Yona Goes To The Magic Flute
One of Yona’s Adventures in Transforming Human Behavior
Yona Goes To The Magic Flute is a fun-filled fantasy introduction to Mozart’s great opera, The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte).
An extraordinary young girl travels with her teachers and her friend, Ulysses, to the Metropolitan Opera in the Flights of Fancy, a flying piano. Their adventure/lesson is a unique introduction to Mozart’s genius––for opera goers, their children, and grandchildren.
The young heroine is Yona Short, who has magical musical powers. She can change human behavior just by THINKING ABOUT MUSIC.
The story is a sequel to YONA: DISCOVERIES, DOORWAYS, AND MUSICAL SUPERPOWER which introduced Yona as she began her education and experiments with her powers.
“Joan Kretschmer’s book Yona Goes to the Magic Flute is a wonderful introduction to the world of Classical Music for children of all ages.”
Robert Langevin, Principal Flute, New York Philharmonic
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YONA: Discoveries, Doorways, and Musical Superpower
We meet Yona at age ten, an unwanted, scorned child, discovering her unique talents and beginning to exercise her special gift, the power of music. Multi Tasker is her dramatic, magic-wielding piano teacher with his Flights of Fancy, a flying piano. Her new friend, Ulysses, is a ten-year old boy who finds an abandoned, dilapidated trunk and its colorful, ebullient occupant, Gene E.Tasker arranges for them to attend The John Brook Summer Music Festival, where they live and study in the historic mansion donated by Mrs. Goodnkind, a wealthy, benevolent role model. Daily lessons include trips and exciting adventures as well as Doorways to Understanding, a series of entryways to learning about creativity, life, nature, the arts, and values.
The tip of the iceberg of their unique curriculum includes: Music, art, talent, generosity, fear, positive thinking, leadership, science, the beauty and complexity of Mother Nature, the Moon, alleviating suffering, good and evil.
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Michelangela and Debuts:
Discovering the Self
Enjoy the adventures of a tiny artist-spider, Michelangela, who discovers romance and herself. Searching for her place on earth, she inspires a prince who copies her intricate designs and becomes world famous.
Then delight in the big-hearted heroine, Amore, who is ostracized by her family and townspeople because of her generosity and uniqueness. Follow her to one of the world's greatest cities, where she finds love and appreciation by those who see her as a "swan" rather than as an "ugly duckling." In a witty, alternative ending, a crafty lawyer markets her and enables her to become a world-renowned icon.
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A Thanksgiving Tale:
Blue Paws on Main Street
A Thanksgiving Tale is the triumphant story of unity in diversity. A small town's successful battle to overcome a factory owner's poisonous pollution, stonewalling, indifference, and legal skirmishes—fiction based on actual events. When grime, slime, and time adversely affected the inhabitants, a group of concerned citizens of different social and ethnic backgrounds banded together to protect human life and the environment. A Native American, Mayflower and slave descendants, European and Chinese immigrants, and others, all fought side by side. They used many forms of human ingenuity and cooperation,
With tenacity and joy, they created a model for America. A modest proposal for an evolving, all-encompassing celebration of Thanksgiving and our many blessings.
A Thanksgiving Tale is about an inclusive, reinvigorated Thanksgiving holiday, celebrating the "gifts" we take for granted: our "melting pot," clean water, fresh air, freedom of the press, the rule of law, and science.
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Dr. Joan Thomson Kretschmer is Artistic Director and Founder of the Lyric Chamber Music Society whose Board of Artistic Advisors has included Daniel Barenboim, Judy Colins, Charles Strouse, and Zubin Mehta. At The New School for Social Research, she created and hosted Musicians on Music, a series of interviews with world-renowned artists including Jean-Pierre Rampal, Marilyn Horne, Victor Borge, Birgit Nilsson, Peter Schickele, André Watts, Robert Merrill, and others.
A grateful student of pianist Jascha Zayde, she has performed with cellist Andrey Tcheckmazov and numerous Principals from NY Philharmonic, including Joseph Robinson, Principal Oboe and Sheryl Staples, Principal Associate Concert Master. Joan has taught at Juilliard, SUNY Purchase, and the Met Opera Guild. At Yale, she directed an Oral History of Electronics in Music, interviews with significant innovators in 20th century musical life. She was music critic for the NY Post and has written about music for The NY Times, Opera News, Stagebill, Keynote, The Greenwich Time and other publications. Her program notes have appeared at concerts at Mostly Mozart, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and elsewhere.
Joan is the author of YONA: Discoveries, Doorways, and Musical Superpower in which Yona discovers her supernatural musical abilities that can transform human behavior. Yona Goes To The Magic Flute, a sequel, is Yona's adventure to the Metropolitan Opera to learn about Mozart and test her powers. A Thanksgiving Tale is Joan's latest book. She has written Michelangela and Debuts, a book of short stories; all available on Amazon and elsewhere.
She is music consultant on SHERRI AND THE UNFAIRIES, the new fantastical musical comedy which premiered at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in April 2026 and was music consultant on the award-winning film "Le Refuge" by writer/director Elliot Thomson and for Vincent Van Gogh: A Portrait in Two Parts, one of the first videodiscs ever made.
In addition to writing scripts for radio and national broadcasts of The Richard Tucker Gala, she hosted Upbeat, her own classical music radio show.
Joan attended Smith College, graduated from Barnard, and received her M.A. and Ph.D. in musicology from Columbia University, where she was Clarence Barker Fellow. She is an active educator and gives piano lessons and music classes to all age groups in her studio near Lincoln Center. Please visit Joan's website at: www.JoanKretschmer.com.
Visit her website at:
JoanKretschmer.com
Dr Joan Kretschmer - A History of the German Opera from Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center on Vimeo.
A short "master-class" by Joan Kretchmer. Recorded for Lyric Chamber Music Society's "2020 HOME MUSIC FESTIVAL" during the Coronavirus Social Distance period.
Joan Kretschmer playing The Prelude in C Major from J.S. Bach's Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Book 1. Recorded for Lyric Chamber Music Society's "2020 HOME MUSIC FESTIVAL" during the Coronavirus Social Distance period.
Joan speaks to a Manhattan Book Club. Joan is happy to share her journey with YONA at community book group discussions and classrooms in the Manhattan area. If there is a piano available, she can even demonstrate the magical uplift of music!
Joan is a featured speaker, discussing YONA, at an alumnae panel at Barnard College.
Joshua Tree Publishing
Chicago, IL
Voice: (312) 893-7525