St. Pete is celebrated for its fabulous weather, beautiful vistas, world-class food scene, and thriving cultural atmosphere—but the people of St. Pete truly make this city something special. In appreciation, each month Green Bench Monthly shines a light on one of the many people that makes St. Pete unique.
Colleen McGrath Lilley is on center stage this month. As a former professional opera singer, she is accustomed to the spotlight, but it wasn’t her New York City theater career that caught our attention. Instead, it’s her work as director of St. Petersburg’s Music & Me that makes her one of the community’s shining stars.
All the World’s a Stage
Lilley has always loved music. Her family supported and encouraged her passion as she made her way from childhood piano and voice lessons to undergraduate work at Carnegie Mellon and a graduate degree from the Boston Conservatory. Afterward, she headed to New York City, where she worked steadily as a professional opera singer for nearly a decade. In 2008, theater companies were hit hard by the Great Recession, and she decided it was time to rethink her future. How could she leave the stage and not her love for music?
From the Stage to the Classroom
The answer was to keep the music at center stage by channeling her passion into teaching. She chose to train with the highly regarded Music Together® early-childhood development program, which is committed to the importance of making music “in a meaningful way.” After certification, she taught for a year in Berlin before returning to the United States. Wanting to continue her work, she investigated recommended sites for opening a new school. In 2010, she relocated to St. Petersburg and opened Music & Me.
I’ve Got the Music in Me … And So Do YOU!
Lilley has always believed that “all people are born musical.” Not everyone has the same abilities, but we all can achieve “music.” And Photo by Kelly Nash Photography science proves that making music (especially in those all-important pre-K formative years) has numerous positive effects by contributing to cognitive, social, and motor skills development. Children learn differently than adults. They “learn instinctively and constantly” and “through imitation and play” with each other and with adults and older children. As the director of and teacher for Music & Me, Lilley endeavors to support both the science and the fun of learning by creating a “merry and meaningful play-based music program for young children and their grownups.” Happily, St. Petersburg has embraced both her and her mission to bring music to children and their families.
Building Community
Lilley and her husband, Ted, met as performers at a concert to benefit Community Action Stops Abuse (CASA). Now, the couple and their 4-year-old daughter, Marlo, also are part of the Music & Me community as students. Lilley is energetic about building community through music. To thank St. Petersburg for supporting the endeavor, every month (from October through May), Music & Me offers a free community program designed to unite people through music. You can Sing & Stroll with your family at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve or Sip & Sing at Cage Brewery.
For details see musicandmellc.com/workshops-events.html
