You want your kids to do something enriching over the February break; they want to do something fun. The Music Studio has the perfect compromise: A Musical FunFest.
On Feb. 19, 20, and 21, The Music Studio will be offering a high-energy program of music making for children ages 3 to 6. Each 90-minute session, which costs just $5 per child, includes games, drumming, piano-playing, dancing, instrument-making, and a live mini-concert. The program begins at 1 p.m. on 19th (Tuesday), and at 10 a.m. on the 20th and 21st (Wednesday and Thursday).
The FunFest contains many of the elements of The Music Studio’s award-winning curriculum for young children. It’s a great way not just to liven up a vacation day, and enjoy something new with your child, but also to see what the school has to offer.
The Music Studio has been providing a comprehensive music education to Capital Region children for more than 35 years. The core of its program is a systematic four-year course designed by founder and director Noel Liberty, for children beginning as young as 4 (and as old as 7). “It sounds young,” says Liberty, “but this is exactly when children are most receptive to learning in general, and musical learning in particular. This is the age to start.”
For the first two years, children take Music Fundamentals, which meets once a week throughout the school year, and includes singing, ear training, rhythm, movement, note reading, and piano playing. Then children move on to two years of Creative Keyboard, where the focus is even more on the piano, but includes different facets of musicianship: improvisation, transposition, sight reading, technique, composition, theory, and music history.
These four years prepare students for The Music Studio’s private piano lessons, which are enriched by periodic group classes, recitals, outside evaluations, field trips, and visiting professional musicians.
Music Studio students flourish in school and in outside music activities, and many Music Studio alumni (of which there are now more than 12,000) send their children to school there as well, to give their kids what they themselves received: a deep knowledge and a lifelong love of music.
How does the school do it? With the conviction that children are capable of incredible things, if they have guidance, support, and motivation. The Music Studio’s experienced, innovative teachers know how to combine challenge with encouragement, and how to fill a fast-moving hour with both fun and instruction. They also know how to tailor that instruction to the needs and abilities of different ages.
In fact, in addition to the regular school-year instruction, The Music Studio offers short, four-session courses for children as young as age 2, and ten-week classes for adults—beginners and beyond.
But the February break is devoted to families and FunFest. Although Liberty herself isn’t taking a vacation, she finds FunFest to be a welcome interlude. “Meeting new children and helping them and their parents tap into the joy of music—it’s a real treat. I look forward to it every year.”
To sign up for FunFest call 518-459-7799. To find out more about The Music Studio, including upcoming classes for young children and adults, go to themusicstudio.com.