When Natalie Merchant takes the stage at Symphony Center this month, many of the preschoolers in the audience will already know the lyrics to her songs. Not the ones their parents may remember\u2009\u2014\u2009like her 1995 hit \u201cWonder\u201d\u2009\u2014\u2009but tunes from a new marvel: Cabinet of Wonder, an expansive multimedia arts and education project kicking off in Chicago. In songs and videos developed with Chicago Children\u2019s Theatre and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Merchant expands nursery rhymes into a classroom-ready curriculum. And with a pair of May 9 concerts, it all comes to life onstage.<\/p>\n
The project debuted last November with the launch of a digital platform for educators and families. The site features 17 original songs recorded with musicians from the CSO, shadow puppetry by Manual Cinema, music videos starring local children, and classroom activities for young students. It\u2019s designed to be a national-scale arts resource, providing free materials that teachers and families anywhere can use.<\/p>\n
The Wonder seeds were planted while Merchant was volunteering in a Head Start preschool classroom near her home in upstate New York in 2017. \u201cI saw incredibly beautiful, creative children\u2009\u2014\u2009and a lack of arts programming and opportunities for them to experience live music or movement,\u201d says the singer-songwriter, who first drew acclaim in the 1980s fronting the band 10,000 Maniacs. What Merchant intended as a short, weekly commitment quickly grew into something larger: \u201cWithin two months, I was working three days a week, eight hours a day. And when I wasn\u2019t there, I was home making costumes, because I just fell in love with the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
With her own musicians, props, and regalia in tow, she built lessons around classic nursery rhymes. Even in an age of flashy preschool entertainment, she notes, the \u201cdelightful language and absurd imagery\u201d of centuries-old verses proved to be powerful tools for engaging young students. Over three years, the visits evolved into a full creative program, and Merchant realized the idea could reach far beyond a single classroom.<\/p>\n
![\"Natalie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/C202605-Go-Natalie-Merchant-and-kids.jpg\")
Merchant worked with local kids in videos for Cabinet of Wonder, a multimedia arts project harnessing what she calls the \u201cdelightful language and absurd imagery\u201d of nursery rhymes to educate children. Photograph: Joe Mazza\/Brave Lux<\/p>\n
After the pandemic, she visited Chicago and shared her creation with longtime friend Jacqueline Russell, cofounder and artistic director of Chicago Children\u2019s Theatre, who immediately saw the possibilities. \u201cIt was this beautiful treasure,\u201d Russell recalls\u2009\u2014\u2009one that dovetailed with CCT\u2019s desire to expand educational programming. \u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to develop a curriculum for schools and teachers that would continue a lot of what we bring into the classroom without us being in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell began envisioning how Merchant\u2019s initiative could grow. She reached out to Jonathan McCormick, managing director of the Negaunee Music Institute, CSO\u2019s community engagement arm; the two organizations have a long-standing partnership through the preschool concert series Once Upon a Symphony. Soon CSO musicians were on board to record Merchant\u2019s songs. Russell then tapped into her expansive network of local artists and cultural institutions, and the idea bloomed into a distinctly Chicago collaboration. \u201cChicagoans love big ideas, and they love innovation and invention. This project matches the spirit of the city,\u201d Russell says. It\u2019s being piloted across a dozen Chicago public schools, with CCT teaching artists and CSO musicians visiting 42 pre-K and kindergarten classrooms throughout the year. New York City schools are on deck for next year.<\/p>\n
Each of the ditties at the center of Cabinet of Wonder focus on a nursery rhyme character\u2009\u2014\u2009Humpty Dumpty, the Queen of Hearts, Peter Pumpkin Eater\u2009\u2014\u2009along with an instrument and a distinct musical style, from brass ensembles to folksy strings. For McCormick, hearing the musicians perform the songs revealed the scope of Merchant\u2019s creation: an opportunity for children \u201cto meet all the instruments of the orchestra, to sing along, to feel connected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Says Merchant: \u201cImagine being 4 years old, going to your first symphonic concert, and you know every song and every word. Ten years from now, these kids are going to find each other and say, \u2018Do you remember that?\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Natalie Merchant takes the stage at Symphony Center this month, many of the preschoolers in the audience…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":761184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[312798,1632,312795,312800,960,312796,274310,46964,42225,312804,5386,1818,312799,312801,312797,312793,312792,312802,405,403,312803,312806,312805,312794,132365],"class_list":["post-761183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-000-maniacs","tag-1632","tag-cabinet-of-wonder","tag-cct","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-childrens-theatre","tag-chicago-symphony-orchestra","tag-cso","tag-head-start","tag-humpty-dumpty","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-jacqueline-russell","tag-jonathan-mccormick","tag-manual-cinema","tag-mother-goose","tag-natalie-merchant","tag-negaunee-music-institute","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-once-upon-a-symphony","tag-peter-pumpkin-eater","tag-queen-of-hearts","tag-symphony-center","tag-wonder"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116487697415973260","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}