About this item
Hooray!Music class is underway!As soon as the teacher starts to play his guitar and sing, the kids are whirling and twirling and having a blast. But for one hesitant little music maker, it is all a bit overwhelming at first. With energetic and bright illustrations, this reassuring story about the courage it sometimes takes to try something new will resonate with children everywhere.From David Weinstone, the creator of the wildly popular Music for Aardvarks program, and the pitch-perfect Vin Vogel comes this infectious celebration of music class that will make you want to sing and dance with your own little ones!
About the Author
David Weinstone & Music for Aardvarks
Matriculating in 1986, David Weinstone studied theory, composition and guitar at Berklee College of Music in Boston. After college David went to New York City to pursue a career as a rock star. He played the New York downtown club scene as a solo artist for a time before forming the punk-pop band, Mozart's Grave, which was signed to the Sol 3 label by Richard Gottehrer (formerly of Sire Records) .
Following the birth of his first child, David realized the dearth of cool kids' music and began Music for Aardvarks and Other Mammals as a preschool music class. As an outgrowth of the class, he recorded ten original songs reflecting and celebrating the lives of city kids, while addressing themes universal to children everywhere.
Music for Aardvarks immediately resonated with children, and parents were thrilled to find something new in the children's area that they themselves enjoyed. Bootleg copies of MFA music circulated around Manhattan, and within a few weeks the word was out: Something fresh and original was swimming upstream against the tide of "hop-along-bunny" songs that often typify children's music.
Local newspapers and broadcast media -- including Fox 5's "Good Day New York," Metro Guide TV, NYU Arts and others -- ran features on David's music and MFA classes. This media coverage combined with strong word of mouth and the continued spread of MFA recorded tunes to transform a fledgling music program into a bona fide local phenomenon. Within one year of its conception, MFA had become a household name in New York City.
Seventeen years later, Music for Aardvarks and Other Mammals continues to grow locally, nationally and internationally, having established a reputation as the hippest music class on the planet, hailed by notables from Philip Glass to Sonic Youth. Music for Aardvarks has become a multi-faceted world of musical adventures, encompassing rocking live performances by David Weinstone and The Music for Aardvarks Band, music videos airing daily nationwide on the Nick Jr. channel, and an array of CDs that are grounded in real life, with songs like "Taxi," "Bagel," "Play Date," and "Subway" - celebrating childhood without hype or straining to be different for the sake of being different. And David's first picture book, "Music Class Today!" Illustrated by Vin Vogel. Published by Farrar Straus Giroux
David Weinstone and Music for Aardvarks continues to receive glowing praise in dozens of publications around the world.
