Verna Stassevitch received Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Music degrees from Skidmore College. She has pursued further study at the graduate level in Orff Schulwerk training. She was supervisor of music in Newburyport, Massachusetts, for two years and director of music at The Wilson School in St. Louis, Missouri, for twelve years. Ms. Stassevitch has been headmistress of The Wilson School since 1975. She has presented many workshops for teachers, and has taught beginning and intermediate Orff music classes at Fontbonne College in St. Louis and early childhood music classes at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park. She has also served as consultant and instructor in a special program (correlating music and language) at the Miriam School in St. Louis, serving children with learning disabilities. She is president of the Missouri Independent Schools Association, member of the Board of Directors of the Missouri Council for American Private Education and past president of the Educational Confederation of Metropolitan St. Louis.
Pat Stemmler (the book's illustrator as well as a co-author) studied music education at Butler University, and has been teaching music and art to preschool and primary age children for the last 15 years. Currently she is teaching at the Ladue Early Childhood Center in St. Louis. She has given many music workshops in the St. Louis area. Illustrating has been her hobby for many years, and she has designed logos for the Coalition for the Environment, the St. Louis Association for the Education of Young Children, and the St. Louis Chapter of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association.
Rita Shotwell received her Bachelor of Arts in Communications from St. Louis University, a Master of Arts in Teaching Early Childhood from Webster University, St. Louis, and Basic Certification in Rhythmic Movement and Folk Dance Curriculum from Phyllis Weikart and the High/Scope Foundation. She has training in the Orff and Kodaly approaches to teaching music to children. She is a part-time instructor for St. Louis Community College at Meramec and is an early childhood music teacher at Community School and several other St. Louis area schools, working with children one year old to first grade. She conducts toddler/parent music classes at the Center of Contemporary Arts and teaches senior citizens in the Arts for Heart Program. She has worked with the children at Shriner's Hospital for Crippled Children and the St. Louis Society for Crippled Children. She has given many workshops for educators at local, state, regional and national meetings. She is the author of Rhythm and Movement Activities and New Words, Old Tunes published by Alfred Publishing Company in California, and has written an article on intergenerational programs for the Orff Echo, a national quarterly magazine. She is a member of the local and national American Orff-Schulwerk Association, local and national Association for the Education of Young Children, Child Day Care Association, Midwest Kodaly Association, and National Association for Childhood Education International. She is past president of the St. Louis Orff chapter, and also the St. Louis Suburban Association of Childhood Education.
Marian Wirth received a Bachelor of Science in Education from Ohio State University and a Master of Arts in Learning Disabilities from St. Louis University. She taught perceptual motor skills at the Miriam School in St. Louis for eight years and was an early childhood education specialist with the Child Day Care Association for four and one half years. She has taught child development classes at St. Louis Community College and has given numerous workshops for teachers. Mrs. Wirth is the author of Teacher's Handbook of Children's Games: A Guide to Developing Perceptual Motor Skills. This book has been published in paperback under the title, Games for Growing Children, Parker Publishing Company, W. Nyack, New York.
