Teaching Trio Lets Loose Through Song
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Three city teachers are making music outside their classrooms and getting lots of high marks along the way. NY1's Stephanie Simon filed the following report.The three lovely ladies of "Jessie Murphy in the Woods" are all music teachers in New York City. Jessie Murphy teaches preschool, Marcia Wood teaches kindergarten through fifth in the Bronx and Amy Wood teaches pre-K through fifth in Brooklyn.
"Marcia and I talk about the fact that they probably don't think that we exist outside of the classroom," Murphy said. "They probably think that we sleep in there and that we have our holidays and all that stuff so it's not really that big of a deal for them but sometimes they've told me that I was a rock star, just of their own volition, you know, without any prompting."
"If they ask what I do outside of school I say I am in a band and they sort of have this fantasy image of you being a rock star or whatever, especially the little ones. I just let them daydream and imagine what they will," Wood said.
The trio met during graduate school at Columbia's Teacher College where they were all getting their masters in music education.
They've been band mates for about two years now playing their enchanting blend of classical instruments and pop style. Their new CD "Eight Belles" is being released on April 20th with a kick off show at Webster Hall on April 16th.
All three say spending time with children helps with their music and performance.
"There are so many elements of being in this band that have helped me in my teaching and vice versa. The whimsy, the fantasy of kind of being kids again, I think plays into our music which is fun and I am around kids from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. everyday so when I go to rehearsal at five, that doesn't just go away," Wood said.
"Jessie Murphy in the Woods" definitely has its own sound and of course, its own look.
"We wanted two things, we wanted a uniform that we didn't have to think about too much and we could always put on and just have. And we also wanted sort of an outfit that was emblematic of the whimsical and outsider element of our music, so tutus sounded pretty good," Murphy said.
"It's easy, you don't have to iron it, everybody loves to wear tulle, who doesn't want to wear a tutu?" Wood said.
For more information on "Jessie Murphy in the Woods," visit jessiemurphyinthewoods.com.