Emily Casey (she/her)

Emily is the director of Hootenanny and a local mama. She teaches Music Together, private lessons, Kids Choir and Guitar for grown ups. Emily likes to bring a light hearted and casual approach to learning music and feels like she’s less of a teacher and more of a permission slip giver for folks to express the unique music that already lives within them. In this spirit, Emily likes to keep any instruction in the spirit of "living room learning"-- educational but low pressure, accessible and most importantly, joyful.

Emily holds a BA in Theatre from Hope College where she also studied voice, played a lot of guitar and made a ton of mix CDs. She was raised taking piano lessons, violin lessons and after-dinner guitar lessons from her Dad. You can find song of Emily’s original music on Spotify under the name Wind and the Why.

Emily is also an actor, writer and songwriter- she can’t wait to make some music together with you!

Stephen Taylor (he/him)

Stephen Taylor grew up listening to Sesame Street Jamboree records in Newton, Massachusetts and played in bands at Milton Academy and Middleburg College. He has been teaching Music Together since 2002 and has taught music at Poly Prep Lower School since 2007. He now lives in Kensington and loves making music with you and your family.

Carolina Lamiell (she/her/Ella)

Carolina Lamiell is a Chilean educator and artist based in Brooklyn. She has nearly 15 years of experience educating children and adolescents. She holds bachelor's degrees in education and history. 

Once she moved to New York, she worked as a Spanish tutor and caregiver, which led her to develop her interest in early childhood education. In 2021, Carolina joined Nido Forest as an outdoor educator, where she worked with children learning Spanish through nature exploration and free play. 

She is also a musician and singer and has applied her musical knowledge in the classroom from the beginning of her career. Currently, Carolina is part of the Urban Stages Outreach Program, which tours admission-free educational plays and workshops to libraries throughout all five boroughs of New York City in multiple languages. Through it, she has co-led Brainy Babies and led the Multilingual Storytime series in various branches of the Brooklyn Public Library.

In 2023, Carolina created Música y Canciones Para Grandes y Peques, a program where she offers Spanish immersion music classes for babies, toddlers, and their accompanying adults at Mi Centro BK in Bed-Stuy and at The Collective Kind in Park Slope. The same year, she got certified as a Canta y Baila Conmigo® instructor, which consists of interactive classes where children and caregivers can learn music and Spanish naturally and organically.

As an immigrant and Latina, Carolina is proud to contribute her knowledge and love of teaching meaningfully to the community of Brooklyn, where she has found a home and raised her family. https://www.instagram.com/musica_grandesypeques

Sarah Slipp

Sarah Slipp is a composer, orchestrator, and music teacher from New Brunswick, Canada. She earned a Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance and Composition from Acadia University in 2022 and graduated from NYU Tisch in May, where she earned her MFA in Musical Theatre Composition. Sarah has been working with kids for the past ten years and feels she has found her calling in teaching music, as it allows her to combine her love of working with children with her passion for the arts. Sarah prioritizes getting to know each student she teaches and aims to tailor each lesson to their unique strengths and interests. She loves learning about her student’s favorite songs or musical genres so that she can incorporate something that they love into their lesson, and use it to help challenge them to set attainable and exciting goals.