Opera Singers Share Joy of Music with Kids

Highlander Magazine December 2003

Leah Creek Biesterfeld, winner of the prestigious Metropolitan Opera National Council Voice Competition is returning to Denver in a new role…teaching music to young families.  Leah Creek Biesterfeld along with her husband and opera singer Mark Biesterfeld, has started Petite Musician which offers its premiere program Music Together.  The two opera singers have turned their talents to helping families discover the benefits and joys of creating music together through informal music and movement classes.  Music Together offers a unique and fun musical experience for young children ages birth to five years old and their caregivers and helps families learn to make music with their children.  Their approach is based on the idea that all children are musical and they learn by following their primary role model.  The married opera singers will be giving a series of free demonstration classes December 8-12 to mark the opening of their new Music Together centers in Wheat Ridge, Lakewood and Littleton.

Leah Creek Biesterfeld, a 1996 member of the Joseph and Loretta Law Artist Center of Opera Colorado has sung with opera companies around the nation including New York City Opera where she appeared in a televised production of Britten’s Paul Bunyan, Philadelphia Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera and is well remembered as Dorabella in Opera Colorado’s 1996 production of Cosi fan tutte under the baton of legendary conductor Richard Bonynge.  While living in Colorado, she was a winner of the prestigious Metropolitan Opera National Council Voice Competition.  After being based in Philadelphia and freelancing as an opera singer for several years, Leah, along with her husband and Lakewood native Mark Biesterfeld, have relocated to Wheat Ridge to raise their two young daughters and co-direct three Music Together centers. 

Mark Biesterfeld has sung with opera companies across the nation including, Cincinnati Opera, Philadelphia Opera, Utah Festival Opera where he was seen as Herman in Le Conte d’Hoffman and Sarasota Opera where he covered Nourabad in Le Pecheurs de Perles and Alvaro in Verdi’s Alzira.  He holds a Bachelor of Music from the prestigious Indiana University and a Master of Music from Cincinnati Conservatory of Music where he was awarded a Corbett Award in Opera.

Petite Musician’s Music Together music and movement classes are based on a nationally recognized early childhood music program that recognizes the value of informal musical experiences, rather than emphasizing traditional music performances.  It is a fun, interactive way for children and their parents to enjoy music together in an informal setting. Singing, dancing, improvising and jamming with a variety of instruments are just a part of what families will enjoy in class. “I have always been a kid at heart,” Leah explains, “and now with children of my own I see how important the right kind of exposure to music is for child and how wonderful it can be for family.”  Formal music instruction cannot teach a child to be musical or to find joy or inspiration in music. A musical disposition, or the intrinsic motivation to be musical all one’s life, is the result of positive happy and fulfilling experiences and associations with music in childhood. Every child needs a stimulating supporting music environment to achieve basic competence in music making.

Music Together is founded on the vision of children and the adults who care for them making music together, much as in the days before the advent of television and recordings - singing, playing instruments, and moving together, regardless of musical background. Such an environment of relaxed and pleasurable family participation became the model for the musical program that provides the opportunity for children to develop their natural, inborn musical ability. Leah and Mark believe that with active, ongoing experiences in music and movement starting at birth, most children can develop basic skills in music like singing and moving rhythmically. These are natural abilities and skills that can be easily the young children, especially if these activities are modeled by parents and caregivers. Parents and caregivers also learn many new ways to play and interact with their children.