‘Everyone counts.’ State College music teacher wins national award for children’s album
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- Local music educator Margot Bevington won a National Parenting Award in May.
- Bevington’s third album “I Count” addresses pronouns, skin color and growing up.
- Bevington recorded the album with help from Jason Olcese, a local musician.
A local music educator and children’s musician is being recognized beyond Centre County after her third album, “I Count,” won a National Parenting Award in May.
Tackling subjects like pronouns, skin color and growing up, “I Count” is preschool music teacher Margot Bevington’s way of helping children identify differences in a positive way.
“Part of [children’s] early learning is to learn differentiation, and counting is a way to do that,” Bevington said. “Most of my songs go from one to all. ... To use the natural way kids look at the world and learn to see differences with counting and use that to see and celebrate differences at the same time.”
Bevington’s album uses gentle instrumentation and repetition to encourage young listeners to be conscientious and kind by helping them recognize their own inherent value, along with the value of others.
“[‘I Count’] has a double meaning,” Bevington said. “It’s counting with numbers, but also how you ‘count,’ as in ‘I matter.’”
Bevington wrote, recorded and produced her album over the span of three years with the help of local recording artist Jason Olcese, the frontman of popular local band My Hero Zero and co-owner of the Happy Valley Song Lab.
“It was my first children’s album. I had never made this style of music before,” Olcese said. “It’s really easy working with Margot. She speaks that language.”
Bevington wrote and recorded much of the music heard on the album, including piano, guitar and small rhythm instruments, and Olcese was responsible for supporting her creative vision and making it cohesive.
“Margot came in with all of the parts in her mind already,” Olcese said. “So, when I heard it all come together ... it’s lovely and adorable.”
Bevington intended for her album to challenge assumptions among children and families and to be a positive and inclusive alternative to songs with a more discriminatory background.
Bevington cited the popular children’s song “10 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” as an example, explaining that the song has undergone many revisions over the years to remove the racist language and implications initially present. While the song may bear very little resemblance now to what it once was, Bevington finds its history significant.
“That counting song was used in a very negative way to point out a difference,” Bevington said. “I wanted to do the opposite.”
Bevington has been learning and growing through music all her life, and has spent over 20 years helping children to do the same.
Initially experiencing a speech delay, Bevington used music as a way to stimulate her language development, listening to songs on “Sesame Street” or “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and learning to play the piano.
As a teacher, Bevington aims to help others learn and grow through music, often through interactive play involving rhythm instruments, hand movements or other imaginative games. Bevington teaches at two local preschools and hosts early childhood music classes through Centre Region Parks and Recreation, Schlow Library and Centre LGBT+.
“I try to be super engaging, first and foremost,” Bevington said. “Learning by doing and getting those musical skills like following a steady beat, matching pitch, learning simple melodies and rhythms. That’s all worked in with this play-based, imagination-based learning as well.”
Bevington often found her own creativity bolstered by her students, inspiring many songs in her early albums.
“We created a lot of wild, fantastic songs,” Bevington said about a student she worked with as a special education paraprofessional. “One of the lyrics he came up with ... is the opening line for a song that’s on my first album ... what he came up with was ‘Oh constellation, man of dots and stars.’ ”
It isn’t only students that have inspired Bevington over the years. Her music is also inspired by her own children, including her eldest son Sebastian, whose voice is included on the song “One Knee” on the “I Count” album.
In the wake of her National Parenting Award win, Bevington is already planning her fourth album, a compilation of nature-themed songs about the importance of science and embracing the outdoors. Regardless of what comes next, however, Bevington is quite proud of her achievements with her junior album and hopes “I Count” will continue to reach families far and wide.
“My hope for ‘I Count’ is that it reaches a lot of families and educators that can share the message,” Bevington said. “Everyone counts and everyone is special.”
To learn more about Ms. Margot’s Music, visit her website.
