Bringing music to little ears

Chevy Chase woman earns Sapphire Award

Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006

Lisa Flaxman started searching for music lessons for her son when he was just 6 months old.

Babies learn by sensory intake, the Chevy Chase resident said, and ‘‘music does play a very important role in child development starting at birth.”

Flaxman found that people teaching music education had the academic background, but lacked the ability to go into the children’s world and interact with them.

‘‘You really need to be able to project yourself into their universe,” she said.

Since she could not find a class that provided the type of age-appropriate musical experience she was looking for, Flaxman created it.

She left behind her career as an attorney in 1998 to found musiKids, an interactive music program for infants and children up to 5 years old.

Women Business Owners of Montgomery County recognized Flaxman’s business savvy at its 10th annual gala on Thursday. She was given the organization’s first ever Sapphire Award, which is presented to a county entrepreneur not only with a proven successful business history, but who has initiated philanthropic efforts in her community and provided opportunities for further community service through her organization.

In 2006, Flaxman, a breast cancer survivor, established a charitable component called musiKares that brings donated CDs and CD players to patients at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University.

Flaxman is also a trained pianist and professional singer who has performed with the Washington Chorus and is a member of the Temple Sinai chorus. With that background, she combined two key elements she was looking for in music education for her own children — an academic type of framework with a dynamic, fun approach to teaching, she said.

Classes were initially held in Flaxman’s home. After almost five months, her six-student class grew to 50 students in five classes, ‘‘and my neighbors were not happy,” she said.

‘‘I had a great idea, but I didn’t know that it would grow so quickly,” Flaxman said.

She then moved the program to a rented room in a local church, and continued to expand until she opened her own studio less than three years ago. MusiKids now has three locations — Bethesda, Washington and most recently Rockville — that serve 450 students a week.

Participation from parents and caregivers is also an important part of the class, Flaxman said, because children observe the adults and model their behavior.

Music is one of the enjoyable ways we can get children to focus, listen and pay attention, Flaxman said.