Our teachers have successfully completed the Music Together® Teaching Workshop developed by the Center for Music and Young Children, Princeton, New Jersey.
They all have experience and dedication, teaching the Music Together® Program, with a sense of fun and wonder.
Paula Lockheart, Center Director
has been teaching Music Together for over 9 years. She is trained in Orff Schulwerk and Kodaly method, and has taught elementary school music workshops for 8 years, as a visiting artist. Paula holds an MA in Ethnomusicology (Hunter College). She was a professional singer and composer, touring Europe and the US for more than 20 years. Raised in Merrick, she is a proud alumnus of the S.H. Calhoun HS Choir! She accompanies her classes on guitar, recorder, and keyboard. Her belief is that music should be an integral part of everyone's life, starting at birth. (maybe before!)
Meredeth Aponte
has been a lover and maker of music her whole life. After studying piano for 6 years, flute for 9 years, and receiving seven years of vocal training, she received a minor in music from Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN. Meredeth has performed with a wide range of ensembles in the Northeast and Nashville area as both vocalist and flautist, including orchestras, choirs, a cappella groups, and an early music consort, in addition to solo performances. She has taught music to young children in various capacities for nearly 4 years and is a second generation Music Together teacher (Her mom teaches, too!) She accompanies her classes on keyboard and flute.
Sonia Muller
was born in Lisbon, Portugal, and speaks fluent Portuguese and Spanish! She said that there was not one family gathering that didn't involve Fado singing with guitars. And across from her grandparents was a gypsy commune, so she was exposed to their all night guitar frenzies at an early age. She sang all the time as a child and through school, and was always in chorus.
Recently she performed at Radio City Music Hall with 81 other yoga members for the Brain Art Festival.
She has begun graduate work in Education at C.W. Post. She has two beautiful children, 6 and 2 years, who have both taken the Music Together classes with Lockmusic. It was in our classes, as a mom, that Sonia decided that she might want to teach Music Together! She was one of the most participatory parents we have ever had, and she still sings all the time with her kids - second nature to her! She accompanies her classes on the autoharp.
Pamela Carlton
is a Board-Certified clinical Music Therapist with a background in psychiatric and medical music therapy with children and adults.
She has been a licensed Music Together teacher since 2001, but left her teaching in 2004 to pursue full-time music therapy in a hospital (working with medically ill children and their families). She is now in private practice with children and adults recovering from medical challenges and mental illness, traumatic brain injury, addiction, and codependency. And she is ALSO back teaching Music Together classes!!
She has been a violinist and pianist since she was a child. Pam has been involved in numerous classical and improvisational ensembles in Boston and the NYC area, including the NY Symphonic Arts Ensemble, the Villa Lobos Orchestra and Illuminata. She is also the violinist and proprietor of the Artemis String Trio. Pam has also taught classical and improvisational violin and piano to students for many years.
She accompanies her Music Together classes on keyboard and guitar (and may even bring in her vioin, occasionally).
Lauren Diehlmann
is a recent graduate of the University of Hartford, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude, with a B.A. in Music Ed. from the Hartt School of Music, Dance and Theatre. She has been studying voice since childhood, and has been performing with various choirs, while in elementary school, highschool and college (some professional). She has also taught chorus to middle school students. She comes from a musical family, and studies guitar from her mother! She accompanies her classes on autoharp, guitar, and ukelele.
Mary Douglas
comes from an extremely musical family - her mother was a professional pianist and vocalist, and her grandfather played guitar and sang. And so, she is a firm believer in the value of family music making, from her own direct experience!
She has been teaching many styles of dance to children of all ages for the past 20 years. This includes her work with a variety of special needs children, including those with A.D.H.D., and various types of autism. She is a certified dance teacher with the Royal Academy of Dance in London, and certified with Dance Educators of America.
Her performance background is extensive- she performed with the Eglevsky Ballet at Nassau Coliseum, New York Dance Theatre, the Neubert Ballet Company, and the Arvell Shaw All Stars (members of the original Louis Armstrong Band).
When she became aware of the Music Together program, it reminded her of her wonderful childhood music background with her own family, and so she enthusiastically came on board as a teacher! She accompanies her Music Together classes on keyboard and autoharp.