Prelude Music Foundation

Transforming the Lives of Children in Houston through the Power of Music!

Music Residency Program

Our In-School Music Residency Program brings the research-based music and movement program, Music Together® to Pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms in low-income schools in the Houston area. For a minimum of two years, the Foundation sends our trained Music Together teachers to lead each classroom in a weekly music and movement session, utilizing the Music Together recordings and songbooks in playful, developmentally appropriate activities. In order to continue the benefits of musical learning in and outside of the classroom, each teacher is provided with professional development on how to integrate music into the broader classroom curriculum while each family is given a song-book, CD, and Parent Education materials to take home. At the end of each semester, the Foundation musicians and professional musicians from our partnering organizations the Houston Symphony and Mercury Chamber Orchestra hold Family Engagement Concerts where the students, teachers, and parents sing and dance to all the songs they learned that year, creating a playful learning environment and musical community within each school. 

Professional Development for In-School Teachers

In alignment with Music Together’s guiding principal that, “Music Learning Supports All Learning®”, the foundation provides professional development to classroom teachers on how to use Music Together activities, songs and materials to support their educational goals and weave music into their classroom’s daily routine. Active participation in music classes and online support tools from Music Together Worldwide help classroom teachers elevate their overall teaching skills. As they learn to use music in their work every day, they'll gain a new arena for observation, evaluation, and appreciation of children's development in many different areas.

Cognitive, Physical, Social, Emotional, and Language Development

Music Together’s curriculum, which is aligned with Texas Pre-K and Kindergarten Guidelines, uses a variety of songs, sounds, rhythms, and activities to help support children’s cognitive, language, physical, social and emotional development. The use of activities in classes help foster children’s self-regulation, social competence, self-confidence and ability to work with others in a group while also supporting children's coordination and balance, body awareness, small-muscle strength, and hand-eye coordination. The use of songs exposes children to the basic structure and sequences of sounds involved in language, helping support emergent language and literacy development while the use of rhythmic chants in varied meters can familiarize children with concepts of proportions, patterning, and counting, supporting their emerging math skills. 

Family Engagement Concerts & Partnership with the Houston Symphony & Mercury Chamber Orchestra

Twice a year, before the semester's Family Engagement Concert, professional musicians from the Houston Symphony and Mercury Chamber Orchestra visit each classroom, bringing their violin, cello, bass, and viola. The professional musicians sing, dance, and play their instrument for the class, building bonds and inspiring the students. Later in the semester, parents, teachers, and students gather to sing and dance at their school with musicians from Prelude Music Foundation and musicians from one of our partnering organizations. The professional musicians play the songs the children have been learning all year, providing the families with an opportunity to make music in community.

In the short amount of time since its inception, the Prelude Music Foundation has served over of 3,800 children, impacting the lives and relationships of their families and teachers and building communities of joy, healing, and life-long learning.

See us in action!