Pete is a registered Music Together^® teacher and co-founder of Hootenanny Art House, along with his partner Kira Smith. He has spent the last twenty years playing music from his native Pennsylvania to his adopted homes of San Francisco and New York City. His musical inspiration ranges from punk rock to country to the blue plastic trumpet inspired jams his daughter Zoe initiates in the morning to wake up the sun. He’s thrilled to be doing a lot more teaching in his Brooklyn neighborhood and looking forward to sharing his guitar strumming passion with new and old friends.

Pete's an active musician singer/songwriter in the NYC area and performs regularly. Check out his music and show schedule at www.petesinjin.com and www.myspace.com/petesinjin

Jennifer Hopkins is a veteran singer and dancer, having performed professionally in musical theater locally and nationally. She is also a dance teacher who has taught ballet tap and jazz to children of all ages.
Her current music and movement muses are her three daughters ages 10, 8 and 4. Jennifer has been teaching music and dance in the Windsor Terrace area for the last twelve years.

Having never quite abandoned the kid in him, Nikolai Moderbacher's enthusiasm in class is usually only superceded by that of a child or two. His earliest memories of music involve sitting on the back of his mother's bike, singing folk songs. He now plays guitar and percussion, dabbles at the ukulele, and has always enjoyed "hammin' it up", as his wife Pyeng kindly puts it.

He discovered his love and talent for making music with children while teaching Bilingual Kindergarten in the Bronx through Teach For America. Ever since then it's been "a moo-moo here and a quack-quack there". This is especially true since Nikolai became a father in March, 2004 to his lovely daughter Luna. Having a child has taught him a great deal about the depth of interaction adults can have with infants and toddlers, particularly through music.

Over the past two years, Nikolai has also completed an MFA degree in Wood/Furniture from California College of the Arts (CCA). Not surprisingly, the concepts of play and experimentation feature prominently in his artwork, echoing the innocence and honesty of children. But, as Nikolai proclaims:"Gallery owner's cheeks usually aren't chubby enough and I can never get them to sing "gaa gaa, goo goo" with the proper spirit!"

Stephen Taylor grew up in Boston, MA and graduated from Middlebury College, VT with a degree in Economics. Besides teaching Music Together for the past five years, he has been blogging and creating music and video which can be seen and heard on his website, www.supergood.org. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two cats.