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Date: 9/27/2022
NORTHAMPTON – Little Roots Music, which has provided early childhood music classes and children’s concerts since 2014, is entering the fall season with expansion of space and programming.
“Before the [coronavirus] pandemic, we were in a one room – pretty small – maybe 600 square-foot space,” said Maggie Shar, who co-owns Little Roots with fellow musician Annie Stevenson. “We used to pack people in here and it was really fun, but now it’s not such a good idea to pack everyone in.”
During the height of COVID-19, Little Roots was forced to transition to online classes, which Shar said “went really well” since they were able attract families from all over the world.
As Stevenson and Shar transitioned back to in-person classes, the space adjacent to their studio opened up, so the two decided to acquire the lease and finish renovations for their official expansion back in December. “We basically doubled our physical space,” said Shar. “Now, we have the little room in the front and the big room in the back so we can accommodate more people and just have more comfortable spacing between folks as we do music.”
Shar and Stevenson officially opened the 46 Maple St. location in 2018, where they currently offer music classes for young children and adults. Both co-founders are professional musicians. Stevenson is a singer-songwriter, guitarist and recording artist who has performed with artists such as Josh Ritter and fronts her own bad called Annie and The Beekeepers.
Shar, meanwhile, is an award-winning banjo playing, guitar playing, singing educator originally from Winston-Salem, NC. She peforms regularly throughout New England with The Ephemeral String Band and The Moon Shells.
Beyond the spatial additions to the studio, Little Roots is also gearing up for their fall programming with a new class addition, as well as an expanded collaboration with other teacher artists.
The new class, called the “Giggle Roots” class, will be taught by Tracy Einstein, an Alexander Technique Teacher and movement educator who spent close to a decade bringing play, movement and drama to New York City public schools. She’s worked as a theater and movement teaching artist for the Public Theater, Hunts Point Shakespeare Ensemble, Leap NYC, Arts Ignite, Redbull Theater Company, Completely Ridiculous Conservatory and more.
The class will occur every Saturday during the fall at 11 a.m. for children in kindergarten through third grade. “It’s based in clowning and dramatic play, and the intention is to build self-awareness and confidence through music and play,” said Shar. “It’s musical theater at the core.”
Aside from Giggle Roots, the fall programming will also include familiar class options from before, like Family Music, Little Ukes, Little Fiddles, Baby Class, Little Feet and Baby Feet. Aside from Einstein, other teaching artists will conduct classes this fall, including Richie Barshay, Mia Friedman and Jules Skoot. Stevenson and Shar will also continue teaching classes.
According to Shar, Little Roots has slowly introduced the teaching artists over the past several months to get families acquainted with their specialties.
Friedman – a fiddler, singer, composer and educator –won the 2010 John Lennon Songwriting Contest for in the folk category for her song “Across the Water,” and she was also the 2006 New Hampshire Highland Games Scottish Fiddle Champion. Friedman will be teaching a beginning fiddle class, as well as a beginning ukulele class for children ages 6 to 8.
Skloot, meanwhile, is a professional dancer, choreographer, performer and educator who has performed nationally and internationally, collaborating with Tatyana Tenenbaum, Devynn Emory, Hadar Ahuvia, Circus Amok, Emily Popp, and The Ballez among others. Her own performance work has been presented in New York, Wisconsin, Washington and Massachusetts. She will be teaching the “Little Feet” movement classes for children ages infant to 5.
Barshay, a jazz, Afro-Latin, and klezmer percussionist, will be teaching a “Little Beats” rhythm focused class for children ages two to five. Barshay has recordings with Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Esperanza Spalding, The Klezmatics, Natalie Merchant, Bobby McFerrin and Pete Seeger, among others. He has led outreach projects across five continents as an American Musical Envoy with the U.S. State Department since 2004.
According to Shar, a free week of demo classes will be available for every class except the family classes during the week of Sept. 30 to Oct. 8. “If people want to try it out and see if they like it before they buy it, they are welcome too,” said Shar.
People can register for these classes and learn more about the teaching artists on the Little Roots website: https://www.littlerootsmusic.com/. The fall session runs from Sep. 30 to Dec. 17