Mary Ellen Pinzino is the Founder/Director of the Come Children Sing Institute, a center for research and development in music learning since 1984. She is the author of Giving Voice to Children's Artistry: A Guide for Music Teachers and Choral Conductors, published by Oxford University Press. She is the composer of the Come Children Sing Institute SONG LIBRARY, a resource of more than 500 new songs for early childhood, elementary school and children's chorus. Mary Ellen has done extensive classroom research on music learning and on song in the development of children's artistry with children from birth through thirteen, and has written copiously for music teachers and parents, including many articles for national and international publications, online music courses, and the e-book Letters On Music Learning, a compilation of six years of publications for music teachers from the Come Children Sing Institute. She is the creator of the Institute's Online Teacher Education Center, and instructor for its many online courses and workshops for professional development. She is also the developer and teacher of Come Children, Sing! Online Music Classes for very young children.

Mary Ellen has taught all ages from birth through graduate students, teaching early childhood music classes and conducting children's choruses at the Come Children Sing Institute and directing the Institute's teacher training program. She has also taught elementary school music, both high school and college choruses, and graduate school music education courses. Mary Ellen's comprehensive work with very young children, her work with children's choirs and choruses of all levels, her extensive research, and her many compositions for children have put her on the cutting edge in the field of music education.

Mary Ellen has presented nationally and internationally for music educators organizations, including the International Society for Music Education, the Music Educators National Conference, the American Orff-Schulwerk Association, the Organization of American Kodaly Educators, the American Choral Directors Association, the Gordon Institute for Music Learning, and Suzuki Institutes. Mary Ellen has presented internationally in Portugal at the University of Lisbon, Indonesia, for the East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools and the Jakarta International School, and for the International Music Education Conference in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Mary Ellen received bachelor's and master's degrees in music education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and studied extensively with Edwin Gordon. She lives with her husband in Homewood, Illinois. Their two sons inspired Come Children, Sing! as babies and continued to inform her early childhood programs and children's choruses until their voices changed. Their four grandchildren have offered yet another intimate view of the process of music learning from infants to teens.