About Maria

Hi, I'm Maria Alley. I've been teaching children, including those with developmental issues and special needs, for many years. I have — and other people confirm this — developed a special rapport with children through music.

I was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. I attended the Halifax School for the Blind where my musical training began at the age of 6 years. Throughout my childhood I took classical piano lessons, and played in those famous concerts twice a year along with my fellow students.

While raising two boys, I went to Dalhousie University and earned a Bachelor of Music degree with a major in guitar, and also worked as a music instructor at The Atlantic Provinces Resource Center for the Visually Impaired. During my time at this school, I taught guitar, bass and vocals, working with the students to form small folk groups whose performances included school recitals, variety shows and talent competitions. Travelling through the intricacies of teaching students with special needs was both enlightening and rewarding.

After graduating from Dalhousie in 1991, I began a music program for young children called DO RE ME AND MARIA which I offered to local daycares and preschools in the Halifax/Dartmouth area. I developed and compiled the material for World Music and Rhythm Talk throughout the 1990’s as I worked with the preschool children, discovering their favorite activities and utilizing this knowledge of their play to teach them some of the basic musical concepts necessary for good musicianship.

The children loved the classes so much that I decided to gather all of the material I had used with the children and package it up in the form of a curriculum guide and 6 CD set so that every person interested in the musical education of their children would have the tools to run my program. All of the lesson plans found in the book are facilitated by this CD package.

I'm still teaching this preschool music curriculum at Grace Note Preschool, Play to Learn Daycare and Preschool and Armbrae Academy in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

I've also been actively involved in the Halifax musical community, performing in bands. Lately I've been recording music for children with my musical friends, and my CDs and MP3s are available on this web site.

I welcome your inquiries about DO RE ME AND MARIA.