Director/Teacher Julia Priest holds the highest Music Together Certification for Teaching Mastery, Level II. She has been a singer and teacher since 1987. She came to Music Together teaching through her own son's toddler years. In class she plays a funky Martin Backpacker guitar and sometimes recorder or drum.

B.A., Classical Languages and Literatures, Yale.
M. Mus., Voice Performance, Boston University.
M.S., Speech and Language Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions.
Music Together® Teacher Certification Level II, the highest status, for outstanding achievement in teaching, musicianship, program philosophy, and parent education, awarded by The Center for Music and Young Children in Princeton, New Jersey.
American Orff-Schulwerk Association Level I certification, at Boston University.

Julia's review of recent research on how babies hear and remember even before birth!.

read more articles and handouts by Julia.

Claudia Eliaza has training in providing music therapy for individuals and groups in a wide range of settings and ages, including: adult day treatment, children with special needs, elders with dementia, children with Autism, children/youth with life threatening illness and typical students in enrichment programs. She has worked in residential settings and specialized social service centers, daycare and afterschool programs. Claudia graduated from the prestigious Berklee College of Music with a Bachelors Degree in Music Therapy. She is also a jazz vocalist and performs in Boston and internationally. Check out her trio or her party band!

Jennifer has experience making music with all ages, from babies to college students to adults. As a performing professional, she can bring out her Broadway belt voice or her operatic soprano, singing atonal music or Renaissance motets. She sang the role of Sarah Palin in the world premiere of the opera "Say It Ain't So Joe" by Curtis Hughes and recently put the whole show on a CD to be released in September. Previously on the faculty at College of the Holy Cross and Eastern Connecticut State University, she currently teaches voice lessons at Boston Latin High School and in her private voice studio. A dedicated runner, Jen has completed four marathons. After starting Music Together classes with her toddler daughter, she was inspired to complete the teacher training and begin teaching. When attending her own Music Together class as a student, Jen's daughter expresses her enthusiasm by sprinting laps around the classroom, so if you have an active child, nothing phases Jen. As a teacher, Jen plays piano and a bit of flute, and brings her ukulele to play in class!

Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education, Hartt School of Music
Masters and Doctorate from New England Conservatory in Vocal Pedagogy and Voice Performance

Amy Barker has over 20 years of experience working with young children in various settings. A native Texan, she graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in History and a minor in Deaf Education. She received her Master’s in Musical Theatre from Boston Conservatory, then worked as a professional actress in New York while studying Creative Arts Therapy at The New School. She can teach anything from swimming to script-writing to centering clay on the potter's wheel. An active athlete, she includes sea-kayaking and juggling among her hobbies. She sings in a charming mezzo-soprano but you haven't lived until you have heard her peacock call. As both a mother and a teacher, Amy firmly believes in the importance of the arts in education and is thrilled to be teaching with Music and Movement of Newton!

Maddie Welch plays guitar and piano and sings gorgeously. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Maddie is completely fluent in both Spanish and English. After graduating from Princeton University, Maddie received her Masters in Bilingual Education from Boston University in 1998 and embarked on a 10-year career as a bilingual educator at the elementary and early childhood levels. She has always infused her classroom teaching with her passion for the performing arts, from leading school-wide preschool sing-along to using drama for teaching content area to bilingual 3rd graders. Maddie first fell in love with the Music Together curriculum when she brought her daughter to class in 2003. She trained and became a registered Music Together teacher in 2008. When she is not teaching, Maddie is busy raising two musical, bilingual children and working on the latest production of Needham Community Theatre.

Maddie will be teaching both regular Mixed Age Music together and also Canta y Baila Conmigo / Sing and Dance With Me: Spanish Musica Culture, for which Maddie wrote the curriculum and recorded the CD with David Piper, also on our staff. This class is ideal for families with a Spanish-speaking parent or nanny, or raising a child bilingually. This class is also priceless for those who want to give their family's beginner Spanish-learning career a jumpstart.

What families say: "Maddie was fantastic! She made the party a very special event for us! All of the kids had a blast, especially Olivia! We were so thankful to have Maddie there to lead our song & dance!" "It is fun to see around 14 children age 18 months completely absorbed, jumping around for 45 minutes."

A.B., Comparative Literature, Princeton University.
M.Ed., Bilingual Education, Boston University.
Certification, Commonweath of Massachusetts, Elementary (1-6); Early Childhood (PrK-2); Transitional Bilingual Education; English as a Second Language (PreK-9).

Both composer and performer, Rick sings bass, plays piano proficiently and, as of more recently, strums guitar. He's been singing four part harmony with his family since he was eight years old, and has fond memories of singing barbershop favorites like "Heart of My Heart" in his soprano voice.  He's magical with kids, he has perfect pitch and rhythm, and on top of everything else he has a sense of humor. He's interested in everything from theatre to computing to science fiction and fantasy to astronomy. He says, "Thanks to my upbringing, my life has been filled with music and will be forever more. I'm thrilled to finally have the opportunity to help give to other children what my parents gave to me." He's at Hebrew College full-time during the academic year, working towards becoming a Cantor and a Masters in Jewish Education in 2014.

B.A. Oberlin, Jewish Studies

Gabriela Martina (born Gabriela Martina Heer), a Swiss native, was onstage for the first time at the age of five with her family as a traditional Swiss Yodel Group. After studying music in high school and a year at London’s Vocaltech Music College, Gabriela started her professional studies in singing at the Jazzschool in Lucerne.  She moved to Boston to study at the renowned Berklee College of Music. Gabriela’s magical voice has children and their parents captivated all over Newton.

Bessie will complete her Masters Degree in Education at Boston College in the spring of 2012 and--wow--she maintains a GPA of 3.95. Her English is perfect, even though Mandarin is her first language. She plays piano and guitar sensitively. For two years, she was a leading actress and the assistant director for North China Drama Group. She has been a cheerleader as well as the president of her departmental student congress at Beijing Normal University. In the summers, she teaches Music Together in Beijing and runs a tutoring school in her home town in Northern China. We are so proud to be able to share Bessie's skills with you!

All our teachers are trained by Music Together, LLC, and all of our teachers are fabulous musicians and educators. Demo classes are sometimes team-taught by two or even three teachers. It's a great chance for us to make music together with each other. . . which is what we love best!