Spreading Love and STEAM Through Song with Carnegie Hall’s The Lullaby Project

Join us on this episode of the Adventures in Learning podcast as we welcome Tiffany Ortiz, the Director of Early Childhood at Carnegie Hall, to discuss the Lullaby Project. This innovative program pairs families and caregivers with musicians to create personalized lullabies for their children, fostering deep bonds and easing parental stress. Tiffany shares the origins of the project, which began in a New York City hospital over 12 years ago, and its remarkable growth to over 60 communities worldwide. Discover how this initiative has expanded to include partnerships with children's museums, integrating the magic of lullabies into playful learning environments.

Listen in as Tiffany shares her vision of making lullabies a universal part of every family's life. We explore the profound impact of creating unique lullabies that express parents' hopes and dreams for their children, promoting a sense of connection and beauty. With a global reach and positive social impact, the Lullaby Project continues to spark excitement and foster community connections. We also discuss how local communities can partner with Carnegie Hall to implement the project, highlighting its flexibility and adaptability. We also discuss the unique ways that the Lullaby Project supports STEAM through engineering words to create beautiful memories. What lullabies do you enjoy sharing with your family? Share your stories in the comments.

Check out the Lullaby Project webpage, which includes videos, resources for families, and a map of their partners.

You can also click here to watch the Lullaby Project overview video.

Here is a link to the Lullaby Project SoundCloud page, where you can listen to hundreds of original songs written through the program. 

Here is a link to the 2024 Celebration Concert. 

Here is a link to more information about Big Note, Little Note, Carnegie Hall's early childhood program for caregivers and infants. You can explore songs from the class on their SoundCloud page. 

Get Involved
Interested in starting a lullaby project near you? 
Contact: lullabyproject@carnegiehall.org

Music credit: Ella Schnoor sings "Ella's Boat" -- a lullaby shared in the Schnoor household and adapted by her father, Barry Schnoor, when she was a baby.

Transcript

00:02 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So welcome to the Adventures in Learning podcast. I have a question for you today. Can you remember your first lullaby and do you remember who sang it to you? Today we have Tiffany Ortiz, who is the director of early childhood at Carnegie Hall, here to talk to us about an amazing program they have, and it brings lullabies and STEM and STEAM together. So, tiffany, welcome to the program. Thank you so much for having me. Diane, I'm so excited to have you. So why don't we start by tell us a little bit about the Lullaby Project? What is it? 

00:40 - Tiffany Ortiz (Guest)
Oh well, the Lullaby Project is, in essence, a songwriting project that pairs families, caregivers, with musicians to write a personal lullaby for their baby. So these lullabies express parents' hopes and dreams and wishes for their children, and it's something that is very personal to them, something that they can share with their child and use during some of the more stressful moments of parenting. But really it's a great way for caregivers to connect with their little ones. 

01:11 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So why lullabies? What prompted you all to enter the world of the lullaby? 

01:17 - Tiffany Ortiz (Guest)
It's a great question. So we began this program over 12 years ago and it started through a partnership with a local hospital in New York City with whom we were working with on a range of musical projects. And they actually approached us and said you know, we're working with these young parenting, these young parents who are experiencing stress in a range of ways, and they wondered what role music could play in supporting the well-being of caregivers and that bonding process between parent and child. So what role could music play in supporting that? And we started to have conversations with healthcare staff and some of our teaching artists here at Carnegie Hall and our team here, and we thought about the power of lullabies, which, you know, throughout history lullabies have been used to soothe, to connect, and it seemed like such an organic way to start. But to put a spin on that, what if we invited families to create their own personal lullabies, something that is unique to them and could carry on their stories, their culture and their words? 

02:24 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Well, I love that. And so how did you? I know you guys have branched away from the hospital I mean you haven't left them but the program has exploded and it's so much bigger now than it was when you started 12 years ago with one partnership. Tell us a little bit about where you are today and how people might find this project in their own community. 

02:44 - Tiffany Ortiz (Guest)
That's right. You know, we started this very organically, very small, in response to a community need, and what we found was that it was incredibly intimate and impactful and such a beautiful process with families. And we started to fold this project into different community partnerships that we had across New York City so working across healthcare, working across social services, justice settings, really families, primarily those impacted the most by social inequality, who are experiencing high stress, and offering this as a free and beautiful experience for our community. And it started to just take off and so we expanded across New York. But then we started to establish national and international partnerships. So right now we're operating in over 60 community through community partners across the world who are bringing this program and adapting it to best meet the needs of their own families and their own community. So it's been amazing to see the growth that's happening on an international level and I think it is such a generous network of artistic partners, of social service partners, who are coming together to support this work. 

04:01 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
And you and I met at ACM, the Children's Museum Conference, and one of the things I was so excited about is the idea that children's museums might be becoming part of this as well, because so much of what a children's museum does is to build that idea of playful learning, and we know that it starts at the earliest ages. Can you tell us a little bit about what's cooking with Children's Museums? 

04:31 - Tiffany Ortiz (Guest)
That's right. We are so excited about this new partnership. So we connected with Arthur Affleck at ACM, who shared some of his goals and agendas around the work happening across Children's Museums nationally, and Lullaby seemed like the perfect fit to support our community of children and Lullaby seemed like the perfect fit to support our community of children, to support our community of caregivers, and so we started to brainstorm what this could look like in the context of children's museums. So this season we piloted the work across five different children's museums nationwide and Arthur invited us to share more about this program, to share more about this work at the Interactivity Conference this past May, and now we have close to 50 museums who are interested, who have raised their hands and said, yes, we want to bring this to our own communities. So it's really an evolving project and we're thinking about the ways that we can support museums nationwide to adapt this work to support families. 

05:26 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So what would it look like on the community level if somebody wanted to partner with Carnegie Hall to do the Lullaby Project? What does that look like? 

05:36 - Tiffany Ortiz (Guest)
So typically we ask folks to reach out to us. 

05:40
They can email us very easily at lullabyprojectcarnegyehallorg, and we share our resources and our approach to this work at no cost. 

05:50
We really believe in the power of this and the impact that it has on family life, and so we engage in conversations with anyone who's interested in adapting this work and talking through some of the learnings that we've had, some of the experiences that we've had and methodologies that folks can carry into their communities. 

06:08
But ultimately, our partners are adapting and taking this approach, these materials, and fine-tuning them and making them as responsive as possible to their local needs. And so it's really amazing to see how flexible this program can be, how many models there are, how many different approaches to embedding Lullaby across the nation and the globe. So we really do, we're very generous in sharing the materials that we have our Lullaby journal, how-to guide, et cetera and so we really just stay in touch with our partners as they implement the program and invite them as part of the network, to meet others across the globe who are doing this work as part of webinars, and we do host an annual convening here at Carnegie Hall where we bring in partners to exchange, to be in conversation and to be learning together. 

07:04 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So I'm assuming you've had a chance to be in the room where the lullabies happen. Are there favorite stories that you've taken away from some of those experiences in terms of the process of co-creating a lullaby for a child? 

07:19 - Tiffany Ortiz (Guest)
Oh gosh, there are so many. Um yeah, the process is so intimate. You know this project can take shape in many forms, from a group format to one-on-one intimate sessions, and I've been a part of various sessions. For instance, I was part of a group centering pregnancy program here in New York years ago where we invited women in their third trimester to write love advice for their babies as part of their prenatal care. And it was such a beautiful process where even the nurses got involved and wrote lullabies for all of their patients. And you know we had families who had written these very personal lullabies and then came back in the postpartum session and shared with us that they even played their lullaby during pregnancy to help soothe themselves. So it was this beautiful exchange of different ways in which these songs not only support the bond with their child and and support the child themselves, but also that this is such a meaningful process for caregivers and really these songs become a tool for them to take care of themselves. 

08:29
So I mean there are so many amazing stories from our families. I there's there's no one way to sum them all up, but we do have videos where families have shared their stories directly. We do have concert experiences, where families share, share their experience in the program and how much it has meant to them to be a part of a process like that. It can be very healing, it can be very full of hope and it can help inspire. And so many many parents who I've met might actually say oh, I'm not very comfortable with singing and I'm a little nervous to approach the songwriting process, where I'm creating the words and I'm coming up with musical ideas, and this really allows families to have the agency to bring themselves into the process and to be vulnerable and to make creative decisions that they might not have thought were initially possible. But by the end they're singing and they're creating all these beautiful songs. So it's quite a transformative process. 

09:34 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
That's awesome, and we'll drop some of those links to the videos into the show notes so people can have a chance to see up close what it looks like. You know I was thinking talking that. You know we talk about STEAM and we talk about science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, and in so many ways, creating a lullaby is part of the engineering process. I mean, you're having to look at words. You know, instead of blocks and Legos, you're putting words together, you're putting tunes together and you're engineering something special for you and your child. And you're engineering something special for you and your child. And, of course, we know that music is so totally connected to science in terms of science and math and how we see the world. Do you guys find that people are using this in a STEAM way as well in the communities? 

10:26 - Tiffany Ortiz (Guest)
That is such an interesting analogy because I think creativity could permeate all of those areas and vice versa, and I do think it's such a creative process that it can lend itself to other areas of people's lives, to feel that sense of empowerment and creativity that they can bring in anything. 

10:48
And so, you know, I think we see families who can be very methodological about their approach to writing and others who are less so, and it really truly is a collaboration between them and the musicians. But I would say, first and foremost, it is a creative process and so many of our families who engage see it as that. They see this as an opportunity to take a break from the day to day, to really reflect on their lives and to put that into something that is artistically beautiful and unique to them and very loving. It's such a gift. These songs become a gift that they share with their children, and so you know there might be some out there who might think of it as a useful tool to engage in the brain development of their child, for instance, or who are nerdy enough to get into the science behind the song, but certainly I think that's a subset of the general experience. 

11:51 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Sure, of course I know. With both of our girls we had lullabies. Each one had their own lullaby and they were built off of lullabies that my mother-in-law sang to my husband and he then changed the words and we wound up singing them to our girls and each one had their own. That was they still could sing today, which I love. The idea that this is something that transcends generations, that it's got that intergenerational approach and is a way of bringing families together, even when you're spread all over the country or all over the world. 

12:25 - Tiffany Ortiz (Guest)
Yeah, and I think that A that arts in STEAM is so important to continue to bolster, and so the more we can bring creative experiences for our young ones and for the caregivers to support that bond, that family relationship, but also that creative process is really important. 

12:45 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Oh, absolutely. So I have a question for you. You are the director of early childhood programs at Carnegie Hall. I'm assuming the Lullaby Project is not the only thing on your plate. What else falls under your job description? What else do you do? 

13:01 - Tiffany Ortiz (Guest)
You are so right. Lullaby is our biggest program as we operate locally and internationally, but it really sparked a range of programs that we wanted to invite families to be a part of at the hall. So we have a 10-week music program. It's called Big Dope, little Note and essentially we are going into communities and working with families over the course of 10 weeks to explore the ways in which they bring music into their lives already and the ways in which we can further support that. So, looking at different topics like soothing to play to movement, to brain development and language, etc. To really dig deep with families around how music can become an everyday part of parenting and life. And that's specific to three to 18 month olds and their caregivers, specific to three to 18 month olds and their caregivers, and we partner with libraries. We've partnered with hospitals and other community centers on that work. We also have free programs that happen at Carnegie Hall. 

14:09
So we have our early childhood concerts, which are for newborn to two year olds. They are amazing. So our young ones are really the missing cast members of the show. It's a very interactive experience, um that infuses a lot of different sensory play experiences for our young ones. So, uh, the hall commissions, um, new performances for that space. Uh, we're actually we. We just commissioned one named camille's and we're embarking on a new commission that will premiere next year. Oh fun, yeah. And we also have family days, free family days at the hall, where we activate our entire education wing about six floors of different activities, from concerts to instrument building and art activities, to dance and singing and musical activities. So it's quite the interdisciplinary event and it's usually anchored around a specific theme, so upcoming. This season. We have our Fall Family Day that is celebrating Latin American music and it's called Canta Valle de lainebra and it'll infuse a range of experiences to celebrate our theme next year. And then we have a spring family day that explores all things spring and nature, so it's a celebration of nature. 

15:31 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Oh, that sounds amazing. So I want to back up a little bit and talk about Tiffany. Tell us a little bit about your adventures in learning. How did you wind up at Carnegie Hall? I know the old joke says, how did you get to Carnegie Hall Practice? 

15:47 - Tiffany Ortiz (Guest)
Yes, well, yeah, interestingly, you know, I my roots were in communications and music and I had worked for a short time in radio and really felt like where my heart was with it was within community work. I really wanted to work within the New York community. I'm from New York and I truly believed in the transformative power of music as it had such a meaningful impact on my life, and so I became very interested in social impact work and saw that Carnegie Hall was doing that, and I don't think many people realize the incredible education and social impact work that the hall is leading around our community. And so I became involved in our community-based programming here, which then grew into a specific focus around family programming, grew into a specific focus around family programming, and so I became very interested in family programming more broadly and then got involved in the Lullaby Project, and boy did that change everything for me. 

16:48
So I think it really was just love at first, first lullaby, and it's my love for the program has grown since. 

16:58 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Oh, that's wonderful. 

17:09 - Tiffany Ortiz (Guest)
Well, interestingly, we've met some parents who assumed that every family who brought a new child into the world wrote a lullabyi, and we thought, oh, that's an interesting assumption, and we wonder what would it look like if every family was able to bring a new lullaby into the world? And so we have this big dream, this big aspiration that lullaby could become a part of every family's life, that each family could have something uniquely beautiful to share with their child. So that's our dream, that's our vision for the work, and we're really excited to be in so many conversations globally and to hear about the amazing things that's already happening and how Lullaby can be part of that. 

17:53 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Well, and thank you for sharing the Lullaby Project with us today, as well as the social impact work that the Hall is doing. We'll definitely share contact information in the show notes and I would love to hear lullabies if there are folks listening, the lullabies that you're currently sharing with your own children. So thank you for joining us, tiffany. It has been a delight to have this conversation with you. 

18:15 - Tiffany Ortiz (Guest)
Thank you so much, Diane.