Music and Learning with Sesame Street's Bob McGrath
Sesame Street's "Bob" McGrath joins Dr. Winnie King, along with a music researcher and a wonderful group of kids, to try to answer the big question: can music really affect your child's brain, intelligence, and emotional well-being? You'll visit a school that focuses on music and winds up with great academic success, and you'll see demonstrations of ways that music can help your own kids. We'll also visit with a therapist who uses music to help young people with medical problems, and we'll follow her through her hospital rounds to learn how her music creates magic for the kids who need it most.
Guests
Kaitlin Cullen-Verhauz - 10 year old musician
Bob McGrath - Original Cast Member, Sesame Street; Bob just celebrated his 34th year on Sesame Street. He has bridged two generations of viewers as one of the original hosts. Bob was a music major at the University of Michigan and received a Master's degree from Manhattan School of Music. A lyric tenor, he began his professional career singing and recording with the Robert Shaw Chorale and Mitch Miller and has worked with such noted musicians and conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Pablo Casals and Igor Stravinsky. During his career, McGrath has appeared with more than 100 symphony orchestras. He is the recipient of the American Eagle Award by the National Music Council and the Fame Award by the National Association of Music Educators for furthering the cause of music education. In addition to his role as music teacher on Sesame Street, Bob is a successful author, recording artist and concert performer
Lydia Kontos - President and Co-Founder, Special Music School. Lydia has been the Executive Director of the Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center in New York since 1985. In 1996, she established the Special Music School, a public/private partnership between the Kaufman Center and the New York City Board of Education. Modeled on the innovative special music schools of the former Soviet Union, the Special Music School is the first public school in the United States that combines a pre-conservatory level music education with a full academic curriculum within the regular school day.
Martin Gardiner, PhD, Brown University; Dr. Gardiner was researcher and lead author of a well-known control study showing an impact of arts training on academic performance in reading and mathematics in elementary school children, published in the International Journal of Science and Nature in 1996. More recent work with colleagues is extending the theory and observations in elementary school students and also to preschool and older students, including those in middle and high school. Gardiner's degrees include B.A. in physics, Columbia College; M.S. in electrical engineering, Stanford University; Ph.D. in Biophysics and Post-Doctoral training in Brain Research, University of California/Los Angeles. Musical studies at Columbia College, Stanford University, Kodaly Institute in Keskemedt, Hungary.
Tips and Hints:
Resources:
The Music Education Coalition
http://www.supportmusic.com/Bob McGrath Official Website
http://www.bobmcgrath.com/The National Association of Music Educators
http://www.menc.org/
800-336-3768
