Principals Darleen Gearhart “Music and the Brain has provided Sussex Avenue Renew School students with the extraordinary opportunity of receiving sequential music instruction in Pre-kindergarten through grade 3. We have witnessed that early music instruction is crucial for a child’s fine motor skills, critical thinking, and cognitive development in all subject areas. Students are thriving because of this phenomenal program. I simply cannot recommend Music and the Brain highly enough!” Anna Cano Amato “Music and the Brain has enabled our students in Kindergarten through the second grade to learn to play the keyboard with knowledge, confidence and joy. The program format enables our students to successfully read music, learn about the composers, and play with gusto. In addition, the professional development provided for our music teacher has empowered her to provide richer music introduction. There is nothing more beautiful than hearing Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ played by five-year-olds!” Rosalia Bacarella “At PS 199, Music and the Brain has been a vital part of our music program for the past eight years. The program has provided hundreds of children the opportunity to not just learn about music, but learn how to make music. It is an invaluable experience for our students. We are so grateful to Music and the Brain for making this possible through their support.” Beth Lubeck-Ceffalia “At PS 132, we have seen the connection between music instruction in early childhood students and academic achievement. Our students’ improvement in their literacy and mathematics skills are a true indication of how early music instruction can benefit our early childhood students. Music and the Brain is a program for all learners.” Jim Phair “It’s been a God-send…it’s gone way beyond my wildest expectations and imagination…the addition of Music and the Brain to PS 107 has had a marvelous impact on our entire school community. They start off as five- and six-year-old little kids who don’t know much about music at all and, within a very short period of time, they are counting beats per measure, identifying rests, identifying French and Latin words, identifying composers from around the world, and they’re certainly expanding their mathematical understanding. The growth in the academics is something we didn’t expect. It’s certainly not fluff! It is a really significant strong academic supporting program. Parents are very supportive, the recitals we have at the end of each year has been tremendously well received. It’s been great for our general education students, our gifted students and our struggling students.” Norma Genao “I am writing on behalf of the outstanding work of Music and the Brain. I would especially like to thank you for the outstanding Professional Development that you provided to our music teacher on the methodology of teaching our students how to play the piano…..It is a rigorous hands-on program that motivates our children to read, write, think, and problem solve…Our children did an outstanding musical performance of what they learned in the program.”
Principal
Sussex Avenue Renew School, Newark (NJ)
Principal
PS110K, Brooklyn
Principal
PS 199K, Brooklyn
Principal
PS132K, Brooklyn
Former Principal
PS 107Q, Queens
Former Principal
PS185M, Manhattan
Teachers Nicole Paulino, “I love the structure. It’s very similar to, minus the piano playing portions…to what I’ve kind of already been doing. I’m Dalcroze, Kodaly, Orff, and Gordon trained, so I’ve noticed in this program there’s many little snippets of all of those different pedagogies, which I personally love because I don’t find that any one pedagogy is good for any type of learner. The students need differentiation and so to have this program where sometimes they’re moving, sometimes they’re reading, sometimes they’re playing, sometimes they’re singing, it gives every single kid in the room a type of confidence because you might have a kid not want to sing but would thrive on the dancing and the piano playing. Every child has a chance to shine, whether it be as a class or as an individual, and the sequencing is just really nice because it makes the time flow. It makes the kids know that they have expectations to follow and they have certain, you know, subsets that they have to meet to get to the next section. It’s really nice as a teacher to be able to just kind of spell it out for them at the beginning… they get excited about what they’re going to learn that day and …different types of kids need different types of structure. With this nice differentiated style that Music and the Brain has, it really kind of hones in on what every child needs.” Sharon Golub “I absolutely love the Music and the Brain program. My students grow up on it and love it. Studies are impressive, but if you get to do it every day as I do, the children get to learn to love music in a very different way. They are playing all styles of music which allows me as a teacher to integrate my curriculum totally. I have parents sitting at home at night with their kid – even if they don’t have a keyboard – and working with Music and the Brain. From day one, you’re playing. There is instant gratification. I have the older children help the lower grade children and creating a bond between the grades around Music and the Brain.” Julia Skinner “It’s nice to have a structured program.. it really builds on their skills. I know it’s successful when they get excited, when I hear them say, ‘Yes, I got it!’ You can teach the lessons many different ways.” Fatima Rodriguez “When I was offered the job to teach Music and the Brain, I couldn’t believe it! I have a lot of faith and love for the program because I think it’s the way piano should be taught. I can’t say enough about it. It helps them with pitch and listening. I think this is the best piano program. It’s extremely valuable to New York City school students.” Elana Steil Obstfeld “I definitely have much more structure to what I’m teaching. Before it was hard to find substantive curriculum that could really carry me through the year that I thought was worthwhile to teach. Music and the Brain has given me that solid material to work with. The fact that it’s so interdisciplinary and all-encompassing with connections to language arts (and) the students really make a connection to math. The greatest benefit the kids get from Music and the Brain is confidence!” Nicholas D’Orsaneo “My impressions of Music and the Brain have been fantastic – great curriculum guides for the students and I really had a good time implementing the curriculum this year. Originally, I was using the Alfred book for quite a while. I was basically piecing together my own curriculum and then Music and the Brain came in with this great curriculum that I could really follow through with fidelity with the students and they really enjoyed it, and I had very much of a high success rate with my fourth graders this year.” Edel Boland “(It is) particularly interesting to see children with no English language base surpass their English-speaking peers…a way of expression for non-English speakers.” Corey Taylor “When I first started teaching music, I would find different lessons that were turning my students into children that may have sang songs well, who may have understood some of the concepts I taught them, but Music and the Brain made them sophisticated musicians. They are more sophisticated learners and students. Music and the Brain is really well put together in steps and the children really soar with this curriculum. I’ve been able to use it with every grade in this school. We really have musicians that we are putting into the world here.” Bryce Sebastien “I’ve been teaching music a long time, and what I love about the Music and the Brain program is that is gives you a way to help younger children understand music. Before I would wait to teach certain concepts until second or third grade, but Music and the Brain helps me introduce note values and right and left hand concepts even to Pre-K children. There is such a connection you can make with the composer and what was happening in his or her time and what is happening in our time. The teacher’s manual is so detailed and well thought out, there are so many questions and I may not get to ask each one, but it’s built in. The more I teach it, the more faith and confidence I have in the children that they can do it. The parents are so excited, they all want their child to perform.” Patricia Edwards “What I like the most is the integrated quality of the program, because the children are not just learning how to read notes and play the keyboard; they’re learning geography, history, mathematics and social studies. There is so much involved in it and from the first time they get on the keyboard the students already feel successful. The school community has really embraced the program. When the children go home they talk about what they are learning. Teachers tell me, ‘They sing the Music and the Brain songs all day!’ I think the children learn to focus, to really focus. They always take something from the songs and bring it to other things they are learning.” Rick Robinson “It’s been a delightful experience having Music and the Brain in my program. I was apprehensive at first that maybe it was too much, maybe I was going to have to cut out other things I like to do, but I quickly saw that I can incorporate everything easily. The Kindergarteners having music twice a week have made a lot of progress. My first and second grades have also made a lot of progress. I was really surprised that even my Pre-Ks could walk to the keyboards and place their fingers to play. The fact that is is something they can’t do if their mind is wandering, they have to focus to be able to do it, teachers have noticed that their students are really focused in my room.” Francesca DiGiovanna “By the time students reach the third grade (having experienced MATB), they are much better musicians, (they know) notation, analysis, and (have) an overall respect for the language and study of music.” Connie Dooley “When I first looked at the MATB program, I said, ‘Geez, are five year olds going to be able to do this?’ Using all the materials (within) Music and the Brain has really helped. My lessons flow better and I’m thinking differently. Using the rhythm cards is a phenomenal technique. The recordings help to get the music into their hearts and into their being. I feel that it’s impacted the children in their general lessons because Music and the Brain carries over into literacy and math. It’s affected their self-esteem and motor skills. Classroom teachers come to the (music room) and are absolutely floored. The teachers say ‘The children can do this?'” Robin Casey “The program provides a jump-start to basic foundations of all types of learning. Kids learn patterns and relationships (up/down, left/right, line/space, doubling/halving, etc.) that help them to understand basic concepts used in reading, writing, math and other areas.”
Music Teacher
Charles W. Henry Elementary, Philadelphia
Music Teacher
PS011M, Manhattan
Music Teacher
PS307K, Brooklyn
Music Teacher
PS384K, Brooklyn
Music Teacher
The Torah Academy, Philadelphia
Music Teacher
Cook-Wissahickon School, Philadelphia
Music Teacher
PS071Q, Queens
Music Teacher
PS033X, The Bronx
Music Teacher (retired)
PS045K, Brooklyn
Music Teacher
PS045K, Brooklyn
Music Teacher (retired)
PS299K, Brooklyn:
Music Teacher
PS058Q Queens
Teacher (retired)
PS107Q, Queens
Music Teacher (retired)
Midtown West Elementary in Manhattan (20 years MATB teacher)
Students Ronnie Estevez “Playing the keyboard helps me learn other stuff in school because when I read the notes, it helps me to read.” Alana McDuffie “It helps me focus. When you’re playing the piano you shouldn’t look at your hands, you should look at the book.”
2nd Grader at PS045K in Brooklyn
2nd Grader at PS045K in Brooklyn
