All styles of music are welcome, and listeners as well as singers are welcome, whether you are here to harvest new songs for your classroom, to learn how to use music to build community, or to laugh with the unbridled hilarity of a campfire sing. Everyone who feels connected with children, including classroom teachers, home-schooling parents, youth advocates, and professional singer song-writers, will feel at home. Sunday morning we' ll gather for "Songs of Inspiration" to share songs that engender hope and visions of the future we want to build for our children. Rowe's copy machine will be humming as songs get shared with everyone who wants them. Bring your favorites.
The Children's Music Network (CMN) are a group of song-writers, teachers, and parents who banded together 15 years ago to share songs they loved and wanted to move into the larger culture. Pete Seeger is the grandfather of this network. He says: "You're crucial for the world because you get people singing again. You make us a singing nation once more and plant the seeds for a better tomorrow."
Are kids welcome? Are you kidding? Absolutely, if they're five or older, but they may not want to leave on Sunday. This gathering will be a model of what a community can be like, of people sharing wonderful songs, of people caring for each other, of the love we all have within us.
The leaders, members of the Children's Music Network, have rich backgrounds in teacher training, community building, songwriting, recording, and decades of experience working with children. Ruth Pelham's well-loved song, "Under One Sky," has traveled the country. Ruth directs the Music Mobile, which for 20 years has brought programs to at-risk neighborhoods in Albany, and to the Havasupei Nation in the Grand Canyon. Sally Rogers' award-winning recordings including her songs "Circle of the Sun," and "What Can One Little Person Do?" and she is author of Earthsong. Sarah Pirtle has written four peace education books including An Outbreak of Peace, has 5 CD's, and specializes in Ecozoic ecology teaching through songs like "Two Hands Hold the Earth." Jennifer Armstrong, a Celtic song expert, has been teaching fiddling, storytelling, and folkdancing nationally for 25 years. Barb Tilsen has thirty years experience as a performer and specializes in music for early childhood with her recording, "Make a Circle Like the Sun." Kim Wallach, also a seasoned performer, loves to help teachers find songs to complement the curriculum, help students write songs on what they care about, and brings songs and games from China, Russia, and Kenya. To learn more about the Children's Music Network, contact: www.cmnonline.org.