MUSIKGARTEN CLASSES

Classes for birth to age 5 are scheduled in the morning and early afternoon, and involve parent or caregiver participation. Children become involved in music with movement, playing instruments, dancing, and singing. Beginning music lessons at an early age significantly increases brain development and academic achievement scores.

There are 15 lessons per semester. You may join a class at anytime during a semester.

We also offer Keyboard Kids for children 4 to 7 years old, and individual music lessons in each department for ages 6 and up.

Parent/Caregiver Participation required

Fall Semester: August 23 - December 10

Spring Semester: January 11 - April 29

Musikgarten - Teaching Music. Understanding Children.
Classes: 2010-2011

Click here for Schedule and Tuition

Curricula Development Through Music Benefits to Child
Family Music For Babies
Logo for Family Music for Babies
Ages Birth – 18 mos

30-min classes
Bonds the child and parent/caregiver. Introduces playful musical activities.
  • Bouncing and rocking songs.
  • Wiggle and peek-a-boo games.
  • Singing, dancing and moving.
Teacher plays the role of coach. Parents learn ways to play musically with their babies in arms.
  • Nurtures a bond of love and security.
  • Increases child’s curiosity about music.
  • Develops child’s listening skills and sense of flow and beat through movement.
  • Provides model for both parent/caregiver and child.
Family Music For Toddlers
Logo for Family Music for Toddlers
Ages 16 mos – 3 years

30-min classes
Once babies start walking, everything changes.
  • Children explore and experiment with the world of sound more on their own.
  • These “learners in constant motion” get to sing, chant, move, dance, listen and play simple instruments.
Stimulates musical interaction between child and parent.
  • Channels toddler’s energy productively.
  • Facilitates expression of feelings.
  • Assists memory through repetition.
  • Develops further musical aptitude and focused listening.
The Cycle of Seasons
Logo for Cycle of Seasons
Ages 3-5 years

45-min classes
Musical celebration of the four seasons.
  • Activities build on the child’s growing independence and competencies.
  • Nurtures three year olds’ ability to use language.
  • Capitalizes on the child’s delight in dramatic play within the musical context.
Lessons include: songs, movement activities, exploration of instruments and imaginative stories for children to make their own.
  • Enhances moving, singing and talking skills.
  • Develops listening, focused attention and self-expression skills.
  • Taps into the child’s vivid imagination.
  • Lays foundation for creative development via story-telling and play-dance response to poetry
Music Makers: At Home in the World
Pencil sketch of a child playing the keyboard.

Ages 4-7
Part 1 of our two-year sequential program gives your child a solid music making foundation. This year focuses on your child’s fascination with nature and love of instruments.

Music Makers, Year One:
  • Provides a developmentally sound approach to music literacy that builds symbolic thinking, concentration, memory and self-expression.
  • Introduces orchestral instruments and ensemble play.
  • Focuses on building a child’s aural (listening) foundation which leads to long-term success with music reading.
  • Singing, creative and structured movement.
  • Training of the ear.
  • Coordination of body and voice.
  • Enhancement of self-discipline and social skills.
  • First steps in reading music.
  • Stories, songs and sounds from the world of nature: My Home, Woodlands, Marsh, and others.
  • Introduction to 6 instrumental ensembles, with fine recordings and full color posters.
Music Makers: Around the World
Pencil sketch of a child playing the keyboard.

Ages 5-8
Part 2 of our two-year sequential program gives your child a solid music making foundation. This year focuses on your child’s fascination with all things new and different.

Music Makers, Year 2:
  • Explores the music of the British Isles, Germany, and our own Amerindian and African American Heritage.
  • Features songs, dances,  stories, rituals and customs of these cultures to help  your child feel and understand others.
  • Builds skills in listening, singing, playing instruments, as well as expressive movement and dance.
  • Offers age-appropriate steps to develop music literacy - symbolic thinking, concentration, memory and self-expression.
  • Develops ensemble and instrument playing to build on the music-making foundation from Year 1.
  • At the end of Year 2 your child will have a solid, comprehensive music foundation, an excellent preparation for the next step, whether it be instrumental lessons, singing in a choir, participating in an Orff ensemble, or joining a dance class.
Pedagogy Chart for Musikgarten classes, showing 'Family Music for Babies' for ages 0-1.5, 'Family Music for Toddlers' for ages 1.5-3, 'Cycle of Seasons' for ages 3-5, 'Music Makers: At Home in the World' for ages 4-7, 'Music Makers: Around the World' for ages 5-8, 'Music Makers at the Keyboard (Years 1 and 2)' for ages 5-9, 'Nature Trail - Summer Program' for ages 4-8, and 'God's children sing' for ages 1.5-5

Musikgarten Faculty

Photo of Musikgarten teacher and piano teacher Dr. Juliette Flanagin with students. Dr. Juliette Gray Flanagin graduated Cum Laude from the Hockaday School and earned Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees in Applied Piano from the Eastman School of Music and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from theUniversity of Texas at Austin. Her teachers include Nancy Garrett, Fernando Laires, Anton Nel, Dr. Donna O’Steen Edwards, and Tong-il Han. She has performed in master classes with Malcolm Bilson, Rebecca Penneys, and Peter Tackas. She first began playing the piano at age 4 and performed her debut solo recital at age 15. An active performer, she has played numerous solo, chamber, and collaborative recitals throughout the United States, was a guest recital soloist at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas and was featured as a guest recitalist at the Mu Phi Epsilon Library Series and the Salon concerts in Dallas and at the Central Arts Series at Central Presbyterian Church in Waxahachie, Texas. She has served as staff vocal accompanist at Dallas Baptist University. She also accompanied for the Dallas based choral ensemble Sacred Song and has performed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Italy and the Dallas area with the ensemble. In addition to solo and ensemble work, Dr. Flanagin also freelances as a vocal and instrumental collaborative artist and is an active adjudicator for area piano festivals.

Dr. Flanagin has been teaching private, partner, and group lessons for almost 20 years, maintaining a private studio in Dallas,Texas, Austin, Texas, and Rochester, New York. She studied piano pedagogy with Tony Caramia at the Eastman School of Music and Martha Hilley and Sophia Gilmson at the University of Texas at Austin. Her pupils range from age 4 to adult and she has had winners in the Dallas Jazz Festival and TMTA Composition Competition. She taught group piano class at the University of Texas at Austin, served as an assistant teacher at the UT High School Piano Camp, and maintained a studio at the Gray School of Music. An award winning teacher, she received the Texas Excellence in Teaching Award for Teaching Assistants for her instruction of class piano at the University of Texas at Austin. Active in a variety of organizations, Dr. Flanagin was one of the founding members of the Hockaday orchestra, served as President of the Mu Phi Epsilon Fraternity at the Eastman School of Music, represented the Eastman Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon at their national convention and served as the President of the MTNA chapter at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Flanagin also led a group presentation on the format of studio performance class at the MTNA National Convention in Minneapolis. Dr. Flanagin began teaching early childhood music in 2003 where she joined the staff of Park Cities Baptist Church to lead the Musikgarten sacred curriculum for two-year olds. Currently, Dr. Flanagin maintains a private piano studio and is an active adjudicator and performer in the Dallas area. She joins the Gray School of Music in 2009 as a Musikgarten teacher. She lives in the Dallas area with her husband, Lewis, and three children, Brendan, Jeremy and Sarah.

Piano Guitar Voice Strings Drums Ages 5 - 7 Ages 1/2 - 5
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