About Us

Learning to Sing, Singing to Learn

Mission

The Prelude Music Foundation brings singing, dancing, and playful learning to preschool classrooms in underserved communities in Houston.

PMF uses music to nurture literacy and math skills, while supporting social development.

Vision

Through our partnerships with early childhood education centers in Houston’s high-need areas, the Prelude Music Foundation:

will close achievement gaps in academic performance,

will improve teacher retention,

will improve student attendance,

will engage its parents and caregivers in new ways,

will build stronger connections between parents/caregivers and their children, and

will be filled with joy, inspiring children to learn and fostering a love of school.

Values

All children are musical.

All children deserve access to music.

Children learn through play.

We value research-based music and movement.

We use developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood education.

We promote connection over correction.

We make a measurable impact.

We are a learning organization.

We lead with peace, love, and joy.

Why We Serve

Since 2014, the Prelude Music Foundation (PMF) has brought joyful, developmentally appropriate music and movement classes to thousands of young children in high-need schools across the city of Houston. We proudly partner with families, teachers, school leaders, physicians, and foster parents to bring peace, love, and joy through music.

Our dynamic, high-impact program utilizes Music Together®, a research-based music and movement program, to advance the cognitive, academic, and musical development of Pre-K and Kindergarten age children at home, in schools, and in communities.

Our Program

Weekly Classes

Weekly Music Classes

Each week, one of our early childhood music specialists visit a classroom where they lead students and their teachers in developmentally appropriate musical activities that support children's academic and musical development. These musical activities support learning domains defined by the TEA Texas Pre-K and Kindergarten Guidelines: Social and Emotional Development, Language and Communication, Emergent Literacy, Numeracy, and Physical Development. Our early childhood music specialists interact and bond with the students in a joyful, relaxed atmosphere, supporting the student's musical growth and overall development through active music-making.

Profess. Dev.

Professional Development

An important part of our program is the professional development workshops provided to the classroom teachers each year. Classroom teachers are introduced to the program and shown how to utilize the Music Together curriculum and integrate music into their daily classroom settings. Our goal is to deepen teachers' understanding of how music supports cognitive development, language development, pre-literacy skills, and emerging numeracy. We instruct teachers in research-based approaches for teaching phonemic awareness and other literacy practices and provide them with music-based teaching tools to support numeracy, literacy, and social-emotional development.

Community Engagement

Parent Education

We help facilitate parents' engagement in their children's development by providing them with parent education workshops. We've found that when parents and caregivers are given the tools to engage musically with their children, they'll use them—especially when they discover that they are helping their children become confident music-makers and supporting their overall growth. By promoting musical parent-child interactions, we support positive parenting practices that support family bonding and emotional development. Parent education workshops are crucial for increasing family engagement, strengthening the school-home connection, and reinforcing the beneficial impacts of music in the children's lives.

Our Community Partnerships with the Houston Symphony, Apollo Chamber Players, and Mercury Chamber Orchestra provide the students and families with access to some of Houston's leading performing arts organizations. The musicians are a source of inspiration as they share their passion for music with the students. The year ends with a Family Engagement Concert at Miller Outdoor Theatre, led by musicians from our partnering organizations, where children, parents, and teachers are invited to sing and make music with these world-class musicians.