Giving Voice to Children's Artistry

Mary Ellen Pinzino is the Founder/Director of the Come Children Sing Institute, a center for research and development in music learning, and she directs the Institute's Online Teacher Education Center for professional development. She is the composer of the Come Children Sing Institute SONG LIBRARY, a full resource of songs for early childhood, elementary school, and children's chorus. She has done extensive classroom research on music learning and on song in the development of children's artistry. She is the author of the e-book Letters on Music Learning, a compilation of six years of publications for music teachers from the Come Children Sing Institute, and has done comprehensive writing on the process of music learning for the online courses and for various music educator organizations' publications. Mary Ellen has taught all ages from birth through graduate students, including many years of conducting children's choruses and teaching early childhood music, several years as conductor of high school and college choruses, and many years teaching teachers. She has presented nationally and internationally for music educators' organizations, including the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association for Music Education, the International Society for Music Education, the American Orff-Schulwerk Association, the Organization of American Kodaly Educators, Suzuki Institutes, the Gordon Institute for Music Learning, and music teacher conferences in Portugal, Indonesia, and Lithuania. She received Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, and studied extensively with Edwin Gordon.