MINDY PETERSON, NCTM

Music Educator & Podcast Host

Ep. 175: Unveiling Opera’s Enchantment – Demystifying the magical world for music lovers of all ages; with Carolyn Sloan

Demystifying Opera for All Ages with Carolyn Sloan

Image by Ahmad Ardity from Pixabay

This latest addition to the acclaimed book series continues the author’s trend of making complex musical concepts clear and accessible for all ages. Award-winning author and educator Carolyn Sloan introduces her newest resource for parents, kids, and teachers: “Welcome to the Opera.” We also discuss the other titles in the series; her award-winning education technology platform; how these resources are igniting the lifelong-learner spark in homes and classrooms; and Carolyn’s passion for nurturing the holistic education of the next generation.

Guest

My guest today is joining me from New York City. Carolyn Sloan is an award-winning author, educator, composer, and entrepreneur. She has a unique flair for breaking down complex musical concepts into clear descriptions and narratives that have been pivotal in introducing both children and adults to various regions of the vast world of music. Carolyn writes music for theater, television, and children and is the founder of an online education technology company.

Notes

We discuss:

  • Carolyn’s most recent book: “Welcome to the Opera.” It was primarily written for children, but is for opera lovers of all ages (and I’ll add: MUSIC lovers of all ages).
  • Carolyn’s goals in creating the book.
  • “Why Sing?” and “Meet Mozart” segments at the end of the book are great tools for parents and educators.
  • The book includes a Glossary with opera words/definitions.
  • Carolyn’s first two books in her “Welcome to…” series: “Welcome to the Symphony” and “Welcome to Jazz.”
  • How schools and organizations around the country are using Carolyn’s songs and books as integral components to music curriculums in elementary and middle schools.
  • Carolyn’s book for adults: “Finding Your Voice, A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Singing and Living.”
  • Carolyn founded an online EdTech company, TeachMe TV. She tells us about this award-winning e-learning platform, including who it’s for, what it offers, and why she started it.

Connect/Other Resources

Other episodes we mentioned or that you may enjoy:

In-Episode Promo

JAMBAR: In addition to music, I am passionate about health & well-being. For me, a healthy lifestyle includes eating a diet that is mostly whole, unprocessed foods. This is pretty easy when I’m close to home, but living a full life often takes us away from a convenient refrigerator and a predictable schedule. Enter my favorite whole food energy bar. JAMBAR is a Certified Organic whole food bar, non-GMO and gluten-free. Created by a food science and nutrition expert, athlete, and musician, JAMBAR is packed with protein and fiber, and minimally sweetened with only all-natural sweeteners. It doesn’t need to be refrigerated, and has a one-year shelf life. These bars don’t melt, freeze, or crumble – which means they can go from a day of ice skating in Minneapolis to a trip to the beach when I’m visiting my daughter in Florida. (The only problem with the beach trips is keeping my kids from eating all my bars because they love them, too!)

Fuel your full life and healthy lifestyle with JAMBARs. Available at Amazon, select retailers, and jambar.com. For more info, you can also visit Episode 160. Links are in the show notes.

Songtrust: This is a quick break to tell you about Songtrust. Did you know there is an estimated $250 million in unclaimed royalties?! Songtrust is the world’s largest royalty collection service – it helps artists know what royalties they’re owed, and collects them for you so that YOU, the artist, can focus on creating and producing—not administrating. With Songtrust, you can register your songs quickly, in ONE place. Songtrust will then collect all royalties you’re owed from over 50 global pay sources. Songtrust represents over 350,000 songwriters — this includes Grammy winners AND brand new, up-and-coming songwriters. Songtrust is currently offering Enhance Life with Music listeners 20% off your registration fee. Just use the code ENHANCELIFE20 at checkout. You can check them out at songtrust.com. While you’re there, you’ll see another reason I’m a fan – Songtrust is great at explaining the very complicated music publishing world! They offer a ton of free educational resources, including virtual workshops, a blog, and the Modern Guide to Music Publishing. Go to songtrust.com, and remember to use the code ENHANCELIFE20 to get 20% of your registration fee.

Coda

Carolyn shares a song she composed called, “Give Love.” She says: “If ever there was a time for this song, it’s now.” 🙂  

Closing Words

What a great song – I love the theme of it; it certainly is congruent with Carolyn’s passion for providing our kids with quality input that grows their minds in healthy ways, and supports them in being kind individuals. I think these topics are even more top-of-mind for many of us here in the US, as it’s an election year. And it reminds of a quote from a book I highly recommend that speaks to the goal of giving love, being kind, and being united without feeling a need to be unanimous. We can give love and be respectful and have each other’s backs even when we don’t agree on everything. The book is called, “I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening),” by Beth Holland & Sarah Silvers. I love the title, and the book is just as good as the title. I’m going to read a quick quote from the book that immediately came to my mind when I heard Carolyn’s song: “We will evolve individually and collectively, and we’ll get closer to that more perfect union our founding fathers and mothers envisioned – one that is united without being unanimous.  That is the promise of nuance.  That is the power of saying, ‘I think you’re wrong, but I’m listening.’”

Thank you so much to Carolyn for joining us today and for all she does to enhance lives with music through her books, compositions, TeachMe TV platform, and more.

If you haven’t already done so, be sure to hit the Follow/+ button on whatever podcast app you use to listen. This is FREE and conveniently delivers each new episode to your device when it releases, so you don’t have to search for it. I will be launching something new very soon; if you’ve already followed this show in your app, just sit back and you’ll receive that update in your feed when it releases. If not, do yourself and the show a favor by hitting the follow/+ button so each new episode is ready to go whenever/wherever you are ready to listen, whether that is on your commute, shuttling kids around, working out, or doing yardwork (which usually includes shoveling snow for those of us in Minnesota right now). When you follow, this also helps the show and helps others find the show.

You can always connect with me on email (mindy@mpetersonmusic.com), Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

All Enhance Life with Music episodes are evergreen; so check out the back catalogue for more ways that music can make your life better.

Thank you so much for joining me today. Until next time, may your life be enhanced with music.

View Episode Transcript

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