Music Together of Northern Arizona is a new, fully licensed Music Together center for this region, brought back after the pandemic by new center director Laura Brown in 2021.
We currently offer 1 weekly class time in Flagstaff:
4:45pm Saturday afternoons at Flagstaff Doulas’ classroom – – full schedule with dates can be found on our schedule page.
About Laura:
Laura is a “veteran” Music Together enthusiast, having attended classes over 20 years ago with her now-adult children, who went on to become accomplished musicians.
She is mother to 4 children, and has 24 years’ experience in early childhood development and education.
A note from Laura:
“When the covid pandemic hit, I had been looking forward to bringing my 3rd baby to Music Together classes, but of course, as we know, everything shut down. There were other, newer baby and toddler music programs in town but no Music Together – and the research based, award winning curriculum offered through Music Together was what I KNEW we needed for families in Northern Arizona. Music Together is truly the world’s leading early childhood music education program. So, the day before going into labor with my 4th baby, in 2021, I accepted the opportunity to bring Music Together back to Flagstaff and Northern Arizona. The rest is history, and now, 3 years later, teaching Music Together classes is the highlight of my week!” – Laura
Laura immigrated to the United States from Great Britain in 1990, and has experience in Early Childhood education and development dating back to 1999. Her first work in Early Childhood Education was as the 4 yr olds’ classroom teacher at the old Bethel Baptist Church New Beginnings Preschool in 1999, followed by several years at Morning Star Lifeways Certified Early Childhood center in Sedona with director Margo Running, who was a pioneer educator with the Lifeways program. When Running left to open the Vancouver Waldorf school’s early childhood program, Laura then went on to offer in home care for babies, toddlers and preschoolers for several years while raising her own children and volunteering at Pine Forest Charter School. She was the director of the annual WinterFaire festival for 6 years as well as the PTA’s fundraising chair, attending national and state PTA conferences to inform programming and fundraising for the Parent Teacher Association and their sponsored activities at Pine Forest Charter School. Moving into teaching Music Together classes in recent years, Laura wholeheartedly believes that the company of young children is the secret to staying young at heart!
Laura also works in nonprofit development for the Sedona Community Food Bank and as Grants Officer for the Museum of Northern Arizona, along with teaching Prenatal Yoga at Flagstaff Doulas.
Why Choose Music Together Classes?
– – this excerpt from a 2008 article from Music Together puts it well:
It seems like just a few years since I was a parent in a Music Together class with my one-year-old daughter, so how can she be heading off to college this fall? From the moment Kathryn was born, how best to support and encourage her education has been on my mind. I chose Music Together from the wave of new early childhood classes that began when she was young; but when we enrolled, I had no idea how much impact that music and movement class would have on her life. Seventeen years later, I can still see the positive influence of Kathryn’s continuous Music Together experiences in her personal, social, and scholastic growth.
Today’s parents have many more early childhood enrichment options than I did. Gymnastics, baby signs, swim lessons, Spanish classes, the wide variety is both exciting and confusing.
How do you decide which program to enroll in—and how long do you continue?
I chose music because I’d learned that all children are musical, and I wanted my daughter to develop the basic life skill of making music. In addition, research had shown the early childhood years to be the most natural time for musical growth and development.
More recently, CMYC Director of Re-search Dr. Lili Levinowitz asserts that early and continuous exposure to music-making is crucial.
Studies she has conducted at Rowan University show that children must play with music until they have reached Basic Music Competence (BMC), the ability to sing in tune and move with accurate rhythm. Then they are able to store songs in their musical memories for later retrieval.
Also, while kindergartners with little music experience may never reach BMC, children who attain it at an early age will never lose it—even if they don’t remain active in music as they get older.
As Dr. Levinowitz states, “A single semester of Music Together may open a window in your child’s music development, but over time, a weekly routine of community music-making in class with follow-through at home can provide a lifetime disposition for music-making.”
You simply can’t go wrong choosing Music Together and sticking with it!
Kathryn now hopes to audition for one of the four a cappella groups on her college campus. Music still plays a daily role in her life, and the results of my own personal investment in her music education are still growing, even after all this time.
Thank you, Music Together! —Susan Van Sickle
Refund Policy can be found at this link