Kate is excited to have joined the MFMT team in March 2010. Kate's sense of humor and enthusiasm for music make for really fun classes! She plays guitar and has studied voice in different genres over the course of 12 years. A songwriter herself, Kate loves to open the door to musical creativity for her students. She also actively participates in Austin's improv comedy community and will be graduating from the ColdTowne Conservatory in the spring of 2010. Kate's guitar playing is also a big hit with the kids!

A native of Austin, Texas, with a B.A. in Music from Prescott College, Music Forever MT director Michael Shay grew up in a musical household. The son of a piano teacher and brother to two musical sisters, Michael attributes his musical abilities to growing up in a music-filled environment. As a newborn baby, toddler, and pre-schooler, he played on the living-room floor as his mother taught piano lessons, soaking up the music he heard day after day. As a young person,he learned cello, piano, guitar, and bass, played in orchestras, and was also a student of the Austin Chamber Music Center, where he later became a teacher.

Michael has played in multiple genres, including classical, folk, blues, rock, jazz, reggae, tango, Americana, Latin, funk, world music, and currently tours with his world music band The Just Desserts. Previously, he has played with the Michael Shay Band, Will Taylor and Strings Attached, Libby Kirkpatrick, Zoe Lewis, The Uptown Conductors, and more. He has released five CD's and produced many more for other artists.

After years of working with students of all ages in many styles of music and on many different instruments, Michael believes that our primary role as a music educators is to help each other access our innate musical instincts and unlock our natural creativity. Understanding the immeasurable impact that the first years of life have on musical development led him to the desire to offer music classes for early childhood. MIchael believes in investing in a more musical world for future generations by sharing music around the world, and by offering the Music Together curriculum in Austin.