Music Together of West Hartford and Farmington Valley Announces Upcoming 10-week Winter Session and 8-Week Special Babies Class

The following is a press release:

Research-based early childhood music and movement program, Music Together of West Hartford and Farmington Valley, will start a new 10-week winter session beginning the week of Jan. 6, 2014. Online registration is now open for all new and returning families.

A pioneer in early childhood music and movement education since 1987, Music Together is an internationally recognized music and movement program for families. Music Together’s research-based, developmentally appropriate early childhood music curriculum strongly emphasizes and facilitates adult involvement and is based on the recognition that all children are musical and that all children can learn to sing in tune, keep a beat, and participate with confidence, provided that their early environment supports such learning. 

A Music Together class is a community of children and caregivers sharing songs, playing instruments, chanting rhythms, and moving in a relaxed, playful, and non-performance-oriented setting. Each semester focuses on a song collection, characterized by its own graphic, color, and instrument. The music is pitched in just the right range for children’s voices and features great arrangements of original and traditional songs in a wide variety of tonalities, meters, and cultural styles.

“Active music making plays an integral part in a child’s overall learning,” says Catherine Madrak, Center Director of Music Together of West Hartford and Farmington Valley. “Music Together not only develops music skills, it nurtures creativity, self-expression, and confidence while also supporting social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development.”

Music Together of West Hartford and Farmington Valley offers a mixed age class designed for children ages birth through Kindergarten and a special babies class for infants 0-8 months. The mixed age class follows the recommendations of early child development researchers, which suggest that grouping children of a variety of ages fosters natural, family-style learning. The Babies Class is especially designed for babies 8 months and younger and parents who want to learn as much as possible about music development in infants. The Babies curriculum couples fascinating research about how infants process and respond to music with engaging music and movement activities.

Weekly classes are held in West Hartford at Congregation Beth Israel and St. James’s Episcopal Church, and in Simsbury at First Church of Christ. To register for the Winter session, a free demo class, or for questions about the Music Together program, please visit www.MusicTogetherWHFV.com, email the Music Together Center at info@musictogetherWHFV.com, or call 860-206-8962.