About Us
What is Music Together?
At Asheville Area Music Together, we are proud to offer the early childhood music program Music Together®. Since 1987, Music Together has introduced millions of children, parents, and teachers around the world to the joys of family music-making and the powerful benefits of having music in their lives. Today, classes for children ages birth through grade two are found around the world—including right here in Asheville.
From babyhood through the early elementary years, Music Together® nurtures each child's natural musicality in a playful, musically rich learning environment. Our research-based music classes are designed to be non-formal and non-performance oriented, so your child can learn at his or her own pace, in a way that's developmentally appropriate.
By enrolling in our children's music program, you'll experience a whole semester of classes led by one of our trained teachers. No matter what music class you take at Asheville Area Music Together, you're guaranteed to learn new songs and music activities to inspire you to bring music into your family's everyday life.
We teach the way children learn.
Children learn differently than adults. They learn instinctively and constantly, and teach themselves through imitation and play, through being immersed in their environment, and through interaction with adults and older children.
The family-like setting of Music Together® classes creates an ideal learning environment. And it's all based in research in early childhood and music development. Learn about the research behind Music Together at Music Together Worldwide.
Your role is essential.
Parents and caregivers, you are your child's most important music teacher right now! Young children learn through play and experimentation and by watching and listening to the grownups they love. Setting an example as an enthusiastic participator in music activities is the best thing any parent or caregiver can do to help set a child on the road to a lifelong love of music.
Parents don't need to have music skills! They just need a desire to play and have fun with their children! Our teachers are trained to create a safe atmosphere so you can happily join in, experiment, or even get silly—and feel closer to your child while doing so.
Musical learning supports all learning.
Wiggling, singing, and laughing with your child is so much fun, it's easy to forget how much learning is taking place! Our research-based curriculum not only develops music skills, it nurtures creativity, self-expression, and confidence while also supporting social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development.
Because these benefits build over time, children enjoy the fullest growth in each of these areas when they participate as consistently as possible up through kindergarten.
“I really feel a strong sense of community in our classroom. I enjoy the feeling of safety that my daughter has in music because she is comfortable and knows that not only am I looking out for her, but all the other parents are serving as role-models and care-givers to her as well.”
Our Music
Asheville Area Music Together is proud to teach the Music Together® curriculum which includes an award-winning mix of original songs and traditional tunes from a range of musical styles, including folk, blues, jazz, and world music. The music is pitched just right for children's voices, and the arrangements are fun, sophisticated, and loved by children and grownups!
Download the free Music Together app for 12 full-length songs. Then, each time you enroll in a Music Together class, unlock your new Song Collection using the code in your songbook.
The Music Together songs are organized into nine collections of twenty-five songs, with three collections taught each year. Your family is welcome to join us at any time and continue for three years—and beyond. Many families cycle back and re-experience the collections as their children turn three or four. Because music-learning is cumulative, your children will experience developmental benefits that build over time. That's why we encourage their participation in Music Together for as many years as possible from infancy through kindergarten.
“Music Together is a great opportunity to show our child why we love to make music.”
— Dad, Marshall, NC
Our Staff
Alison Adams
Alison Adams - Registered Music Together Teacher
Alison is a classically-trained soprano with over a decade of experience teaching students of all ages and musical abilities. She holds a Master of Music in Voice Performance from the Peabody Conservatory and a Bachelor of Music from Guilford College. Alison is the Director of Music Together Black Mountain and teaches Music Together® classes as well as private voice. She believes singing is a birthright and feels honored to help people deepen their connection to their voices and to connect to one another through playful music-making. Alison spent many years teaching and performing in New York City and the Bay Area before returning home to Black Mountain where she lives with her husband and two children.
~ I loved loved loved working with Alison. She is a wonderful Music Together teacher. She is playful and very grounded. She really is a musician and understands the fundamentals of the program. When she taught for me, I called her the baby-whisperer because kids just LOVED her. I think they felt super safe with her. ~ Siobhan O'Malley, Director of Heart & Beat Music
She is very professional. She is the essence of calm. And she really knows her stuff!
Kari Richmond
Kari Richmond - Center Director, Registered Teacher
Kari is the founder and director of Asheville Area Music Together. She has been playing and teaching music of all kinds since her graduation from East Tennessee State University in 1997. In May 2006, Kari successfully completed the Music Together Teaching Workshop, and she opened Asheville Area Music Together later that year. In May 2009, Kari was awarded Music Together Certification Level I by the Center for Music and Young Children in Princeton NJ.
Kari is a dynamic and engaging teacher who creates a warm, fun classroom environment. In addition to her Music Together classes, she teaches private piano and percussion lessons to students of all ages. Kari enjoys performing with various regional orchestras and a wide variety of other ensembles. Married to percussionist Matthew Richmond, she is mom to Alex (percussionist) and Cora (clarinetist).
“We love love love your class, I tell everyone that I know that has a little one about Music Together. We are involved in activities all over town and your class is by far our favorite. I do know that my daughter is emotional about music and in your class the times that we've had the energy and activity to match a song, she's brought it home and repeated it all week. Last week she got quiet and thoughtful to slower songs and we went through all of our cloth napkins as she was twirling them like you showed her with the scarves. This week she's been kicking to all songs that are upbeat just like the circle kick dance we did. She just loves to act out the feeling of a song. She also likes it when you've shown her how to do something like clicking or rubbing sticks. I think she enjoyed the change up by doing more songs. I enjoyed the energy level and loved how the kids freed themselves up and interacted with each other and the adults in the class.”
Our Story
Asheville Area Music Together has been serving the local community since Fall 2006, when long-time musician and educator, Kari Richmond, began to ease back into teaching after the birth of her first child. Kari was quite experienced working with school-aged children and adults...but not at all with young children! The good folks at Friends of Mine Co-op Preschool watched patiently as Kari floundered her way through her first few attempts to teach preschoolers. Tiny people learn so differently!
With assistance from Friends of Mine, Kari attended the Music Together® Teacher Training, and experienced revelation after revelation about how children’s musical learning and development… and how almost every teaching technique she used successfully with her older students was missing the mark with the preschoolers. Luckily, the Music Together way is MUCH more fun! Her Music Together training immediately got her on track with the small ones at Friends of Mine, and since then, Kari has been on a roll, guiding wee ones and their caregivers through fun, gentle, pressure-free musical learning experiences. Her subsequent 17+ years of teaching the Music Together curriculum have also profoundly changed the way Kari shares music with her own children (now ages 13 and 18!) and her school-age piano and percussion students.
Other fun-loving teachers have joined along the way, helping Asheville Area Music Together achieve its mission of bringing the joy of family music-making to infants, toddlers, and preschoolers and the adults who love them.
