Carnegie Hall's Early Childhood Programs Reach Hundreds Of Families Across The Globe During The 2023–2024 Season

Throughout the season, hundreds of families have opportunities to engage in free musical learning, play, discovery, and connection through Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute's (WMI) early childhood programs.

Camille's Rainbow—a performance specifically designed for babies and toddlers (ages 0–2), co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall and Minnesota Opera—returns to Carnegie Hall's Resnick Education Wing in April. This one-of-a-kind experience encourages creative play, as children explore a world of music and colors. In Camille's Rainbow, Camille ventures on a journey to discover herself with the help of her colorful friends Yo, Roo, and Boo. The performances are highly interactive and invite audiences to tap into their imagination and be an active part of the show. Free performances are offered twice daily from Tuesday, April 2 to Saturday, April 6. Registration opens on March 18 and is required of all attendees, including children. Click here for a special look into Camille's Rainbow.

Family Day: Spring Fest Welcomes Families to Carnegie Hall

April 20

On Saturday, April 20 from 12:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m., children ages 3–10 and their caregivers are invited to the Hall's Resnick Education Wing for an afternoon-long free open house, Family Day: Spring Fest. This highly interactive, playful day offers families a multitude of fun activities that celebrate the earth, nature, and all things spring. Highlights of Family Day include instrument building with Bash the Trash, group singing with artists Emily Eagen, Eleni Arapoglou, and Skye Steele, a soothing sound meditation, hands-on opportunities to play instruments, lively mainstage performances featuring People of Earth and Michael Hearst and the Unusual Creatures, and much more. The Nest, an interactive performance created by Connecting the Dots in Australia, will also be presented. Family Day is an enriching experience for the whole family, as both children and their grown-ups can explore their own creativity and learn alongside other children and families.

Big Note, Little Note:

An Early Childhood Program for Caregivers with Infants

Big Note, Little Note, a 10-week music class for New York City families, offers a range of experiences for parents and caregivers to engage with their babies through musical play, singing, instrument exploration, songwriting, and more. The program, offered at no cost, is centered around community, and supports family well-being, early childhood development, and parent-child connection. Classes for caregivers and infants are being offered online and in-person this winter and spring, in partnership with local community organizations. A selection of short videos and an accompanying “Music Moments” activities series is available for parents everywhere on the Big Note, Little Note webpage, each dedicated to a specific early childhood topic such as movement, brain building, language, play, soothing, rhythm, and more. Additionally, a playlist with original songs inspired by the themes of the class is available on SoundCloud.

The Lullaby Project Promotes Parental Well-Being Through 50+ Partnerships

The Lullaby Project returns this season, pairing new and expectant parents and caregivers with professional artists to write and sing personal lullabies for their babies, supporting parental health and wellbeing, aiding child development, and strengthening the bond between parent and child. Lullaby Project partners in New York City, nationally, and across the globe serve more than 1,000 families annually across healthcare, education, social service, and justice settings. In New York City, the project will reach about 200 families this year through partnerships with several city and state agencies, including the NYC Department of Education, NYC Health + Hospitals, and the New York State Division of Veteran's Affairs. From September to June, Carnegie Hall teaching artists work with families across these community sites to write and sing personal lullabies, offering a creative opportunity to communicate feelings, hopes, and dreams for their child. Throughout the year, approximately 15 select lullabies from New York City sites are professionally recorded by musicians and parents. Carnegie Hall also provides free training resources and materials to partners across the country and around the world, enabling organizations to support families in their own communities through the Lullaby Project.

The first Lullaby Project took place at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx in December 2011, and since then more than 4,000 families have written original songs for their children, hundreds of which are available for listening and sharing on Carnegie Hall's Lullaby SoundCloud page, which currently has nearly 100,000 listens in more than 50 countries. Lullabies have been written in more than 40 different languages and a wide range of musical styles, reflecting the diverse backgrounds of families that participate in the program. At the end of the songwriting process, each parent receives a recording of their lullaby to listen to and sing with their baby to further support parent-child bonding and early childhood development. Click here to watch a special video about the Lullaby Project.

Select lullabies are performed live each year as part of the Lullaby Project's Celebration Concert. On Saturday, June 1 at 3:00 p.m., audiences are invited to listen to heartwarming original songs created as part of the project performed by parents, musicians, and community partners in Zankel Hall. The concert will also be available for audiences to livestream on Carnegie Hall's YouTube channel.

Extending across the country and through international programs, the Lullaby Project enables nearly 60 partner organizations (31 across the US and 27 abroad) to support hundreds of families in their own communities. Partners support the creation of new lullabies in a variety of models, adapting the program to best meet the needs of their community and families. Click here for a current list of Lullaby Project partners across the US, ranging from Washington and Texas to Pennsylvania to Wisconsin to Vermont, as well as international partners in Canada, Europe, South America, the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania. The annual Lullaby Project international convening will take place on May 31–June 1, providing professional development sessions for new and prospective partners led by expert teaching artists, consultants, and researchers.

To better understand the effect of music in early childhood development, Carnegie Hall has commissioned research papers from Dr. Dennie Palmer Wolf, an expert in the field. The first, titled Why Making Music Matters: Singing, Playing, Moving, and Sharing in the Early Years, points to several key reasons why investing in children early and often is critical to healthy development and a successful future—and demonstrates that music can play a role in everyday interactions that support our next generation. Lullaby: Being Together, Being Well, takes a closer look at how and why lullabies make a difference. The research highlights how the Lullaby Project not only helps families come together and imagine a positive future for children, but how, in some cases, writing a lullaby can support a much longer process of connecting and communicating, resonating with parents, grandparents, musicians, staff, and community members. Inspired by the work of Carnegie Hall's Lullaby Project, the Bernard van Leer Foundation commissioned WolfBrown to write a research paper, Making a Joyful Noise: The Potential Role of Music Making in the Well-Being of Young Families, which explores the Lullaby Project alongside early childhood programming from around the world.

A kid-friendly website—Carnegie Hall Kids—invites children ages 5–12 to learn about music through highly interactive and fun activities including quizzes, games, videos, interactive maps, and more. The collection of quizzes introduces key musical concepts, genres, artists, and repertoire to kids in a fun and interactive way. Select quizzes include Music in Outer Space, Weird and Wild Instruments, Animal or Instrument 2, Name That Song, and many more. Carnegie Hall Kids also includes Tune Crafter, a narrative and music-making game for kids ages 10 and up in which players explore New York City, meet and “recruit” musicians from a variety of musical and cultural backgrounds, and ultimately create a composition to be performed on the stage of Carnegie Hall. Other highlights of the site include interactive maps and Carnegie Hall's YouTube for Kids, a hub for engaging performances and video series.

To explore Carnegie Hall Kids please visit: kids.carnegiehall.org

About Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute

Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute (WMI) creates visionary programs that embody Carnegie Hall's commitment to music education, playing a central role in fulfilling the Hall's mission of making great music accessible to as many people as possible. With unparalleled access to the world's greatest artists, WMI's programs are designed to inspire audiences of all ages, nurture tomorrow's musical talent, and harness the power of music to make a meaningful difference in people's lives. An integral part of Carnegie Hall's concert season, these programs facilitate creative expression, develop musical skills and capacities at all levels, and encourage participants to make lifelong personal connections to music.

More than 800,000 people each year engage in WMI's programs through national and international partnerships, in New York City schools and community settings, and at Carnegie Hall. This includes more than 155 orchestras, music presenters, and education organizations in 40 states as well as internationally in 27 countries on 6 continents. WMI's hands-on programs tap into the creativity of audiences of all ages, inviting them to make their own music in all genres, express their viewpoints, and raise their voices. WMI shares an extensive range of online music education resources and program materials for free with teachers, families, orchestras, arts organizations, and music lovers worldwide. As a leader in music education, WMI generates new knowledge through original research, which inform Carnegie Hall's own programs and are also available as a resource to artists, organizations, and peers.

For more information, please visit: carnegiehall.org/education.