Liz is the Director/Owner of Musical Folk with locations in New Haven, North Haven, Branford, Cheshire & Woodbridge offering the Music Together program, ukulele and guitar classes. Liz is a native of County Meath, Ireland and now makes her home in Hamden, CT.  Liz plays a variety of instruments, including guitar, ukulele, bódhran (Irish drum) and banjo and has recorded 3 CDs.  She has a wonderful energetic and bubbly personality that you and your child will love.

Liz has been involved with music her whole life, starting at a young age while living in Ireland and has continued her passion for music on stages here in the US. She is a well known folk/celtic singer and has sang throughout the US with the Acclaimed Irish Traditional all female group “Cherish the Ladies”, and now has her own folk band here in the CT area called "The Crickstones".  Liz has recorded 3 albums "Grand Central Station" (Folk/Irish), "Tiny Lights" (Lullaby Album), and "The Crickstones" (Americana/Folk) which are available on all streaming services (Spotify, Apple Music etc).  

Liz was assistant manager at Memorial Sloan-Kettering for 10 years, where she gained immense experience during her tenure there & also worked at Music Together of Fairfield County managing their office for 5 years. Her business experience combined with her passion for music & The Music Together Program allowed her to open Musical Folk in New Haven County where she now gets to make music everyday.

For more information on Liz's band visit www.lizmc.com.

Liz teaches Play by Color Ukulele

Contact Liz at [email protected]

Christina joined the Music Together family after participating in the program for two years with her son, Cooper. His enthusiastic response to the Music Together songs and the positive impact on his emerging vocabulary and musicality has brought such joy to their family music making. Christina now enjoys making music with Cooper and her daughter, Cecelia who has benefitted from constant music-making from birth!

Prior to her adventures as a mom of two (and having a child with special needs), Christina spent nine years in arts administration and fundraising at Long Wharf Theatre. Music has always been a part of her life - singing in choirs from elementary school through college, musical theatre performances, church choirs since childhood, a dozen years of voice lessons, and sixteen years of performance with the New Haven Chorale. Christina is honored to teach the Music Together program and to share her love to music and singing with so many wonderful families! 

Christina teaches our Babies classes and our Mixed Age classes

Contact Christina at [email protected]

See all of Christina's classes HERE

Alicia’s Music Together journey began in 2015, soon after the birth of her son.  Long before she discovered the joys of Music Together, she always had a special relationship with music.  Some of her earliest and happiest memories are being gathered around the piano as a child, singing and harmonizing Christmas carols with her family.  Her father had a large impact on her; he was a music teacher and aficionado who taught her to appreciate a wide range of music. 

As she grew, she continued to love and study music.  She took piano lessons for 13 years.  She participated in dance competitions and spent many weekends traveling to various parts of the country to dance.  She learned to play many other instruments, as well, including the flute and piccolo.  She was in her high school marching, jazz, and concert band as well as all types of choirs.  When she got to college, her major was computer forensics but she continued her relationship with music.  She performed in many musicals in college including Godspell, Cinderella, and Bye Bye Birdie.  Most recently, she has begun learning to play the ukulele. 

Music Together has allowed her the opportunity to explore her love of music with her two children, Connor and Amelia.  Both of them have attended many Music Together classes and have developed a love of music along with her. Alicia's energetic and enthusiastic teaching style makes her so engaging to children and adults alike. 

Alicia teaches Mixed-Age classes and Rhythm Kids^®.  She is also the office manager.

Contact Alicia at [email protected]

See all of Alicia's classes HERE

Nikki is honored to be a part of the Musical Folk family and is looking forward to spreading all the joy and benefits that Music Together has to offer. She has seen such a positive impact Music Together has had on her oldest daughter Eliza, and now her youngest daughter Noa is reaping the benefits too. Music has been a part of both her daughters lives since birth and the experience with Music Together has been such an enriching way to bond and grow together. 

Prior to Nikki joining the family, she received a degree from Southern Connecticut State University. She has worked in both retail, and in the mental health field, but her passion has always been in the performing arts. She has been involved in dance, musicals, and was lead vocals in a local cover band.

Adding to that she has always loved working with children. She has a natural way of connecting with them with her fun-loving personality and her desire to teach and engage them. Discovering the Music Together program has really been a perfect fit as it has allowed her to spread her wings by blending all the things she enjoys the most and she cannot wait to bring the same happiness and enrich the lives of your family too!

When Nikki isn’t teaching Music Together, she enjoys spending time with her husband and children, cooking and spending time outdoors.

Contact Nikki at [email protected]

See all of Nikki's Classes HERE

Rashele’s love of music began in a childhood home (and car) filled with music by a DJ dad who also loves to sing – whether he knows all the words or not! One of her favorite games as a child during family road trips was competing with her family to be the first to guess the next song coming up on her dad’s R&B mix tape in the car stereo from just the first few notes.

Rashele has been making music all her life - singing herself to sleep on long car rides, engaging in short stints with piano and oboe lessons and singing in church choirs and music teams for many years. She has honed a love for hearing and making harmonies through practice with everything from old school R&B to Contemporary Christian and Gospel music to beloved Disney songs. Growing up, she also participated in tap, jazz, ballet, modern, ethnic, pointe and hip-hop dance classes, further building her musical ear and rhythm development. She later went on to join the liturgical dance ministry at her church while attending medical school and to teach tap and ballet classes to preschool and elementary-aged children in a Christian Dance Academy.

Her favorite stage, by far, has been introducing her daughter Hannah to the joy of music, including taking Mixed Ages and Rhythm Kids^® classes together for multiple semesters at Musical Folk. They love to have musical fun together at home! Rashele was even inspired to begin to learn playing the ukulele herself when Hannah wanted to sign up for lessons with Miss Liz. When she realized that she did not want her Music Together journey to end when Hannah reaches the upper age limit for Rhythm Kids^® classes, Rashele decided to become a Music Together teacher to share her own love of music – and her high silly quotient! - with other children and families. She is thrilled to join the team and can’t wait to make more musical memories. 

To see all of Rahele's classes - click here

Sara Henry is thrilled to be joining the Musical Folk crew for classes. Sara is a classically trained mezzo-soprano who has traveled the world, performing leading and supporting roles in more than 50 operas. She's also the mom of a rambunctious 5 year old and has received critical acclaim for her impressions of dump trucks, dinosaurs, and assorted barnyard animals. 

Sara and her daughter Rosa started taking mixed age classes at Musical Folk way back in 2018, cycling through all twelve collections before moving up to Rhythm Kids^® (where they are still having a blast!) Sara believes very strongly in the Music Together philosophy that every child has the potential to be a music maker, and has seen firsthand the amazing musical leaps and bounds children (and often their grownups!) make while singing, dancing, and being silly in the safe and supportive atmosphere of these classes.

In addition to opera, Sara enjoys performing a wide variety of repertoire—everything from early music madrigals to Yiddish theater songs, to 4 part jazz acapella. She has also played the piano since childhood, and moonlights as a writer/stage director, known for her witty English-language adaptations of classic operas. She frequently collaborates with Prelude Opera—an NYC-based opera company whose mission is to introduce opera to young children, and every December finds her shaking her jingle bells around Connecticut as a longstanding member of the CT Yuletide Carolers. In her spare time, she enjoys nature walks, deadpan humor, baking pies, and marathon singalongs on road trips. For the record, she has never met a train song that she didn't like...

To see all of Sara's classes - click here

Alyssa is ecstatic to be teaching the Music Together curriculum and working with our youngest music makers! She loves building up the energy in the room, strumming her ukulele, playing with contrast and anticipation, and being extra silly to fully engage children and their grownups. Alyssa also integrates American Sign Language (ASL) in her classes, with first-hand experience modeling for her son who wears a cochlear implant.

Alyssa joined the Musical Folk Family in 2017 while attending classes with her oldest daughter. She discovered classes were intensely bonding for them both, and was enthusiastic about extending the fun at home. She currently still attends with her son in Cheshire, and loves every minute of it!

Alyssa’s musical journey began as a young child attending music classes with her mom. She began teaching herself piano in middle school and went on to formally take lessons for six years. However, the largest influence was her father, who shared his love of classic rock in the car and at home, showcased his latest vinyl collections, and booked concert outings. She attended college in Atlanta, where she joined as a vocalist in her church band. In that time, she taught herself guitar and dabbled in songwriting while studying abroad. Fun Fact: she bought a djembe drum at a street market in Turkey and began trying it out right away…eventually passerby started leaving coins and the shop owner gave her a headdress to draw customers!

She is known by friends for her animal impersonations, with hilariously precise sheep and monkey sounds, and loves putting those skills to use in class! Her dynamic theatrics and soothing lullabies on the ukulele offer a rich musical experience. Alyssa supports the continuation of children’s development from our mixed-age classes to Rhythm Kids^® to expanding on musical expression in Ms. Liz’s ukulele classes.

It is her privilege and joy to bring families together in a live music-making experience each week!

To see all of Alyssa's Classes - Click HERE

Danielle is new to the teaching team but not to Music Together. Before becoming a mother of three boys, she nannied for two girls, totaling her involvement with the program to be over 13 years!

She is incredibly humbled to be working, side by side, with the teachers who have helped bring so many milestones to her own children. Danielle has three sons, Ronan, Zealand, and Gryffin who are all diagnosed with Autism. Their involvement with Music Together has complimented their development beautifully. This program is one of the only activities her children have taken to, on and off, the “Music Together” floor. It is only natural she would want to give back to a program who has given her family so much.

Danielle worked for Walt Disney World for seven years, is a Cub Scout Leader for her oldest son, and is also a Certifed Cruise Counsellor, specializing in planning Walt Disney World and cruise vacations for families traveling with special needs. She is an avid theater fan and has been in numerous theater productions over the years. Fun Fact: She met her husband in a production of “Beauty and the Beast.”

Danielle is proud to come into this new role as a parent who has been freshly in your shoes. This program has taught her how vital the parental role is in our children’s music development. She is downright giddy to share this joyful information with other parents.

To see all of Danielle's Classes - Click HERE

Crissy is thrilled to be joining the family at Music Together!  Growing up outside of New Haven, Connecticut, Crissy began singing at the age of 7 in musical theater and opera. She studied bel canto technique with her grandmother, a professional opera singer.  She was inspired by a family of musicians ranging from classical to jazz and rock.

Starting at age 13, Crissy began studying piano.  She wrote her first instrumental piano composition at age 16.  She obtained a B.A. in Music at SCSU where she studied piano, voice and composition. While attending college, she played keyboard and sang background vocals in a “bubblegum garage punk-pop” band called, The Battlecats and was voted Best Band in Connecticut.  She did coursework in a Master’s Degree in Music Composition at the University of Portland in Oregon, then opportunities presented themselves and she moved back East to pursue her dream of becoming a singer/songwriter. 

After recording her first demo 4 Songs she created a band and played across the East Coast.  She then moved to Los Angeles to record with a Grammy-winning producer and performed throughout L.A.  Her first full-length album, Safer in the Dark, features a song currently licensed on various streaming services, including Peacock, HULU and Apple TV.  Her latest album, Cover, is available for streaming on Spotify and other streaming services.  

She is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Music Education: K-12 at the University of Bridgeport and is teaching private voice lessons.  She lives with her husband and 2 year old daughter Francesca who loves to play the drums!  Crissy is an enthusiastic and committed new teacher who can’t wait to engage with kiddos and parents alike!  

Rachel is a board certified music therapist and has been practicing music therapy full time in Connecticut since January 2023. She is a certified Music Together teacher since 2019, where she taught classes in Montclair, New Jersey. She currently works with children and adults with developmental disabilities, memory care, and survivors being housed in domestic violence shelters. She is a child at heart, sensitive, kind, caring, and compassionate - a hard worker who has been playing music all her life!

She started playing piano when she was 5, and continued taking lessons for many years and still plays to this day. She has played the flute since fourth grade and majored on it as her primary instrument in college. She taught herself guitar and voice in high school, and developed those skills during her music therapy degree program at Montclair State University in New Jersey from 2012-2019. Rachel believes that everyone is inherently musical, but that it is a spectrum just like gender identity, sexuality, race, neurodiversity, etc.! Some people are opera singers, and some are shower singers. Some like to listen, and some prefer to drum it out on their legs or tap their feet! All experiences are valid and all people are welcome in her classes, no matter what spectrum they are on! 

Rachel loves taking walks, drinking coffee, plants, going on adventures, meditating, doing yoga, reading, making things, writing and especially cats.  She even has her own cat-sitting business. She eats healthy foods and lives a balanced, sober life in New Haven, CT - although she was born just outside of Chicago, Illinois; she moved around quite a bit in her childhood and has found her way to Connecticut at last where she is very happy and fulfilled. She believes in the importance of being of service to others, and treating others the way you would want to be treated. Nothing is more important than family and friends!

She is very excited to join Musical Folk and build meaningful relationships with its families!

Kim comes to Music Together with a love for music, young children, and their families.  Kim has been a certified Music Together teacher since 2013, back after a hiatus for graduate school and raising babies.  Kim’s main instrument is voice, but she also plays guitar and basic piano.  Kim’s background includes A cappella in college.

Kim holds a Master’s degree in Special Education (Early Childhood Concentration) from Southern Connecticut State University as well as a BA degrees in Psychology and Music from Fairfield University.  Kim has taught Pre-K for 13 years, spending the last 8 years teaching Pre-K/Special Education within Cheshire Public Schools.  “Miss Kim’s guitar” is a highlight of her student’s pre-k year time and again, and she loves growing a love for music in preschoolers.

Kim has two boys, aged 6 and 3, who enjoyed many semesters of Music Together! The Ambrose family has many family memories that include MT songs, such as a very long car ride to NC in their “Little Blue Car” or endless belly laughs to “Inanay” on the changing pad.  Kim can’t wait to help your family experience the joy of Music Together!