment.

For St. Denis, Press Play Curation relies on prioritizing the enjoyment of personal interest and sharing a lifelong passion through one playlist at a time.

“You find time to do the stuff you love,” St. Denis said. “I don’t have a set schedule or time for Press Play Curation, it’s just finding whenever I have an hour or even 20 minutes to steal and just taking the time that I can.”