From Music Together Summit Founder/Director, David Palomo:

What I experienced when I attended a Music Together^® training changed my life. First of all, it was very clear that the research behind this program was first rate. Then came my big “Aha!” moment when I learned that children acquire tone and rhythm the same way they acquire language and motor skills. This was even more exciting when I saw it in action in the demonstration classes where I saw young children in the various early stages of tone and rhythm development—little sprouts of music just starting to be seen and heard!

Most exciting was seeing how the music engaged the children emotionally. Not only did the music evoke positive emotions in the children, it also made for very sweet moments of emotional connection with their parents. In my own life I knew that if you had a solid emotional foundation in the family, a family could weather just about any storm.

What I saw in the demonstration classes was really the tipping point for me. I saw three things going on simultaneously in the classes: 1. The children were being engaged vocally at their individual level of development. 2. The children were being engaged in their motor skills at the individual level of development. 3. As I mentioned above, I saw the children being engaged emotionally, both in their own emotions and in their emotional connection with their parents.

What other activity would engage young children in a developmentally appropriate way in all three of these areas? When I left the training, I knew I was going to give Music Together a try. Having lived with health issues since 1989, here was a way I could work within my limitations and still make a positive contribution to the lives of families in my community.

In the years since, I’ve learned that early childhood music learned supports learning and development in other areas. We know from neuroscience that the system that processes music in the brain is the same system that infants use when they hear their mother's voice.  Not only are we born musical, the musical brain helps us learn language!  Also, studies by the educational research company, the Cohen Group, in New York has shown that consistent involvement in Music Together classes has a very positive impact on two important developmental domains for 2 and 3 year olds: 1. Expressive and receptive language skills and 2. Interpersonal and coping skills.

Since I began teaching, I’ve heard many wonderful stories from families about how Music Together has played a positive role in their family life and in their child’s development.  Also, over the years I've noticed that as they got older, our Music Together children could not only sing the songs they were hearing, but could also make up their own songs.  To commemorate my tenth anniversary of teaching Music Together, I distilled these two experiences into trademarked phrases that portray the most inspiring things I've seen as a teacher.  One says, Music Making From The Inside Out^®, and the other says, Weaving Family Ties Through Music^®.  I'm looking forward to the next 10 years!

Marian Goss has been playing violin since she was 9 years old. As a young musician, participated in the prestigious Encore School for Strings in Hudson, Ohio. During her high school years, she studied with Paul Statsky at the Cleveland Institute of Music while performing with the Cleveland Orchestra&S217;s Youth Orchestra at Severance Hall.

Marian received a Bachelor&S217;s Degree in violin performance from Baldwin-Wallace College and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1992. For her Master&S217;s Degree, she attended The University of Texas at Austin from 1992 until 1994. While at UT, Marian had the honor of playing in a master class given by Isaac Stern. She also was very involved in the University&S217;s String project, a preparatory string program that offers lessons, theory, orchestra and group classes to over 300 children in the Austin area.

After graduate school, Marian moved back to Ohio and enrolled in the long-term Suzuki teacher training program at the Cleveland Institute of Music under the direction of Michele George. Marian is an active member of both the Suzuki Association of the Americas and the Suzuki Association of Northern Ohio. She is also a past secretary of the Suzuki Association of Ohio.

Jennifer Stancil first began playing music in her 5^th grade school band. She enjoyed the clarinet and the opportunity to play in a band setting. Later, she became even more interested in music after discovering her father’s electric guitar in a back bedroom of her childhood home. She began playing the guitar on her own, but did not realize that since her father was left-handed she was learning guitar chords upside down. After the family noticed her interest, she received a right-handed guitar for her 15^th birthday. She has enjoyed playing music with her family for many years.

Jennifer attended The University of Akron and graduated with her Bachelor of Music specializing in vocals, Magna Cum Laude. She also received her graduate degree in Education from Graceland University with Summa cum laude distinction.

After 10 years as a full-time teaching general music in a local public school, Jennifer resigned to spend more time with her children and teach Music Together. She brings her decade of experience teaching guitar, piano and general music with her to Music Together.

Jennifer is also a Music Together parent. She became interested in teaching Music Together after hearing the quality of the Music Together songs at a professional workshop during her public school tenure. She has enjoyed seeing how her two young boys have developed into enthusiastic music makers and looks forward to sharing the Joy of Family music with our families in Summit County.

Hi Everybody! My name is Jessica Olenick and not only am I a Music Together mom from years gone by, I am also both an elementary and an early childhood educator. I started in Music Together in Dallas, Texas with my now 12 year old son when he was 3 months old as part of a mom’s group during my summer vacation from my 5^th grade classroom. We sang along with the program for almost 3 years and kept singing with the CDs for many more years. We moved to Ohio and I began teaching preschool at the Shaw JCC in 2008 and currently teach my daughter’s preschool class 3 days a week. I have used many of the wonderful Music Together songs that I knew in my teaching along the way. As the Camp JCC office administrator, I met David at Camp JCC back in 2010 and I knew that I had made a life-long friend. Although it took me 5 years to get my ducks in a row, I finally became certified as a Music Together teacher and am looking forward to singing and dancing with my new music together families for years to come.

Hello Everybody!  Teacher David here.....In the summer 2015 session, we're going to try having some of the classes meet twice a week for three weeks instead of once a week for 6 weeks.  In order to accommodate this, I'm adding a "staff" category to our teachers because we may have to do some shuffling to make things fit with the twice a week schedule.  Please contact me with any questions.

Jesse Lange joins wife Marissa on our Music Together staff.  Jesse has a bachelor (Magna Cum Laude) in Music Education and masters degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Akron.  He founded and directed the internationally award-winning ensemble A Capella Nuance.  He has taught at Cuyahoga Falls High School and is currently director of choirs at Heights High School in Cleveland Hts.  Besides all this (and being an adjunct professor at U of Akon), Jesse is a Music Together dad.  He and Marissa welcomed their third girl this past fall (2018).  Needless to say, every day Marissa and Jesse learn from the girls all kinds of ways to make Music Together in their family.