Singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant has spent years as an international star — first with the band 10,000 Maniacs and then as a successful solo artist. But one of her biggest musical satisfactions has nothing to do with the big-stage limelight.
Merchant’s “Cabinet of Wonder,” a digital children’s album on the Nonesuch label, marks the culmination of an ongoing project she calls her “legacy.” It’s an ambitious educational collaboration with the Chicago Children’s Theatre and Chicago Symphony Orchestra that features an accompanying website with recordings, videos and teaching aids free for teachers, parents, children and anyone else.
The concept behind it all is simple. Merchant has set 14 Mother Goose nursery rhymes to music, using the familiarity and metrical patterns of the venerable texts combined with her catchy tunes to teach preschool and kindergarten-age children a love for both music and language.
“Children deserve beauty,” Merchant said, “and people who develop a sense of aesthetics at a really young age and who create beauty, make better citizens, make a better society, make a better world. So, in a small way, I am accomplishing the goals I have always had through music. I’ve always wanted to make the world a slightly better place for people.”
For the singer, “Cabinet of Wonder” is not just a vanity project. Instead of just donating a few hours of time, the singer-songwriter has thrown every ounce of her being into this effort.
She not only wrote all the songs, she performed for all of the music videos and album tracks, edited the videos with the post-production company, Abstrakt, and oversaw the creative direction of the album’s accompanying educational website, which launched last year. And if all that wasn’t enough, Merchant even designed and made all the costumes for the project.
“It is a very deep passion that she has for children and education and literature,” said Jacqueline Russell, co-founder and artistic director of the Chicago Children’s Theatre, and a friend of Merchant’s for nearly two-decades.
It is easy to wonder if Mother Goose rhymes, which date back to the 18th century and beyond, still have relevance to children growing up in a world of social media, smart phones and video games. And according to Merchant, the answer is a resounding yes.
“I lived it for three years. I was in the field, and I know it works,” Merchant said of her time working with students in a Head Start preschool program near her home in upstate New York – a time when the seeds of “Cabinet of Wonder” were planted. “I know the joy it brings to the children. I know the joy it brings to the teachers, too.”
After the “Cabinet of Wonder” website launched in November 2025, CSO musicians and Children’s Theatre teaching artists took the songs to preschool and kindergarten students in a dozen partner Chicago public schools, with teachers prepping the youngsters and helping them learn the words.
Those students plus others up to grade 2 from schools citywide—3,000 in all—came to May 8 presentations of “Cabinet of Wonder” with Merchant and guest conductor James Bagwell at Orchestra Hall. Those two concerts were followed the next day by two paid family concerts that drew another 2,500 people.
“It was crazy how much the children loved the music,” Russell said. “It was like a rock concert. None of these children were staying in their seats. We were at Orchestra Hall but we could have been at the United Center with the amount of enthusiasm and cheering.”
While working at the Head Start program beginning in 2017, Merchant realized there was no arts programming for these preschoolers, so she started writing and teaching songs based on Mother Goose rhymes.
At the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, Merchant came to Chicago to mix an album at Electrical Audio, and she asked Russell to spend a day with her. The singer shared her experiences with the preschool students and played some of her Mother Goose tunes.
The Children’s Theatre has been partners for about 15 years with the CSO, and its educational arm, the Negaunee Institute, on the family series, “Once Upon a Symphony.” They had also done some on-line video productions during the pandemic and wanted to do more that could take their work beyond Chicago.
“Suddenly, I thought this might be that project,” Russell said.
So, in the Spring 2023, she set up a meeting with the Negaunee Institute’s Jonathan McCormick. He was aware of Merchant’s artistry and was intrigued to hear of her work in Troy, N.Y.
“Then, to sit with her in person and hear directly what that experience meant to her, we were hooked,” he said. “We saw the ingredients for something really special — Natalie’s vision, the Children’s Theatre’s aesthetic and collaborative abilities and what we could offer musically to it.”
The first thing they wanted to do was create the website that teachers and others would use to learn the songs and teach them. After several rounds of discussion, it was decided that “Cabinet of Wonder” would comprise the 14 Mother Goose tunes and three additional original songs — two that introduce the series and another that concludes it.
At the same time, Merchant worked with one of the members of her touring band, violinist Megan Gould, to create chamber versions of her songs, using instruments from across the orchestra. In all, 22 different musicians — members of the CSO and guest artists — recorded the songs. They’re prominently featured in the videos with 25 child actors, often wearing costume headpieces.
While some of the arrangements are straightforward classical takes, many veer into other styles like the Calypso feel of “Humpty Dumpty,” the Celtic lilt of “Hickory Dickory Dock” or the bebop groove of “Jack Sprat.”
“We wanted kids to get all the flavors we could possibly fit in there,” Merchant said.
In 2026-27, the CSO and Children’s Theatre will expand their CPS partnership around the project to 25 institutions. At the same time, Merchant is teaming with the National Head Start Association to lead teacher training sessions, attend educational conferences and promote the project across the country.
Meanwhile, the website is free and available, and Merchant hopes anyone interested will make use of it.
“To me,” she said, “it’s about fun and experiencing beauty together, creating community and lifting self-esteem.”