Let's make a Song! Camp Director Maureen + Teaching Artist + professional fiddler Joanna Clare take you on a musical adventure as they perform music from some of their favorite artists and teach you how to do the same! We'll get into the groove with a rhythm circle, learn to strum a ukulele, write lyrics + melodies, and work on our own album art. By Friday we should have at least one song (and maybe more) to perform for you, caregivers! Our day includes a daily afternoon trip to the Takoma Urban Playground for lunch + play (extreme heat permitting) and a one time walking field trip to our sister business, the House of Musical Traditions to pet the instruments. Limited to 15 kids and rising first through fifth graders. ***Please Include your Child's Age + Any instrument or music experience they might have!***
We'll group the kids into smaller, age appropriate groups if we have a lot of older kids and younger kids and so the order of our programming may change for your child - but they'll still get it all! We will have 3 staff members on site - a Director, Teaching Artist, + A Counselor in Training.
Sample Schedule
9am - arrival + welcome with streaming tunes
9:10-9:30 am - Introduction to an Artist - song from Joanna + Maureen by one of their favorite artists + a biography (reading of a book about a musical great that is inspiring our day)
9:30am - Ukulele Class w Maureen (Learning C + F)
10:15am - Snack + Bathroom Break
10:30am - Musical Games with Joanna
11:15 - Walk to Takoma Urban playground with bagged lunch
12:15 - Walk back to 7112 Willow Ave
12:30 - Songwriting with Maureen + Joanna
(May split into two different age groups)
1:15 - Dance Break
1:30 - Album Artwork Creation while listening to music
2:30 - Snack + Talk about what we liked about the day and what we’ll do tomorrow
2:50pm - Closing Song with Joanna + Maureen
3:00pm - Pickup
After Care “Book Club” is Available for all 5 days for $135 per week per child until 5:30pm. Limited to 5 spots. We will read books, create our own books with coloring, writing, and have school snacks provided. We will end with a 30 min viewing of Bluey.
Maureen Andary, Camp Director and Director of School of Musical Traditions. Before Joining SMT, Maureen taught guitar + ukulele privately and at Middle C Music for over a decade. In 2011 Maureen's songwriting duo, The Sweater Set, were featured Artists in Residence at Strathmore and since then she's been a teaching artist at Strathmore's Uke Fest and has taught around 100 fourth graders ukulele through Strathmore's Spring Break Camp and Carpe Diem Arts. In the mid-aughts, Maureen worked as a songwriting leader for Kid Pan Alley, a non profit that specializes in writing songs with kids in school classrooms. She wrote this banger with a Kindergarten class at Moten Elementary in SE DC, later recorded by Lisa Loeb. She can't wait to write songs with your kids!
Joanna Clare, our Teaching Artist for the week, is an acclaimed Irish fiddler and violinist and recently released her debut album, To Keep the Candle Burning. She has won numerous awards for her talents as a fiddler and as a composer. Joanna enjoys performing with her groups Celtic Corridor and The Mount Clare Connection. She teaches Suzuki Violin, Irish fiddle, and music classes for young children at her home and through The Baltimore Irish Music School and The School of Musical Traditions.