Kindermusik: A Tale of Two Miss Beth's (and Anne)

Kindermusik classes fill our home almost every day of the week under the careful tutelage of a young toddler who refers to himself as Miss Beth during the classes. We are called from our own activities in various parts of the house to a transformed living room. Surprisingly intact fiddlesticks and plastic harmonicas lie scattered on the rug near Rem’s blue and red drum. Plastic cups with Mardi Gras beads inside sit close to the kid-sized blue lawn chair that keeps finding its way into our house.

Our young Miss Beth greets us by different names and encourages us to sit down in a circle where he leads us through a host of songs and rhymes. He compliments our efforts and applauds our distinct loud and quiet claps and taps. Sometimes we listen to his CDs and other times we put on our listening ears and pretend to hear whatever Rem tells us we are listening to. He does not like disruptions to the order of things as he moves methodically through activities. His baby quilt waits just behind his chair ready to be opened for a story and then quickly folded again before more dancing and good-byes. Imaginary figures get stamped onto our arms accompanied with more praise about our participation before we are sent away and then quickly called back (with some of the students groaning) for another session of musical bliss (at least for our Miss Beth).

The real Miss Beth provides musical inspiration on Thursday mornings in Rem’s weekly Our Time Kindermusik class. Rem feels love for this musical magician who turns sticks and shakers into wonderful instruments, scarves into dancing colors and words into melodies. I feel lucky. The Kindermusik curriculum can supply an individual with exposure to music but it takes a talented educator to instill in a young child love and desire for all things musical while also imparting to the parents the multifarious ways that music assists in their child’s development. Beth Magill is such a teacher and a shared parental admiration encircles this Pied Piper and her captivated little rats every Thursday morning.

Kindermusik played an integral role in all of my children’s early growth due to the two dedicated teachers who resonated with a love of music and a respect for young children. Anne Rogers introduced me to the Kindermusik program and I enrolled Miren in the Village class that she taught in an old church classroom downtown. Groups of babies and toddlers, noisy and wild in the minutes before class, suddenly sat spellbound as Anne energetically guided them through themed musical journeys.

I appreciated Anne’s breadth of musical knowledge. She’d directed choruses and was a seasoned member of the Asheville Choral Society. Her piano studio witnessed changes in location and the graduation of many students but Anne had stood at the helm for decades. Anne's love of music resonated in her personal life and in the veritable encyclopedia of classsical music stored in her memory. Not only could Anne off-handedly suggest a piece of classical music that my children might enjoy, but she could also tell me about the piece’s various recordings and the one most suitable for our listening pleasure.

“Wait,” she’d said, a little condescendingly when I wondered out loud if the girls might enjoy Peter and the Wolf. “They’re a little young. Let them listen and play to Saint Saen’s A Carnival of Animals. They’ll enjoy the distinct instrumental changes.” Maybe a year later she handed me a CD of Peter and the Wolf. “They’re ready now.” And she was right. More time passed and then she introduced Miren and Lise to a video recording of The Magic Flute.


Most advantageous to the children was our friendship with Anne’s family. On warm summer evenings while we lingered on the deck of her home as the sun set behind the mountains and the city lights filled the valley below Anne taught Miren and Lise how to sing rhymes up and down the scale and taught me simple things that I could do on the piano to accompany their explorations of the black and white keys. Anne would leave dinner on the stove and a house full of guests to find some instruments to amuse the girls while the adults chatted. She’d end up on the floor with them, singing and “Toe Tapping Her Blues Away” while dinner waited.

Unfortunately, we caught Anne at the end of her Kindermusik days and scrambled to find teachers to fill the void as we continued through the musical stages with enthusiastic but lesser- talented teachers until the girls again became students of Anne’s as a part of her piano studio and her musical influence once again flourished (and flourishes) in our daily lives. The playful, enjoyable exposure to music enabled Miren and Lise to ease into piano lessons as an extension to what they were already doing musically.

Beth Magill’s reputation preceded our acquaintance as I was aware of a wonderful teacher in Black Mountain when my daughters were of Kindermusik age. The musical Magill family is also well-known in the area. Her enigmatic spirit and abundant talents do not disappoint and I am grateful for her guidance and the joy she brings to her students. I was delighted to enroll Rem in her classes. But really, the delight is all Rem’s.