Home School Music Singing Classes and Choruses 2011-12

We welcome you to our new year of singing wonderful music.  Please email me at anikodebreceny@comcast.net  if you would like to register, including each student's name, age, preferred class/choir, and location, or if you have any questions. 

*  Please be aware that my computer or server is NOT delivering registrations sent from this website.  Please email me directly.  Thank you very much.

If you have any friends or home school co-ops or groups who may be interested in their children joining our classes, please pass this information on to them.  Prospective students and families are most welcome to visit any rehearsals / classes.  

Tuesday : St. Paul's United Methodist Church, room 211, 10401 Armory Avenue, Kensington, MD

12:00-1:00 Solfa, 1:00-2:00 Advanced Solfa, 2:00-3:00 Bardos, 3:00-4:15 I Cantori, starting September 13th, 2011.  This schedule may change, depending on class numbers.  Please note the earlier start time for I Cantori.

Wednesday : Church of the Nazarene – corner of Goshen Rd & Warfield Rd, Gaithersburg, MD  

1:00 - 2:00 Solfa, 2:00 - 3:00 Bardos, 3:15 - 4:30 I Cantori, 4:30 - 5:30 I Voci, starting September 14th, 2011

Friday : Christ United Methodist Church, 5609 Ballenger Creek Pike, Frederick MD

9:30 - 10:30 a.m. Solfa, 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. Advanced Solfa

Friday classes will start one week earlier, on Friday, September 9th.

Dates:   Fall Semester : week beginning September 12, 2011 – week beginning December 19, 2011 (15 weeks).  Classes and rehearsals will  be held the week of Thanksgiving (November 21-25), except in Frederick. Please note that classes start the week after Labor Day week, except in Frederick.

Spring Semester : week beginning January 16, 2012 – week beginning April 30th (15 weeks).

Spring Break will follow Montgomery & Frederick County Schools calendar (April 2-6, 2012).

Snow Make-up Week(s) - beginning May 7, 2012.

Concerts - TBA

Cost:     Tuition is unchanged at $150 per semester for Solfa, Advanced Solfa, Bardos, & I Cantori.  Rent and materials fee is $25 per family, per semester.  A donor supports I Voci with scholarships, and so tuition is $75 per semester.

If you would like to visit classes before registering, the fee is $10 per student for each class, which is deducted from tuition upon registering for the year.

Tuition refunds will not be given after the fourth week of classes.

Students may join the classes at any time during the year, and tuition will be pro-rated.

We continue to offer large family discounts and scholarships.  Please email Miss Aniko directly for further information.   Payment is due in the first week of the semester.  We also offer the option of paying half in the first week, and the remainder in the eighth week of each semester.       

 Information: email Miss Aniko - anikodebreceny@comcast.net, or call 1-301-695-1015.

Registration forms will be available at the first week(s) of classes.  To register,

please email Miss Aniko.  Please do not use the registration form online.

Aniko Debreceny, 1206 North Market Street, Frederick, MD 21701

 Course Descriptions:

In Solfa and Advanced Solfa parents and children learn music together through solfa, a simple method of learning to sing with correct pitch.  Each class includes breathing and vocal exercises, rhythmic activities, movement, general music concepts, using simple hand signs for notes (an excellent kinesthetic activity), and singing a variety of rounds, American folk songs, and original songs based on history, science, and biographies.  Both classes sing songs in other languages - including Italian, French, German, Japanese, Spanish and Latin.  Singers in Advanced Solfa do not need to have participated in Solfa.

Bardos and I Cantori are choruses, rehearsing music from the Renaissance to the twenty first century.  Much of the music is unaccompanied, usually in 3 to 4 parts, and both choruses sing in a number of other languages, including German, French, Latin, and Spanish.  We also learn original curriculum based songs, written and composed by Ms. Debreceny.  Previously we have learned songs about the Renaissance, Homer's Odyssey, the History of Invention, and Physics.  Parents are welcome to join us.

All music is provided.  Please bring a 1" white view binder for each student.  Parents, pre-school siblings and babies attend at no charge. 

More about Solfa

What other home school parents have said about Aniko’s classes:

"Last year my kids took singing class with Aniko Debreceny and loved it.  If you are looking for a way to get your kids singing instruction in a group atmosphere, this is a really good place to go.  Her classes include lots of music terminology and she really gets them singing in pitch and together.  She works on diction, too, which I really think many music teachers don't do anymore.  Her songs are always from all over the globe and she appeals to the home schooler's tendency to dig deeper and learn the history and context of the songs.  She has lived all over the world and often peppers her instruction with anecdotes about life and culture in other countries.

We found this class was a great complement to our instrumental instruction.

After class people often stay and play together and chat outside, so we made some lasting friendships here which was very nice." Allison Gillespie, MD 2010

"I see a big difference in my daughter's musical abilities since we started your class. She is starting to search for harmonies when we sing and she is much more confident when singing parts." Laura Hoffman, MD, 2011

"I just want to say how much we're enjoying your classes, thanks to you we're singing all the time now.  I've always wanted to be the kind of family that sang in the car and learned to sing harmony with each other, but it's just never happened.  Now we're singing in our homeschool, singing in the car, singing everywhere, and enjoying singing rounds, which is the beginning of harmony."  Rachel Merrill, VA 2010

"The children are really enjoying singing, as usual.  The singing binders are their one treasured binder from each year - I am not allowed to file them away with the rest of their school.  They like to take them in the van when we travel, and they like to refer to them when we are learning something that they already had learned in one of your songs!" Janet Segui, MD 2010

"When my daughter and I enrolled in Aniko's solfa class, little did we know that we'd be getting much more than do-re-mi. Aniko incorporates many elements of music education into her class - rhythm, singing, ear training, sight singing, movement. But that's not all. Aniko takes the children on big adventures in social studies. Whether learning cowboy songs of the Old West or slave songs of the South, the children think and talk about history, geography, and the everyday lives of people in other places and times. By intertwining the melodies, words, and discussions with the children's imaginations, Aniko brings history to life through song. It is a most marvelous way for the children to learn." -Lila Turner, MD  2005

"My friends who have their children enrolled in your classes because of my glowing reports are ALL so glad they did!  They came in with high expectations...  and you met and exceeded them."  Beth Riddlesberger, MD 2007

"Thank you very much for the wonderful music experiences Sebastian (6 years old) had with you this year.  Mid-year, for example, he had me singing in parts with him as we drove along on the Beltway in afternoon traffic..."  Susanne Wiggins, MD 2007

"I've been to many children's chorus concerts but never walked away with the feeling I got from this one!  This was the very first time for me to successfully perform on stage.  Thank you for giving me a positive experience.  This was also a first for my son.  This time he really enjoyed himself.  He was singing his little heart out.  Thank you!"  Martha O'Hanlon, MD 2007

"Just wanted to say thanks, Aniko, for the wonderful musical experience you have given our beloved boys (ages 13 and 9) over the past five years. As a public school music teacher, I especially appreciate the high level of musical excellence that all your groups achieve. I am amazed at the apparent ease with which your i Cantori and i Voci groups perform extremely sophisticated and complex vocal arrangements. Many college level music students only wish they could sing with a group such as this.
As wonderful as your concerts have been, the best part for me was observing these kids after the concert was over. Seeing them continue to sing out in the lobby or even out the door into the parking lot, to initiate favorite songs all by themselves, is truly a testament to their love for singing. Obviously this has been cultivated by your fine teaching and by your establishment of a wonderful environment in which this can happen. Nothing makes a music teacher happier than seeing kids experience and enjoy music to such a degree.  I can't wait to see what the future holds for these groups, and, for these students. Thanks again for your commitment and fine teaching."  Steve Sinni
Music Teacher at Montgomery Knolls Elementary School
Silver Spring, MD (Montgomery County Public Schools) 2005

"I knew our (six year old) daughter was really paying attention in your class when one afternoon as we were driving and listening to the radio she said, "Mom, can you change the station please? That song is way too minor!". Thank you for increasing my child's musical vocabulary and helping her develop a discerning ear."       Barbara Dashiell, MD  2005

"When my older children (Joshua and Madelyn) were babies, I heard a children's chorus in Utah sing that was just heavenly. The children had learned to use their voices correctly and the pure clear sound was truly artistic. Ever since then, I've kept in the back of my mind the desire to find a good children's chorus for my kids some day. In the small town I grew up in, the only non-school chorus that I was aware of was a show choir. I don't have anything against "show choirs," but the kids just yelled, and it wasn't a pretty sound. So I've been keeping my eye out for a good children's chorus, and I'm happy to say I've found one! My only concern was that I was the one who wanted them to do the chorus, because I wanted my kids to learn to sing with a beautiful tone, and I knew Madelyn would love it, but I knew I'd have to do some selling with Joshua. You made that easy, because they were both instantly sold! They absolutely loved it from day one!

Also, I want to tell you that from a musician's standpoint, I'm very impressed as well. I have a master's in violin performance and pedagogy, and although I'm not a singer, I have thought before that I should spend some time teaching my children to sing. (Don't laugh, because if you've listened to me sing at all, you'll know I'm not good, but I know a few basics for trying to help my children, and my mother was an elementary school music teacher, so we grew up singing a lot of the songs that you teach). First of all, I never was getting to teaching them singing, so for that I'm grateful for your class, but secondly (and I know this is obvious, because you are trained to do this) you do such a better job than I could ever do, not just because I'm not a singing teacher, but because you are one of the most skilled teachers that I've ever observed. You have such good classroom management skills, cover so many important musical concepts, teach history along with it, use every minute to the best advantage, have a predictable routine that the kids become used to and anticipate, and make it all fun! I can't imagine a childhood music program any better! Anyway, that was long, but though I have meant to, I have never taken the time to tell you before how much we appreciate you! I also appreciate your making it affordable and easy to come."     SaraLyn Baxter, MD  2005
“My family sings all the time … now music fills our home, our car, our outdoors.” Ginny Wilcox, VA

"All of your rhythm and clapping and singing games have been a help to my boys' coordination, and I think, to reading too!"                                                                                                 Nancy Rooker, VA

“… The most deliberately delightful music instruction I have ever experienced.  My kids don’t fight in the car any more.  We sing.”                                                                                                           Jacintha Mezzetti, MD

“Your music has been one of the biggest benefits of home schooling.”               Lorrie Fry, VA

“This instilled a love for music in Rachel that will last a lifetime.”     Kathy Tucker, MD

More about Ms Debreceny  

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Have a question? anikodebreceny@comcast.net