For Marla Lewis, music is a way of life. She began singing as soon as she learned to talk! At the age of 3, she sang on a national radio talent show called, “Live Like a Millionaire”. She started piano lessons at the age of 5 and guitar a few years later.
As a child, Marla loved to sing songs in many languages from around the world. Her mother, also a singer, introduced her to jazz, Dixieland, and opera. Marla also fell in love with folk and pop music. She wrote her first song at the age of 12, entitled, “Hopeless Love.” It still makes her friends chuckle.
Today, when kids hear Marla's songs, they say:
"Can we hear that AGAIN??"
For several decades, Marla sang and played guitar on the college and coffee house circuit. Twenty years ago, Marla began teaching Music and English as a Second Language to elementary school children in the Bronx. She also began writing songs for children and performing her lively family concerts in libraries and Parks throughout the New York City area.
She has also conducted numerous Music and Literacy workshops for teachers throughout the Tri-state area. Participants in her workshops rave: "Marla has inspired me to begin to use music across the curriculum in my classroom."
To date, Marla Has released two CD's for children on her record label, PlumJuice. The most recent, titled, "I Love to Talk to Plants," released in October or 2007, embraces Brazilian, African, Big Band, and Country influences, and more! Many of her songs are inspired by children's picture books. This CD has already onw the National Parenting Center's Seal of Approval.
"We All Laugh in the Same Language," her first release, is an upbeat CD that celebrates positive values, love of learning, and cultural diversity. True to her childhood tradition, her songs embrace a great variety of styles, from Dixieland to Chinese to Hawaiian, and more. In addition, We All Laugh has won numerous national and international awards, including Parents’ Choice and NAPPA Gold.
Marla also loves to write children’s musicals and children’s books. She feels very privileged to be able to educate children through her songs and says that teaching inspires her music, as music inspires her teaching.
