Personal and Professional Background
Throughout her entire life, Merri Williams has been involved in music, first as a beginning piano student at age 4, later as a performer of both flute and piano, and, lastly, as a music educator for the past 34 years. A graduate of Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, Merri holds a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education, having graduated with honors (magna cum laude). She has taught in both public and private schools, including a local junior college, as well as offering private instruction in flute and piano in her home studio for the past 32 years, providing high quality instruction combined with a deep personal interest and mentor relationship with each student. Merri is currently pursuing a master's degree in Music Therapy.
Merri has also directed children's choirs of all ages in her church fellowship for the past 24 years, enjoying the opportunity to share her love of music with children throughout the school year and in summer music camps. She is currently the Children's Choirs Coordinator as well as director of the Young Musicians and Music Makers Choirs at Zion Baptist Church of Covington, Georgia. Accompanying the senior adult choir, known as the Jubilee Choir, and playing in the Worship Orchestra each week keeps her own musical skills sharpened and active.
To further hone her skills and expand her musical background as well as providing performance opportunities for her students, she is an active member of the Piano Guild, the Music Teachers National Association, the Decatur Music Teachers Association, the American Orff Schulwerk Association, the National Federation of Music Clubs, and the Partnership of Kindermusik Educators. Merri is also the State Representative for Georgia in the Partnership of Kindermusik Educators.
Married for 32 years to David Williams, Merri is the mother of five children, two sons and three daughters, ranging in ages from 29 to 12 years of age. She is a native Atlantan and a lifelong resident of DeKalb County.
In her Kindermusik classes held at Columbia Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Merri combines her passion for music with her love for young children. She is the founder and director of Kindermusik at Masterworks Studio, having seen the need for high quality musical experiences that are developmentally appropriate for the individual child as well as involving the parent directly in the child's musical education. As the mother of a child with special needs, Merri passionately believes that every child is musical and deserves the opportunity to explore and enjoy music in an atmosphere that is free from fear of pressure to perform, while acquiring a foundation for future learning in all areas of development. With Kindermusik, children and parents are invited to enter in together and enjoy the magical world of music both in class and at home.
