Marsha Goodman-Wood

Marsha Goodman-Wood leads DC-based kinde (kids + indie) band, Marsha and the Positrons, who specialize in fun songs about science and how the world works with positive social messages. A former cognitive neuroscientist and an award-winning songwriter known for her clever original songs that mix science facts with messages about kindness and friendship, Marsha's music has won a Parents’ Choice Gold Award, a National Parenting Products Award, and various other songwriting awards. Marsha and the Positrons songs are playful, educational, and entertaining for both kids and grown-ups. Marsha always brings her signature positive energy to stages and classrooms and loves to inspire curiosity about science through her music.

Marsha performs in all kinds of settings, from intimate stages at festivals, concert series, schools, and libraries to major events such as the Wolf Trap Children's Theater-in-the-Woods summer concert series and Maryland Science Center’s Midnight Noon New Year’s Eve. As a Wolf Trap-trained teaching artist with Arts for Learning Maryland, she provides workshops for babies, toddlers, and their caregivers; literacy-based arts residencies in the classroom for pre-K and Kindergarten students; songwriting residencies for elementary and middle school students; and assemblies featuring her original music about science for grades K-12. Marsha also plays at children's hospitals through Pickleberry Pie, at special needs schools and children's hospitals through TAFFY Presents, and at retirement homes through Music Mends.

Kathy O’Connell, host of WXPN Kids Corner, calls Marsha a “DC rocker who takes an occasional jazzy turn,” and says the new record, Positronic, features “some terrific collaborations with other kindie folk.” A winner of a 2019 Parents’ Choice Foundation Gold Award, and a NAPPA Parenting Products Award, the record has earned radio airplay in the USA and internationally, including some play on Sirius/XM. Like Marsha’s earlier solo effort Gravity Vacation, Positronic has won praise and songwriting awards for its clever lyrics, positive messages, and catchy sound! Their newest single, "Virtual School," puts a positive spin on online learning, focusing on some unexpected advantages of the current situation.

The Washington Post calls Marsha and the Positrons "...among the Washington area's most creative and distinctive" children's musicians. According to the Baltimore Fishbowl, "talented/celebrated/scientifically astute yet adorably warm and amusing...Goodman-Wood has a reputation for getting kids up and dancing.”

Parenting blog We’ll Eat You Up, We Love You So says, “Goodman-Wood was no ordinary children's singer...She was very, very good. Her clear voice reminded me of Carole King...Her stage presence was lively without being grating, a highly delicate balance for a children's performer.”

Her 2023 album, ENERGETIC, is a collaborative album, weaving together contributions from a talented group of musicians and kindie artists: GRAMMY-nominated® hip hop musician SaulPaul; Keith Grimwood of Trout Fishing In America; Tina Kenny Jones of Danny Weinkauf and his Red Pants Band; Dumi Right, recognized as a standard bearer in global and progressive hip hop circles; and Jamaal “Black Root” Collier of the Beatbox Dads. Marsha and the Positrons members featured on the album include Marsha Goodman-Wood (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Ayanna Gallant (backing vocals, djembe), David Durst (piano, Hammond organ, Wurlitzer, synthesizer, accordion), Jon Guo (bass), and the band’s producer TJ Lipple (drums, bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, trombone, vibraphone). TJ Lipple, who has produced all of Marsha’s records, is a sought-after indie and punk producer in the DC area and performs in the band Aloha (Polyvinyl Records). 

Also noteworthy among the album’s 18 contributors are sax player Jonathan Parker, who leads a NYC-based jazz combo; DC-based jazz guitar master Tony Harrod; and guitarist Nick Anderson, who has toured with TJ Lipple’s indie rock band Aloha.

Previous albums include Positronic (2018, Parents’ Choice Gold Award, NAPPA Award) and Gravity Vacation (2012).