About Me

La Verne Chen

Hello! That's me in the middle of the front row with my choir, the Alvarado Elementary Wildcat Singers, after their spring concert last year. Growing up as the child of a pianist, I was nurtured in an environment filled with the joys of music-making, which inspired me to learn the cello at a young age. As I developed my identity as a musician, I decided early on that I would devote my life to helping others discover themselves through music.

After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Psychology from U.C. Berkeley, I pursued my Master of Education in Music Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, where I taught infant, toddler, and preschool music classes at the Rita Gold Early Childhood Center. During this time, I also served as a research assistant on the national survey, "Parents Use of Music with Infants," and used the qualitative data from the study to author a masters thesis entitled, "How and Why Parents Use Music with Their Infants." I have always been fascinated by the special bond that music can encourage between a caregiver and a child, and recently attained my certification in the Musikgarten curriculum in order to promote early childhood music education.

Throughout my career as an educator, I have constantly sought to sharpen my skills as a teacher and a musician by studying the latest research, methodology and theory relating to how children learn music. I am Level I certified in the Orff-Schulwerk (music and instruments), Kodaly (music and singing), and Dalcroze (music and eurhythmics) approaches to music education and am currently in my 7th year as a music specialist for an elementary school where I teach general classroom music to preschool-5th grade students.

I believe that music can have profound effects on the social, cognitive and emotional development of young children. Numerous research studies have shown that early exposure to music can strengthen spatial-temporal reasoning processes, develop attention and focusing skills, and encourage creative depth and exploration. My goal is to present a fun and meaningful experience that will inspire creativity, promote healthy and nurturing interactions between caregivers and their children, and engage children in a musical dialogue as they learn about themselves and their world.