{"id":2999,"date":"2025-11-14T12:20:59","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T17:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/?p=2999"},"modified":"2025-11-14T14:01:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T19:01:57","slug":"raising-musical-adults-with-music-together-the-zalewski-familys-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/raising-musical-adults-with-music-together-the-zalewski-familys-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising Musical Adults with Music Together\u00ae: The Zalewski Family\u2019s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One Family\u2019s Music Together\u00ae<\/sup> Story
<\/strong>Over the years, we\u2019ve heard from many Music Together alumni about how music shows up in their adult lives. Some became professionals (including one Billie Eilish<\/a>!), while many others found their own ways to be musical. Meet mom Lauren Zalewski, whose two Music Together grads still have music as a part of their lives, decades later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who They Are<\/strong>
In the late 1990s, Lauren Zalewski saw a Music Together ad in her local central New Jersey paper. Feeling a bit stuck at home with her newborn, Riley, she was looking to meet other new parents and introduce Riley to music early. At the time, Music Together was the only program with classes for infants, so she signed up, expecting a playgroup with some instruments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In class, Lauren found much more. She enjoyed bonding with other moms who \u201cwere in the same boat,\u201d and friendships soon bloomed. Plus, she was surprised that the activities were intentional and well designed\u2014and the music stood out right away. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t cringe-y kids\u2019 music!\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Jake
Jake playing a triangle in class (1999)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Keeping the Music Going
<\/strong>As their family grew to include Jake, the Zalewskis stayed with Music Together, and soon the whole family was immersed. They kept coming to class, sang their favorite songs together, and played the recordings (tapes at first!) in the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Music Together, children experience many ways to make music: singing, dancing, instrument-play. Every class also includes a jam session where a variety of kid-friendly instruments come out, and each child chooses what they want to play, experimenting with music-making in their own way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lauren felt this structure had a powerful effect on Riley and Jake. They were given the freedom to explore and \u201cbe goofy\u201d making music, and she was free to be goofy with them. Making music with her children and the class opened their eyes to this \u201cbeautiful thing called music.\u201d They kept coming until they entered kindergarten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake and Riley\u2019s Paths<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"
Riley on Nick Jr. Live! “Move To The Music” U.S. Theatrical Tour (2019)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Early and consistent music-making experiences that included Lauren, and other adults they loved, helped make music a natural part of Jake and Riley\u2019s lives. Though Riley started out painfully shy in class, she emerged from her shell as she grew and the songs became more familiar. And, today, Riley makes her living singing and dancing! She\u2019s building a career in musical theater, with Broadway aspirations. Most recently, she\u2019s been a star performer on cruise ships (including as a \u201cfriend\u201d to some Princesses!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake took up drums, did some musical theater, and played some battles of the bands throughout high school. He later taught himself bass. Now pursuing an engineering degree, Jake keeps music as a passion\u2014collecting vinyl, enjoying every genre, and playing with Riley and their father, Rob, in the family band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The family band is still going strong: Rob plays guitar, Jake plays bass, and Riley sings. Lauren sometimes adds harmonica or kazoo \u201cjust for kicks.\u201d She\u2019s seen firsthand how positive making music has been for her family. Every once in a while, someone will remark on how musical her children are. She tells them it\u2019s because both were a part of Music Together for so long!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Zalewski-Family-Band\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

What Will Your Family\u2019s Musical Story Be?<\/strong>
Lauren credits their wonderful Music Together teacher, the research-based curriculum, and starting in infancy with helping her family become fully immersed in music. She\u2019s long believed that music supports learning, growth, and the way children think, but what she treasures most is that Riley and Jake\u2019s love of music still shines today. Music Together offers the same invitation to every family: come as you are, make music in your way, and carry it forward for life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One Family\u2019s Music Together\u00ae StoryOver the years, we\u2019ve heard from many Music Together alumni about how music shows up in their adult lives. Some became professionals (including one Billie Eilish!), while many others found their own ways to be musical. Meet mom Lauren Zalewski, whose two Music Together grads still have music as a part… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":3007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170,7,4],"tags":[37,56,30,40],"class_list":["post-2999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-spotlight","category-mt-at-home","category-parent-education","tag-family-music","tag-music-at-home","tag-music-together","tag-music-making"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2999"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3010,"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999\/revisions\/3010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}