By the age of 7, kids can pick out everything — from African drums to opera.

It’s one of the benefits of Kindermusik with Suzanne, an award-winning programme for children that started here 23 years ago.

Instructor Suzanne Dunkerley has introduced more than 1,000 youngsters to music through her classes.

“Some families have been involved in Kindermusik with Suzanne for many years as successive siblings are enrolled,” said Mrs Dunkerley, who estimates that between 100 and 125 families enrol each year. “Before I started keeping computer records about 15 years ago, I had already taught several hundred students. I now have over 1,200 children in the computer records. It’s nice to look at what they are doing as they get older.

“I read in the paper that Philip Hagen was [bowman with Bermuda’s Red Bull Youth America’s Cup team] and he did Kindermusik; Gabriel Jones, who is currently co-leader of the Menuhin Foundation Youth Orchestra, started Kindermusik when he was 6 weeks old. I’m not saying it’s because they were involved with Kindermusik that any of that happened but for many, Kindermusik is the beginning. Some carry on with music but others develop in other areas. It’s fun to see what children I taught when they were little have gone on to become.”

The music and movement programme was created by Kindermusik International 39 years ago. Children are separated according to age, with classes designed for newborns through age 7.

“Although it says music and movement, they learn so much more: social skills, pre maths, pre reading, working in groups, turn taking and sharing,” Mrs Dunkerley said. “The groups are fairly small and the great thing is they get to do it with their parents. Basically, everything they do is learning through play and we have materials they can also do at home — books, CDs, instruments, downloadable books. It’s not just 45 minutes of music in class per week.”

The former Menuhin Foundation violin teacher discovered the programme after the birth of her daughter in 1992.

“After maternity leave, I transitioned into part-time violin teaching. As Elizabeth got older, we met regularly with a group of other mums and their toddlers and they asked me to do some ad hoc music activities with them. At the same time, a friend mentioned the possibility of Kindermusik being appropriate for this age. I trained as a Kindermusik teacher in the US over two consecutive summers from 1995, and became fully licensed in all the age ranges — from newborn to 7 years.

“I was immediately attracted to Kindermusik’s approach to teaching. It is process and not performance-orientated and respects each child’s developmental stage. Apart from that, it is also a lot of fun. I see many ‘aha’ moments as they get older and start to understand concepts. I watch preschoolers ‘invent’ instruments and school-aged children start to play ‘real’ instruments and then read and compose music. I started out teaching Kindermusik for a small group of friends under the auspices of the Menuhin Foundation but as my programme began to expand I realised that I couldn’t teach both Kindermusik and violin and after some years I stopped teaching the violin.”

Although some preschools offer a version of Kindermusik, her studio at Centenary United Methodist Church’s Stevenson Hall is the only one the island. For the past 15 years it’s also been one of a relative handful around the world to receive the Kindermusik Maestro Award.

“You have to be a licensed Kindermusik educator to teach Kindermusik,” Mrs Dunkerley said. “There are quite strict requirements as to what’s involved and the Kindermusik Maestro Award is given to the top five per cent of the 5,000 or so Kindermusik programmes worldwide, based on the size of the programme and anonymised customer feedback.

“They really do keep on top of child development through research; they constantly upgrade their materials and give ongoing training to teachers. It exposes children to such a variety of music — the glockenspiel, the dulcimer — and they learn music of different cultures from around the world. It helps them learn to listen and, as they get older, they learn to discern between instruments and different styles of music.”

Growing demand led her to look for another teacher to join her studio this year. She encouraged one of her past violin students, Jennie Foster Skelton, to get involved.

“We want to open up to as many children as possible,” Mrs Dunkerley said. “If people look on our website and find classes are not currently available they should still contact us. Now with two teachers, we have the option to open time slots where physically, I couldn’t do it before.”

Added Mrs Foster Skelton: “I loved Kindermusik for my children. My son started at 18 months and my daughter did it from birth. It was so valuable for them, just having the consistency. My daughter is now 5 and in the oldest group. Before, Suzanne didn’t offer classes for 5-7 year olds who were not home-schooled really, during the day. Suzanne put a bug in my ear — ever thought of becoming a teacher? And I started the process. If I can take some morning classes it gives Suzanne the opportunity to offer after-school classes. It’s a well-thought-out programme and there’s lot of different styles of music. It teaches children to recognise everything from African drumming to the Queen of the Night.”

While the younger children attend with an adult, the curriculum changes for those three and older, Mrs Dunkerley said.

“Our older ages are in drop-off classes where the parents or caregivers attend for the last 15 minutes. The children have take-home activities, some of which include discovering and making instruments and then bringing them back to class to share. The 5-7 year olds make, and learn to play, a specially crafted simple dulcimer.

“Looking back over the years, it’s not just the child that’s had fun. We had a great-grandmother who was [about] 87 when she first came to class. She would come into class and participate with the children, playing the instruments and even shimmying — all while sitting down. Unfortunately, she passed away this Easter. You tend to think Kindermusik is for little children, really it’s for any age. Children attend with mums, dads, grandparents and caregivers. They have as much fun as the children.”

•Learn more: 232-0292, suzanne@kindermusikwithsuzanne.com or www.kindermusikwithsuzanne.com