FORMER TEACHERS
"This experience sparked a life-long passion for working with young children"
"Thank you also for everything you have done for me here at the Music House for Children. I have learned so much and I always felt supported at your lovely school."
Over the last two decades we are proud to have nurtured, supported and trained many of our music teachers in delivering early childhood music classes and workshops Notably, many former teachers have gone on to pursue independent careers in the early years sector thus, highlighting the positive and important impact that music has on communication, life skills, and overall learning.
Working together as a collective voice confirms a powerful message – that early years music should be made available for all children so as to give them the best start in life, and to sustain learning and development of independence throughout their primary years.
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Here are just a few of our talented, former, and extended team:
Adelaide Carlow
It is always evident that a song or voice or moment has an immediate impact on a young child's life in a very present sense. What is less evident then but amazing to think of, is that these moments/songs/sounds will have an impact on their whole life in whatever form it takes. What a joyful, simple start: communicating through song, music and action, knowing it is the best way to help children have fun, to connect, and to express themselves.
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Charlotte Leng
Charlotte worked with the Music House team from 2001 to mid-2004, early on in her teaching career, as a piano and violin teacher. During this time, she was given the opportunity to train with Emma Hutchinson to become an Early Years Music Specialist.
Emma’s training and mentoring programme equipped Charlotte with a unique programme, repertoire and skills, which she was able to bring to a number of nursery school settings across Central and West London as their visiting teacher. This experience sparked in Charlotte a life-long passion for working with young children and a desire to deepen her understanding of child development and the enormous impact that teaching music through movement can have on the young child.
Charlotte is currently an Early Years and Primary Music Specialist at The British International School of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where Charlotte has been able to help develop the music curriculum and instrumental programmes throughout EYFS and the Primary school. She is also pursuing her studies in the field of Dalcroze.
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Hannah Elliott (Reid)
Hi everyone. My name is Hannah Elliott (Reid) and I am a music educator from Australia now residing in LA.
I moved to London in 2002 and began working at Music House for Children in early 2003. My skill set up until that point was in private instrumental teaching predominantly on the Flute and Piano. Whilst I was at Music House for Children I was trained as a Music and Movement instructor for early childhood music education. I worked with children from 1-4 years old and my lessons catered for all levels within that age group.
I really enjoyed working in early childhood music education and felt myself grow as a teacher under the supportive and watchful eye of Emma Hutchinson. I also began to teach keyboard in small groups so I feel my skills as an educator grew even more as I managed groups of children of differing ages and levels and helped them improve their playing week by week.
I highly recommend Music House for Children to anyone looking to further their child's musical experiences. As employers, they were organised, professional and very supportive of their staff and their development as a teacher and I thoroughly enjoyed my 4 years working there. Thank you!
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Rhian Fox
One of my favourite things while working with Music House was the early childhood music teaching that I did. I taught in-house Baby and Toddler Music Groups and Music Appreciation classes for 3-5s and also went into Nursery Schools around London to teach group music sessions.
While working for the Music House, I had the opportunity to do lots of in-house training with the wonderful Emma Hutchinson and also went out to lots of exciting Early Years music training courses around London.
Currently, I run my own Baby and Toddler Music Groups in Notting Hill as well as teaching piano, guitar and singing to older children.
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Rosalie Bevan
Community Musicians
The excellent training I received from the Music House for Children has stood me in good stead for the various musical projects I have embarked on over the years. I am currently a workshop facilitator leading music sessions in care homes for adults with profound and multiple physical and learning disabilities, as well as a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumental tutor teaching privately and in schools.
Starting out as an Early Years music leader at the Music House, I took part in regular Early Years music training sessions and an introduction to music with SEN. I applied the techniques I learnt in the 'Music in Silence' project with Emma, learning to leave moments of silence in musical games and songs to enable spontaneous response and interaction from the young participants, many of whom had additional needs. From these valuable experiences at The Music House I have learnt to shape my own interactive music workshops as part of a collective called Community Musicians, to engage with and adapt to a variety of abilities and needs, building strong relationships through musical interaction with all my music-makers.
For more information on interactive, fun and stimulating music sessions in care homes and day centres, please visit: www.communitymusicians.co.uk
Maddie Thiele
Maddie Thiele is an Australian Educator, Performer, Writer and Musician. In August 2017 Maddie joined Music House for Children in order to work alongside the vivacious Emma Hutchinson. Maddie brought to the role of Education Manager, her five-year Australian experience in early years music education.
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At Music House for Children, Maddie taught Music and Movement, Music Appreciation and Piano Appreciation classes for babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers respectively. Maddie also delivered musical storytelling workshops and assisted in the development of the school holiday program. Maddie loved her time with Music House for Children, where children’s development of language, life skills and musical education are of the highest priority, and where accordingly she was given the freedom to tackle diverse projects big and small.
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The unique, playful approach that Music House for Children delivers to young children and those with additional needs, has inspired Maddie to pursue further studies in Education, particularly in the Early Years. In the spirit of building a strong community where music educators can have a universal impact on children’s bright futures globally, Maddie continues her relationship with Music House for Children back in Australia.
Steve Barbe
I have been a community musician since 1995. I worked with Music House for Children as an early years facilitator, developing new skills from regular training events, and implementing existing skills in a number of weekly classes, early years projects and workshops.
Recent work has included music with storytelling with Library Presents through Babylon Arts in partnership with Cambridgeshire County Council, working with children of early years and their parents. I also provide music and movement for babies and parents with Dancing Ducklings in Lewisham.
In addition to Music House for Children previous early years work has been through a multitude of organisations such as City Lit, Bromley Arts Development Team, Child and Sound, POD, and Magic Eye Theatre (NPV Arts aka New Peckham Varieties, now Theatre Peckham) and recently. For a number of years I ran a "Tiddlers" session for pre-school children and parents/carers once a month at Christchurch on Barry Road, Southwark. This has all involved work with children of all ages from babies upwards.
I continue in the same vein, together with other music projects and collaborations with like-minded musicians and educators.
Sofia Wilde
My first meeting with Emma came in fact after a shift at Bush Hall Bar! I was already working as a freelance piano and singing teacher, but I was also interested in working in Early Years music education. Emma’s passion for it was so infectious that I started training with her soon after. I went on to teach Baby & Toddler Music, and Music Appreciation sessions both at The Music House and at several homes and nursery schools across West London.
Teaching early years music has brought me so much joy and fulfillment, and whilst it’s no longer my main area of work, I continue to teach a couple of classes local to me. I am sure I will continue to enjoy teaching for many more years to come, and for that, I am extremely grateful for the training I received at The Music House for Children.
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Manuela Carillo
The Music House is not only a school for children, but it is also a life academy for anyone who loves early childhood education and wants to soar as an early years music practitioner. Through training, high-quality resources, comprehensive repertoire and being part of an active community, my experience as education coordinator and in-house music teacher at the Music House for Children gave me the tools to pursue confidently this path sharing songs, games, and joy with young children through music.
Ruth McElvanney
I worked with the Music House from 2015-2018, teaching in several different nurseries settings across London as well as teaching group violin appreciation classes at the center. I received fantastic training and support from Emma and was inspired to develop my skills further and am now training to become a Music Therapist at Nordoff Robbins.
Itamar Rashkovsky
Having returned to London after the completion of my studies, I worked as a Data Analyst and freelance Violinist and soon began teaching at Music House for Children in 2019.
After my first conversation with Emma Hutchinson (the school's Founder and Director), I immediately knew that I wanted to work with Music House for Children. I was irresistibly attracted to the school's passionate culture and its flourishing educational environment.
It has been an absolute pleasure to work with a number of children of varying ages, abilities and backgrounds. What has really stuck with me is their common desire to learn and their innate curiosity about violin playing and music-making. Their determination and commitment at such a young age are exceptionally rare and it has been sincerely heart-warming to be able to guide their progress and hard work.
I'd like to thank Emma Hutchinson, Adrian Mendonca and the rest of the team at Music House for Children. It's been a joy to work together and I can't praise enough all of your hard work and the tremendous impact that it has on the children, local community and the future of music.