Masterclass demonstrates music’s power to inspire young learners

“Ode to Joy” echoed through William & Mary’s Music Arts Building Sept. 26 as Anthony Williams, director of Williamsburg’s Early Childhood Music School (ECMS), led 25 attendees in song during his masterclass, “Rhythm & Roots: The Power of Early Childhood Music Education.”

In the hour-long masterclass, Williams invited students, faculty, and community members to participate actively in song and experience for themselves the joy and power of hands-on learning through music.

“Music learning is a vehicle,” Williams explained, demonstrating the many developmental benefits it can provide. “Music might be the thing that helps a child stand up and bring them out of their shell.”

From keyboard learning to dance and play, Williams describes how ECMS seeks to empower every student to thrive. ECMS applies theory and techniques developed through Musikgarten to a range of practices that support specific developmental benefits, including fine and large motor skills, impulse control, focus skills, and problem solving.

Through an innovative partnership with Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools, ECMS’ Elliot’s Song outreach initiative offers regular onsite programs to local Bright Beginnings and Head Start classrooms all year.

“They’re just ready to burst!” Williams said, describing the anticipation of the pre-K students before each ECMS-led experience. “They remember what we’ve done the previous class, and they can’t wait to jump in and make music and move together.”

Joining Williams and his ECMS colleagues are four William & Mary students who participate in a Charles Center academic-year internship, the Woody Internship in Early Childhood Music Education. Interns visit classrooms each week alongside ECMS mentors to learn how to engage young learners in Musikgarten lessons.

Interns receive training certification from Musikgarten, a $1,000 stipend per semester to defray transportation costs, and one-on-one mentorship with ECMS staff, with the goal of learning how to run lessons on their own by the end of the year.

Music major Natasha Haines ‘27 is in her second year as a Woody music intern, drawn to the program by her interest in music education and child psychology. Her favorite classroom activity is "Mr. Microphone,” in which she passes a make-believe microphone around the room to make students more comfortable to playfully engage in rhythm pattern exercises.

Haines recounts one student stopping her as soon as she entered the classroom. “Where’s Mr. Microphone?” the child had asked, remembering the prop Haines used in a previous class. She said she was pleased with how the children engage with and retain what they learn.

English and music major Ally Stump ’27 agreed. “They’re really so musical,” Stump said of her students. Even during what might seem like challenging memory and repetition exercises in class, “they end up matching us anyway.”

Senior Caroline Pence, a music and sociology major, said the children’s eager and consistent participation is her favorite part of the internship.

Music and government major Sarah Schulte ‘26 agreed. She recalls one exercise focused on impulse control in which she showed students a picture of an animal, asking them to silently hold the animal’s name in their head until called upon.

The children stirred with anticipation until they couldn’t hold it any longer. Schulte laughs as she repeats the collective exclamation, “Chicken!”

Also in attendance were Dr. Carol Clayman Woody ‘71 and Robert Woody, who support the ECMS internship in addition to the Woody Internship in Museum Studies and the Real World Internship Award in Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies.

“I was in music when I was at W&M,” Dr. Woody said. “It’s followed me all my life.”  She added that she and Robert enjoy empowering students through programs like this. “What we love the most is watching you succeed,” she told the students.

Dr. Woody had asked Williams several years ago how they could support ECMS's outreach to local schools.

“I need college students!” Williams answered.

This led to the beginning of the program in 2019. The onset of COVID posed setbacks to the program, Dr. Woody recalled, though they persevered through the challenge.

“It is one of those learning-as-you-go-along processes. Just like the little kids, we’re learning how to do it and improve it every year,” she said.

She hopes that more students will be interested in the Internship program, with previous interns returning to share “what it can lead to” as they embark on their career paths in music, education, and beyond.

Interested in becoming a Woody Early Childhood Music Education intern in 2026-27? Click here for more information.