Photograph by Caleb Kenna
The Nulsen-Sandoval Family
MCMC is celebrating its 10-year anniversary by sharing stories of musical growth and inspiration from our community. Our mission of providing access to musical education to all is reflected in the diverse ways that people find and participate in the MCMC network. We believe music can be transformational for anyone at any age. This is as true for newborns as it is for teens or more experienced adult performers. One family that highlights this is the Nulsen-Sandolvals: Dave, Marilyn, Camila, and Natalia.
Dave and Marilyn were new parents when they learned about MCMC’s Music Together® classes. A globally-recognized curriculum for musical and cognitive development in young children, Music Together provides families not only with songs and movements that encourage musical learning in their newborns, but also a community of new parents to connect with as well. This helped Dave and Marilyn integrate music into their new home and also started Camila and Natalia on their own musical paths.
Music Together gave Dave and Marilyn new ways to share their love of music with their family. Both parents are very musical and hoped to instill a love and appreciation of diverse musical styles in their children. The program gave them songs, dances, and materials to share with their kids that they still return to outside of the group classes. One result of this early exposure has been Camila and Natalia’s increased confidence and interest in musical expression.
This confidence has led to exciting moments of growth for both girls. Camila has started taking piano lessons and performing in the informal salons that MCMC encourages, and Natalia became the literal poster child for Music Together, as her photo was used on a flyer that went up around town to promote the program. In these moments, the joy of learning and sharing music becomes an infectious feeling that spreads from kid to parent and beyond to the wider community.
A core parenting goal for Dave and Marilyn was to promote a love of music in their children. MCMC was able to support them by providing a unique community committed to musical growth across all ages. Being integrated in Middlebury’s downtown center and providing a consistent meeting place for families gave them a sense of connection that has grown over time to include not just other parents but teachers and students as well.
This support has translated into personal growth, too. Dave and Marilyn observe how music education supports new connections within the minds of their kids, not just in school subjects like math, but also in larger, lifelong lessons about dedication, commitment, and taking pleasure in the arts. Camila can say “the more you practice, the better you’re going to get” and have a concrete example from her life to back it up.
The seeds planted by Music Together and MCMC have impacted the Nulsen-Sandoval family in small and large ways. While their priority is to instill a love and enjoyment of music that will accompany their kids throughout their lives, Dave has also encouraged his daughters to start their own musical radio show for other kids.The radio show was a natural outgrowth of their confidence and interest in both music and performance, supported both by Music Together and piano lessons.
Dave and Marilyn are excited to be part of MCMC’s future and see it grow to include more families and members of the community. Entering its second decade, they believe that MCMC’s mission of providing musical enrichment is vital to a cohesive and resilient community, while ensuring that those experiences are affordable for all. They hope to see MCMC center its efforts to bring the transformational power of music to more and more people.
This commitment to community, spanning infants to elders, is what makes MCMC a unique place for a family like the Nulsen-Sandovals to create a musical home. And from their early musical explorations, Camila and Natalia now have the creative foundations that will shape their love of music for the rest of their lives.