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!

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. We are so lucky to have Rick on board this summer, and he'll cut back to one day per week in the fall--so take classes with him while you can!

B.A. Oberlin, Jewish Studies

Laura Indigo plays silver flute, Celtic wooden flute, bamboo shakuhachi, and ukulele. She includes these instruments in classes,and in her own toddler's lullaby time. She likes to sing in a multi-generational a capella world music group inspired by Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey in the Rock. Laura's flute-saxophone-cello trio did pioneering work in stimulating kids to create recycled percussion instruments out of found objects. This past summer, Laura earned Music Together Certification Level I status for outstanding achievement in teaching, musicianship, program philosophy, and parent education.

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).

Ela Quezada is a glowing voice and personality with a bit of a Broadway flair. As an exchange student at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, she was exposed to Dutch culture and language. After studying Musical Theater at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, she moved to Boston with her family. Her daughter's Music Together class opened Ela's eyes to the great bond that the program could create between a parent and child, so Ela decided to make Music Together the focus of her career path. Ela is fluent in English and Spanish and proficient in Italian. She plays guitar, and the recorder, writes her own songs, loves volunteering, and is always surrounded by kids!

Ela is always actively working as an actor in the New England area.

B.A., Interdisciplinary Studies in Drama and Music, University of Puerto Rico.

Lenka Zbruz is a teaching mom. Since her childhood in Czechoslovakia she has always been involved in one musical project or another: singing in choirs, playing the piano and the guitar. She traveled Europe with her high school's production of the rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar and has written lyrics to her favorite music for fun. She discovered her love of children when she first started nannying in 2000. In the years that followed she brought many children in her care to Music Together classes and when her own son was born, she received her teacher training in Hawaii and started bringing Filip along to the classes she taught. She has found that not only is she able to see the music through the children's eyes thank to this, but also can better relate to the moms who have their hands full during class activities. Filip is now three years old and he is the living proof of how a child who has been exposed to musical environment thrives in different areas of development.

Lenka is an expert at educating parents about their children's development. This past summer, Lenka earned Music Together Certification Level I status for outstanding achievement in teaching, musicianship, program philosophy, and parent education.