Beloved kids’ musician Laurie Berkner combines her signature playfulness, catchy melodies, and compelling vocal artistry with lyrics by veteran preschool music specialist Pam Gittleman on Laurie Berkner Sings Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times. This new EP offers a fresh, whimsical, and tender take on classic nursery rhymes and is set for release on August 30, 2024.

 

“I loved many of the nursery rhymes I heard when I was young, but I often didn’t understand them,” says Laurie Berkner, “and I always wished there were music that accompanied the rhyming words. Pam Gittleman, with her wonderful idea of creating Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times®, has rewritten these rhymes to make them more relatable for children and uses them to teach many of the same values that I try to put into my original songs. Working with everyone at Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times® and creating music to go with Pam’s thoughtful, updated lyrics has been a true pleasure.”

 

Pam Gittleman, a 2020 Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow and preschool music teacher of more than 25 years, noticed over time that her young students were increasingly unfamiliar with traditional nursery rhymes. “It came as no surprise that young parents, teachers, and caregivers were avoiding these rhymes because so many of them are dark, inappropriate, and outdated for today’s children,” she says. 

 

And so, Gittleman sought to provide an alternative for younger generations by revitalizing classic rhymes with updated lyrics that not only nurture kindness, empathy, and gratitude, but also promote a sense of caring and compassion to support social and emotional intelligence in a developmentally appropriate way.

 

“While you’ll recognize many of the beloved characters from traditional nursery rhymes, these are not the same rhymes that our parents and grandparents recited,” Gittleman explains. “Rather than ‘Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater,’ who keeps his wife locked away in a pumpkin shell, our Peter is a pickle eater who loves to share his pickles with his sister. In the traditional ‘Tom Tom the Piper’s Son,’ Tom steals a pig and eats it! In our version, Tom is a plumber’s son who runs off to play with a pipe that his dad needs to fix a leak. Once Tom realizes his mistake, he returns it and apologizes. Instead of a butcher, baker, and candlestick maker, our ‘Rub A Dub Dub’ has four rubber ducks swimming together happily in a bathtub. When one falls out, the child in the tub puts it back in the water ‘to swim with its friends once more!’”

 

Having received enthusiastic feedback from her students, their parents, and her fellow educators, Gittleman was eager to share her work at a wider level, and she had a group of ideal creative partners in mind. In 2022, she joined forces with acclaimed children’s musician Raffi and his colleague, Lindsay Munroe, to create the first Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times album. Also on her “dream team” list was children’s music legend, Laurie Berkner. “When I think of nursery rhymes, I think of stories that have a musicality to them mixed with a touch of whimsy to engage children in a fun and sometimes silly way,” she explains.  “When I think of Laurie Berkner, I think of a performer who engages children in the same way, with a combination of great music, whimsical stories, and a touch of silliness to create the kind of fun, joyful experience that children and adults really appreciate. Knowing that Laurie connects with her young fans in such a meaningful way motivated me to reach out to her. Collaborating with Laurie and her team has been a dream come true!”

 

Of special note on Laurie Berkner Sings Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times are performances by master Broadway instrumentalists Tony Kadleck (trumpet, piccolo trumpet) and David Mann (saxophone, piccolo).  Tony Kadleck, who currently plays first trumpet and flugelhorn in the Broadway production of MJ The Musical, has been heard on Broadway in Beauty and the Beast, Funny Girl, Little Shop of Horrors, Little Women, On the Twentieth Century, Gypsy, Shrek the Musical, Aladdin, Honeymoon in Vegas, Amazing Grace, Frozen, and more. David Mann performed on the Tony Bennet/Lady Gaga album, Love for Sale, and has played woodwinds/reeds in Broadway orchestras for Linda Eder at the Gershwin, Hairspray, Jesus Christ Superstar, Jekyll & Hyde, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, and more.

 

ABOUT LAURIE BERKNER:

Recognized as “the queen of kids’ music” by People magazine, Laurie Berkner is a singer, songwriter, lyricist, author, and founder of Two Tomatoes Records, LLC. With more than 1 billion total streams, an average of more than 22 million monthly streams, nearly 450 million YouTube channel views, and millions of albums, songs, and DVDs sold, Laurie’s songs have become beloved classics for children worldwide.

 

Business Insider dubbed Laurie “the gold standard of the children’s music world.” As a leader and innovator in children’s music and entertainment for more than 25 years, Laurie has released 15 bestselling, award-winning albums, was the first recording artist to ever appear in music videos on Noggin, appeared regularly on the network’s Jack’s Big Music Show, and helped develop the short form animated musical preschool series Sing It, Laurie! on Sprout TV, now Universal Kids,

 

Laurie has authored several picture books based on her songs and has created two Laurie Berkner’s Song and Story Kitchen series with Audible Studios, who released them as 10-chapter audio books through the Audible Originals brand. She has written the music and lyrics for three children’s musicals originally produced Off-Broadway by New York City Children’s Theater and now presented regionally. Laurie has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the White House, among many other prestigious venues.

 

What sets Laurie apart? She displays an instinctive understanding of children’s natural rhythms and energy, which keeps kids enraptured and brings parents and caregivers happily along for the ride.  Laurie finds inspiration in her audience.  “I want to create songs that matter for children,” she says.  “I was singing once and saw a four-year-old girl shut her eyes and start swaying to the music.  I thought, ‘That’s the reason I got into music.’  It keeps me wanting to do more.”

 

Laurie Berkner has received tremendous critical acclaim. USA Today named Laurie “the undisputed queen of kindie rock.” The New York Times dubbed her “the Adele of the preschool crowd.” The Wall Street Journal called Laurie “one of the most popular children’s performers in America … her music is distinctive because it speaks to kids without talking down to them, charming youngsters without boring grownups.” NPR’s All Things Considered declared, “Laurie Berkner is like a goddess to these children.”