Artist Overview

Children from Brussels to California and New York to Texas delight to the artistry and antics of Silly Goose & Val Smalkin. Award-winning artist Valerie Leonhart Smalkin presents a fast-paced, humorous 40-minute musical treat with puppets, ventriloquism, dancing, singing, and 100% audience participation, adults and children’s alike. Her Parents’ Choice award-winning songs and her Maryland State Arts Council award-winning solo performance are guaranteed to delight tots, tweens, and teens...and the timeworn, as well! Val was one of the writers, performers, and co-producers of the Emmy award winning television program It’s Kindertime on Baltimore’s ABC affiliate WMAR-TV 2. She also composed and performed the musical version of Priscilla Cummings’ International Literacy Award winning book, Chadwick the Chesapeake Crab. Val’s CD A Gentle Halloween received a Parents’ Choice Fun Stuff award in 2015. Her CD Sing! Sing! Sing!...and Dance! garnered a Parent’s Choice Approved award in 2016, and her book Springtime Dance took gold in the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards in 2014.
Complementary Activities:
One-Day Elementary School Residency including the following:
a 40-minute assembly for K - 5 in the morning with a theme selected in consultation with the school;
30 minute “googly eye” puppet making sessions with K to 2 grade students as time allows;
30 minute song-writing session with 3 to 5th grade students as time allows;
consultation in advance with the school music, art, and library teachers to individualize the program to meet your school's particular curriculum needs;
and, notated copies of the songs composed by the students.
Fees for these programs range from $1,000 to $1,500.