Wendy Snell is a former Kindergarten teacher with a Master’s in Early Childhood Education. She has taught music, movement, and dance to babies, toddlers, and preschoolers for more than two decades and, in 2012, received intensive training in the internationally recognized early childhood music and movement program, Music Together®.

Her love for dance started at the age of 3 in Ms. Wilhite’s Creative Movement class. She remembers the thrill of Ms.Wilhite choosing her jacket as the “pond” for the class to leap over. She remembers the triumph of first clearing that pond. From then on, she was a dancer. She danced in class, but she also danced in her kitchen, her living room, her dining room, her hallways, her bedroom, and on stage.

As a dance major, she danced through most of college, until she decided that she wanted a more balanced life, one that would include kids. Not long after graduating from the University of Iowa, she received a Masters in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College in New York and taught kindergarten for six years before starting a family. For the past ten years, it has been her great joy to teach and direct for the best early childhood music and movement program in the world!​​

Kenya Engram always knew that all she really wanted to do in life was play music and help people. Music therapy was the perfect opportunity to do both! So, following her dream to use music to help seniors and parents-to-be, Kenya became a licensed and board-certified music therapist in 2010. She holds both a bachelor's (BS) and a master's (MMT) in Music Therapy and is trained in both Sound Birthing Music Therapy Assisted Childbirth and Sound Birthing Postpartum Music Therapy. She's passionate about supporting and inspiring moms and dads to have the birth they want. She loves helping new parents learn how to bond and form attachments with their new little ones through music therapy. She's equally passionate about using music and movement to help rehabilitate seniors, to help them maintain their quality of life, and to help them age with vitality and grace. In addition to sharing her special gifts with Music Together of Decatur, Kenya launched her private practice, Nurturing Notes Music Therapy, in 2016. Kenya has been a certified Music Together teacher since 2011.

Lauren Bock is a music educator based in Decatur. She completed the Music Together teacher training in 2006 and has taught MT classes for five years in New York as well as Atlanta. Since 2014, Lauren has offered private ukulele and guitar instruction through her own small business, Rock with Bock, which is a big hit with the kids of Intown Atlanta and Decatur! She holds a Bachelors degree in music and education from Hampshire College and a Child Development Associate early childhood education credential. Lauren lives in Medlock Park with her husband Jesse and her children, Lucey Rose and Hattie. They enjoy Sacred Harp singing together.   

Christen Warner grew up in a very musical home where singing, piano playing, dancing to the radio, and listening to records (yup-- vinyl-- the good ol’ days) was the norm. 

There was never an age when she was not participating in church choirs, school choruses and chorales, and even youth handbells, with private piano lessons on the side starting in Kindergarten and continuing through late high school.

She graduated from Oglethorpe University as a French major and then joined the Oglethorpe library staff before becoming a full-time mom of three kids for over 20 years. Nurturing them, soothing them, and bonding with them through music has filled her heart with great joy, and now, she gets to share this love of music with her 3-year-old granddaughter. When we hear music, our feet start tapping and our hands start clapping because it’s in our souls! Christen can’t wait to delight in making a joyful noise together with many more young ones and their families!

Wendy Melkonian was raised in Sandy Springs and has lived in Atlanta most of her adult life. She trained with and taught Music Together for a few years a couple decades ago before teaching for another children’s music program for 9 years. Wendy is also a professional actor/singer, writer, and director. She has a B.S. from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Music degree from The Boston Conservatory in vocal performance. She’s thrilled to be joining the Music Together of Decatur family and equally thrilled to have the privilege of being part of your child’s life.

Long-time Music Together Teacher/Director Gail Burnett is committed to helping ALL young children get moving and active for the benefit of their physical, emotional, and cognitive development. Miss Gail’s Atlanta-based band, Miss Gail and the Jumpin’ Jam Band, is highly sought after for their interactive jumpin’, dancing, wiggling music shows at events, schools and venues; her original music has received Teacher's and Parent's Choice awards and is used in many schools as part of their early childhood curriculum.

Gail is also a Teacher Trainer on the subject of Early Childhood Music/Movement, early childhood music brain development, and using music effectively in the classroom at conferences such as NAEYC and its state affiliates. She co-authored a textbook, Enhancing Brain Development in Infants and Young Children: Strategies for Caregivers and Educators (College Teachers Press, September 2020) and was awarded a spot on the Georgia Council For the Arts Teaching Artists Registry in 2020.

She’s excited to share her passion with Music Together of Decatur families this summer!

In class and at home, the real teachers are the parents and caregivers! Children are biologically wired to respond best to the model of the people with whom they have a bond of attachment.

Wendy Snell will teach the first three weeks of this class; Lauren Bock will teach the last three weeks of this class.