Music Together is growing
in Japan!
Families all over the world are joining the Music Together community. To better serve our Japanese families, we have created new website pages with translations of the family songbook activities so they can have fun with the music at home.
Check out our new Japanese Web Site!
Ken Guilmartin, founder and director of Music Together, travelled to Japan this month to train many more teachers for our Japanese centers. A dozen current teachers were able to refresh their training as well. Our new International Licensing Representative and Center Development mentor, Chihiro Aghababian
, joined Ken on this trip to meet and work with the teachers and directors there.
Annual Directors Weekend: Friday, May 16 through Sunday, May 19
Each year Music Together Center Directors from all over the world come together for our annual Music Together Directors Weekend. At this event Directors learn how to help their teachers stay on the cutting edge of effective developmentally appropriate educational practices, learn new ways to bring Music Together to the wider community through outreach and preschool projects, and learn how to efficiently operate a Music Together center. They love getting together to share stories of inspiration and to help each other achieve the mission of the program—bringing the joy of music into the daily lives of families everywhere. As you can imagine, they also love to get together to make music!
Upcoming Conventions
Music Together attends over twenty-five (25) conventions each year to help us stay current on the research occurring in early childhood music and movement. Two of these conventions are coming up within the next two months. If you live in the area or are attending the convention, please consider stopping by the Music Together booth to pick up some information and introduce yourself!
New York Association for the Education of Young Children (NYEYC)
Buffalo NY — May 1–3, 2008
Workshop topics:
• Music Together Family Favorites
• Maximize Your Music-making Area
• Supporting Fine and Gross Motor Development
• Music & Movement: A Learning Continuum from Birth through Kindergarten
Presented by: MJ Territo, Sally Woodson, and Deanna DeCampos
Early Childhood Music and Movement Association (ECMMA)
Providence, RI — July 3–6, 2008
Workshop topics:
• What Makes a Good Early Childhood Music Song?
Presented by: Jennie Mulqueen
Families Sing and Dance Along with the Music Together Band
On December 1, 2007 Music Together continued the celebration of its twentieth anniversary at three sold-out concerts of the Music Together Band at the company’s international headquarters in Hopewell, New Jersey. The Music Together Band, whose members perform on the CDs given the families enrolled in Music Together classes, featured songs from the recently released, award-winning CD, Music Together® Family Favorites®. Children and adults who attended had the rare opportunity to see “Mommy,” “Daddy,” “Uncle Gerry” and the rest of the band bring the music from the CDs to life. Children got down and boogied with the band to some of their favorite songs, danced with their favorite stuffed animals, and played along with kitchen instruments.
Performing band members included Lynn Lobban (“Mommy”), Gerry Dignan ("Uncle Gerry"), Music Together Founder/Director Ken Guilmartin, and instrumentalists Joel Perry (guitar), Ed Nardi (drums), and Leslie "Chuggy" Carter (Latin percussion).
Music Together Band Concert Photo Gallery
Music Together® Family Favorites®
Winner of a Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Award, Earlychildhood News Directors’ Choice Award, Earlychildhood News Judges’ Selection Award, The National Parenting Center Seal of Approval—2007, iParenting Media Award, and the Learning® Magazine 2008 Teacher's Choice Award for the Family
For the first time, Music Together is offering a special compilation CD of favorite songs directly to the public for use in homes and preschools. Music Together® Family Favorites® contains nineteen outstanding songs and rhythmic rhymes drawn from all nine (9) Music Together song collections. It features original compositions as well as tunes from the folk, jazz, and world music traditions. This artfully produced recording includes a wide range of tonalities and meters, vital for expanding children's music experience and understanding...[more]
There’s fun for families, too, at . . .
Music Together’s New International Headquarters in Hopewell, NJ
There was a time when, in a fit of ambitious glee, someone hung a map of the whole United States in the office of the fledgling Music Together company, even though a few pins in the New York/New Jersey area were all that were required to signify the extent of its independently licensed centers. Today the company is forced to use little dots—now on a map of the entire world—since the number of pins necessary would give the unfortunate impression of having impaled a porcupine to the wall! . . .[more]