Music Mavens transports readers around the world (and beyond)--to a jazz performance in Genoa, an instrument lab in London, a Tokyo taiko dojo, a New York City beatbox battle, and a film scoring session aboard the Starship Enterprise, to name a few. Along the way, it spotlights artists whose work spans musical genres and industry roles, including composing and songwriting, performing and conducting, audio engineering, producing, and rock photography. In Music Mavens, 15 extraordinary women reveal how they turned their passions into platforms and how they use their power to uplift others. Their musical resumes will inspire, but the way each artist lives her life is the real story.
Available for pre-order at IndieBound, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and most Independent Bookstores.
Music Mavens transports readers around the world (and beyond)--to a jazz performance in Genoa, an instrument lab in London, a Tokyo taiko dojo, a New York City beatbox battle, and a film scoring session aboard the Starship Enterprise, to name a few. Along the way, it spotlights artists whose work spans musical genres and industry roles, including composing and songwriting, performing and conducting, audio engineering, producing, and rock photography. In Music Mavens, extraordinary women reveal how they turned their passions into platforms and how they use their positions to uplift others.
Praise for Music Mavens...
"Overall effect is a rich and inspiring mix of talent and career directions...high-interest volume with educational value."—Booklist
"Role models for young people are vital. Music Mavens takes inspiring role models and blends their triumphs and challenges into pathways that set a musically interested young person on their journey with a sense of hope—and some very pragmatic life lessons along the way." —Mitch Glickman, Symphonic Jazz Orchestra
"What an amazing resource for young people of any identifying gender to learn about the pathways and possibilities of the music industry. All aspects of the industry are embodied in these stories, revealing the nuance of the craft, reaching beyond the stories of fame we too often hear about in mainstream media. Youth can read one chapter or the whole book and be inspired and educated." —Jennifer Carroll, Inner-City Arts
Amazon #1 New Release in Teen and YA Performing Arts
As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, “Music is the universal language of mankind.” It has been compared to breath, to life, and is generally understood as something mankind simply cannot be without. In celebration of this universal language and amazing women who contribute to it, VCFA alums Ashley Walker and Maureen Charles combined forces to give young audiences everywhere an all new biography collection, Music Mavens: 15 Women of Note in the Industry. Interviewer Ceredwyn Bagley invites readers to learn more about this amazing new book and the authors who co-wrote it!
"A terrific surprise—nonfiction that reads like a page-turner...Highly
recommended for general reading enjoyment but a must-add to school library collections."
Newbery Honor Author and New York Times Bestseller Kirby Larson devotes her What Am I Reading? column to Music Mavens.
"Fascinating profiles of Nami Melumad, who has won awards for her scores for films and videogames; Regina Carter, MacArthur genius and jazz innovator; and others reveal women's increasing presence in the still male-dominated musical sphere."
Award-winning author, instructor, and reviewer Mary Quattlebaum includes Music Mavens in her list of Children’s Books for the New Year and Snowy Days.
"What a difference 'Music Mavens' would have made in my life had I read it in my formative years..."
Author and award-winning filmmaker Ellen Snortland devotes her column in the Pasadena Weekly to Consider This: Music Mavens.
In the feature Writing The Biography Collection Music Mavens, Ashley Walker and Maureen Charles discuss their goal "to take readers on a journey from their comfortable corner of the music world to stages and studios they’ve never imagined, revealing unseen journeys to the big mics and mixing desks of the industry."
The excerpt Meet Macy Schmidt: The Music Maven Orchestrating Equity In The World Of Classical Music introduces orchestrator, music director, producer, and Broadway Sinfonietta founder Macy Schmidt.
Maureen Charles & Ashley Walker Talk About Collaborating on a Nonfiction Project in an interview with Stephani Eaton for the Nonfiction for Older Readers series.
Ashley Walker—Kidlit Member of Kelly’s Crew talks with Dionna Mann for the Blog Party series at Color Me a Kidlit Writer.
