Carnegie Hall's Lullaby Project Reaches Mothers Through Songwriting Workshops Across the Country

By: May. 25, 2017
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On Friday, June 2 at 2:00 p.m., mothers, family members, musicians, and partners from New York City and across the country will gather to celebrate original songs created as part of Carnegie Hall's Lullaby Project, a program which pairs pregnant women and new mothers with professional artists to write personal lullabies for their babies. In New York City, the project reaches mothers in hospitals, homeless shelters, foster care centers, and at Rikers Island Correctional Facility. Extending across the country, Lullaby Project partner organizations work with families in over fifteen communities. The Lullaby Project supports maternal health, aids child development, and strengthens the bond between parent and child. The year-end concert on June 2, which will feature performances by mothers and artists locally as well as from partner sites across the nation, will be made available to a wider audience through a livestream on facebook.com/CarnegieHall.

The first Lullaby Project took place at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx in December 2011, and since then more than 600 women have written original songs for their children, many of which are available for listening and sharing at soundcloud.com/CarnegieHallLullaby. The participants are offered a creative opportunity to communicate feelings, hopes, and dreams as they look to the future with their child, working with professional musicians to put words to song. At the end of the songwriting process, each mother receives a recording of her final lullaby to listen to and sing with her baby.

Current New York City-based projects include partnerships with NY Presbyterian Hospital - Washington Heights Clinic, Jacobi Medical Center, Rikers Island Correctional Facility, Siena House and Catholic Guardian Services. During the 2017-2018 season, the Lullaby Project will expand to reach 12 sites across the city as part of a new model that emphasizes yearlong artist residencies rather than intensive short-term projects, making it possible for the Lullaby Project to reach many more mothers in the coming year.

Carnegie Hall also provides professional training and resources to partners across the country, enabling them to support families in their own communities. The Lullaby Project has been offered by 17 sites nationwide, including: Austin Classical Guitar (TX); Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (MD); Bay Chamber Concerts (ME); Central Ohio Symphony (OH); Chicago Symphony Orchestra (IL); Curtis Institute of Music (PA); El Buen Pastor (NC); Flint School of Performing Arts (MI); Hiland Mountain Correctional Center (AK); Leeward Community College (HI); The Music Settlement (OH); Old Town School of Folk Music (IL); Palaver Strings (MA); Seattle Symphony Orchestra (WA); Vero Beach Museum of Art (FL); Virginia Commonwealth University (VA); and VocalEssence (MN).

Partnership with Too Small to Fail's Talk, Read, Sing campaign extends the project further, with online tips, videos, and stories to encourage families to sing to their babies at home, on the road, and everywhere in between. Lullaby song circles will build on this creative activity during the 2017-2018 season, with singalong events led by Carnegie Hall teaching artists at community partner sites and New York City libraries.

The Lullaby Project is part of Musical Connections, a set of community-based projects that link thousands of people each year to a variety of musical experiences, ranging from stand-alone concerts to intensive yearlong creative workshops designed to have a powerful impact on people's daily lives. Collaborating with professional artists to create, perform, and produce original music, participants express their voices and have new opportunities to share their stories, which connect people to each other, create empathy, inform policy, and strengthen communities.
****** The primary goals of the Lullaby Project are to:
  • Encourage or initiate parent-child attachment and bonding for pregnant women or new moms facing challenging social or emotional circumstances.
  • Bolster participants' self-confidence.
  • Promote communication between parent(s) and baby.
  • Nurture participants' capacity to be a loving parent and caregiver.
  • Establish collaborative relationships with partners across the country to contribute to a national conversation that promotes creative activity and lullaby creation as part of a holistic approach to maternal-child healthcare.

To better understand the effect of music in early childhood development, Carnegie Hall commissioned two research papers from Dr. Dennie Palmer Wolf, an expert in the field. The first, titled Why Making Music Matters: Singing, Playing, Moving, and Sharing in the Early Years, points to several key reasons why investing in children early and often is critical to healthy development and a successful future-and demonstrates that music can play a role in everyday interactions that support our next generation. The most recent paper, Lullaby: Being Together, Being Well, takes a closer look at how and why lullabies make a difference. The research highlights how the Lullaby Project not only helps families come together and imagine a positive future for children, but how, in some cases, writing a lullaby can support a much longer process of connecting and communicating. Additionally, Dr. Catherine Monk, Associate Professor and Director for Research of the Women's Program at Columbia University Medical Center, evaluated the effects of the Lullaby Project on familial relationships, language development, and maternal distress, and Carnegie Hall is currently partnering with Virginia Commonwealth University and Jacobi Medical Center on a new clinical research study on lullabies and maternal well-being.

Preliminary data from these research projects show that:

  • The Lullaby Project demonstrates the power of short-term, high-quality opportunities to build parenting capacities, especially the motivation to self-sustain and develop the family relationship as a cohesive unit.
  • Lullaby workshops are opportunities to imagine and narrate a future of capable parenthood.
  • Significant differences in observed mother-child interactions suggest more attuned and sensitive caregiving, and more child responsivity in Lullaby Project participant groups.
  • Early indications suggest that the Lullaby Project promotes more verbal interaction, as well as greater collaboration and communication between mother and child in free play, which may be predictive of better language development.


What past participants have said about the Lullaby Project:

"Being a part of the Lullaby Project has been an experience I will never forget. It has brought so many positive things and people into my life. I now listen to music differently-I am able to connect to it at a different level. I focus more on the lyrics and the meaning behind them and how they can relate to my life. It also has made me appreciate artists even more for pouring their heart and soul into their own projects. I will pass on to my son the importance of expressing in words what you feel in your heart." - Tamilles

"Being a part of this has changed my thinking about going back to college and realizing what other skills or hobbies I have that I didn't recognize before. It just goes to show you that even when you have a bump in the road to success, something great is waiting for you at the end of the tunnel." - Elsa

"Being part of the Lullaby Project helped me become a better parent because sometimes I get too emotional expressing my feelings and it's easier for me to write it down. This project will always be an important part of my life because many years from now, after I am gone, my child will have this song to remember me and the love I had for her unconditionally." - Solangie

"I wrote this lullaby to express to my daughter that nothing is out of reach. The world is hers for the taking. Having her and spending every day with her has shown me how much more there is to life. I want her to have peace of mind just like she is my little piece of mind." - Lachandra


Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute (WMI) creates visionary programs that embody Carnegie Hall's commitment to music education, playing a central role in fulfilling the Hall's mission of making great music accessible to as many people as possible. With unparalleled access to the world's greatest artists, WMI's programs are designed to inspire audiences of all ages, nurture tomorrow's musical talent, and harness the power of music to make a meaningful difference in people's lives. An integral part of Carnegie Hall's concert season, these programs facilitate creative expression, develop musical skills and capacities at all levels, and encourage participants to make lifelong personal connections to music. The Weill Music Institute generates new knowledge through original research and is committed to giving back to its community and the field, sharing an extensive range of online music education resources and program materials for free with teachers, orchestras, arts organizations, and music lovers worldwide. More than half a million people each year engage in WMI's programs through national and international partnerships, in New York City schools and community settings, and at Carnegie Hall. This includes 380,000 students and teachers worldwide who participate in WMI's Link Up music education program for students in grades 3 through 5, made possible through partnerships with over 90 orchestras in the US, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Kenya, Puerto Rico, and Spain.

For more information, please visit: carnegiehall.org/Education

The Lullaby Project is part of Musical Connections, a program of Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute. Lead support is provided by Nicola and Beatrice Bulgari and the Ford Foundation. Major funding for Musical Connections is provided by MetLife Foundation and United Airlines. Additional support has been provided by Ameriprise Financial and JMCMRJ Sorrell Foundation.

Public support for Musical Connections is provided by the City of New York through the Department of Cultural Affairs; the Administration for Children's Services; the Departments of Homeless Services, Probation, and Youth and Community Development; City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito; and City Council Members Elizabeth Crowley, Daniel Dromm, and Annabel Palma.

Photo at top of release by Jennifer Taylor.



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