For our last Timbalooloo Jazz for Kids performance of the season, Oran Etkin and his instrument friend Clara Net will be joined by Colombian harpist Edmar Castañeda. Known for his work as a music consultant and performer for Encanto, Edmar has blazed a new path for the harp in jazz by melding Latin American rhythms and jazz's improvisatory freedom. Together Oran and Edmar will take your children on a musical journey through Colombia and Venezuela in this interactive performance.

Timbalooloo is an interactive concert series led by founder and internationally-renowned clarinetist Oran Etkin that will introduce children to a new musical tradition each month with the help of a special guest. The Timbalooloo method brings instruments to life and encourages children to “talk” through music, activating your child’s imagination and encouraging their self-expression. Designed to teach your children complex musical concepts through age-appropriate games and stories, Timbalooloo makes music fun and educational.

‍Children ages 2 and up are invited to attend. For this performance, vaccines are recommended for children 4 years old and younger but are required for everyone ages 5 and up. All guests are required to wear N95, KF94, or KN95 masks for the duration of the show; child and adult masks will also be provided upon check-in. For more information about National Sawdust’s COVID-19 policies, please click here.

Oran Etkin Bio

Oran Etkin has been described as “Ebullient” by the New York Times, voted #1 rising star clarinetist by DownBeat Magazine Critics Poll, and is featured on numerous recordings, including a Grammy Award-winning album. French newspaper Libération chose his Paris concert as one of the top 6 musical events of the year, calling it "A concert of weightlessness, class, spark, inspiration, and sharing. Magic uninterrupted… for such is the music of Etkin: sensitive to the exchange with the audience.”

Etkin created a method called Timbalooloo, in which instruments come alive and speak through their music, inspiring children to express themselves by making their instruments come alive and speak the language of music. Etkin and the teaching artists he has trained have reached thousands of children in New York City through in-home group Timbalooloo classes and partnerships with schools and pre-schools. Timbalooloo has also partnered with Mannes Prep at The New School, Mladi Ladi Jazz in the Czech Republic, American Speech Language Hearing Association, Kennedy Center, Newport Festival, North Sea Jazz Fest, Herbie Hancock Institute, UNESCO and other organizations worldwide.  Etkin's latest Timbalooloo album "Finding Friends Far From Home" was recorded on location in Zimbabwe, the Czech Republic, Turkey, and China. Whether standing in front of an orchestra or sitting cross-legged on the floor surrounded by a gaggle of children, Etkin’s work is about imagination, expression, playfulness, and emotion. It draws its strength from the conviction that the true power of music lies not just in the individual's pursuit of technical mastery but in the joyful and soulful creation of community.

‍

About Edmar Castañeda

Edmar Castañeda nominated for a Latin Grammy in the category "Best Latin Jazz Album" with his album Family.
‍
In fall 2021, Castañeda's performance will be heard in Disney's latest film, Encanto, which features original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Castañeda acts on the soundtrack and serves as music consultant on Encanto.

Upon arriving in the United States in 1994, Colombian-born Edmar Castañeda has made a name for himself as the preeminent jazz harp virtuoso. Castañeda brings forth a brilliance that beautifully merges the jazz tradition with a diverse set of styles and genres while bringing unbridled attention to a somewhat unfamiliar instrument: the harp. Singlehandedly, Castañeda has cemented the harp’s place in jazz with innovative technique and heartfelt creativity from a wealth of formidable collaborations with music titans such as Sting, Bela Fleck, John Scofield, Ricki Lee Jones, Hiromi, John Patitucci, Pedrito Martinez, Marcus Miller, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Ivan Lins, The Yellowjackets, Paco De Lucia, and Paquito D’Rivera.

In the same breath as the Yo-Yo Ma’s of the world, Castañeda fearlessly stuns audiences, musicians, and critics alike with his incredible talents as a player and composer. NPR’s “Fresh Air” touts, “...his technique is the real astonishment. Castañeda juggles lead, rhythm and bass lines, using a variety of hard and soft string attacks to keep those voices distinct — all without giving up the groove...His amazing technique...raises the bar for every harpist.”

The New York Times notes, “...Castaneda... engage[s] modern jazz in ways that honor...cultural origins, and [he has] the capacity to astonish by virtue of [his] fingerstyle technique.” Moses Sumney highlights his “5 Favorite NPR “Tiny Desk Concerts” and says, “My brain cracked open when I first saw this. Some classical instruments are so ingrained in our heads for sounding one way; Edmar restructures what we know of harp, defiantly expanding the bounds of the instrument.”

Castañeda follows up six acclaimed albums (Cuarto de Colores; Entre Cuerdas; Double Portion; Live at the Jazz Standard; Live In Montreal; Harp vs. Harp) with his latest recording project, Family (Release Date: May 21, 2021), featuring the artist in the trio format with Shlomi Cohen (soprano sax) and Rodrigo Villalon (drums) with special guest vocalist Andrea Tierra.

Castañeda’s renowned albums as a bandleader are interchanged with awe-inspiring symphonic works with the likes of the Orquestra Clássica de Espinho and the São Paulo Jazz Symphony Orchestra, and chamber pieces for the Israel Camerata Jerusalem and the Orquestra Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia.

He was ushered into the jazz community by Paquito D’Rivera, who recognized Castañeda’s passion and took the young harpist under his wing. D’Rivera has called him “an enormous talent... [Edmar] has the versatility and the enchanting charisma of a musician who has taken his harp out of the shadow to become one of the most original musicians from the Big Apple.”

“The Colombian plays the harp like hardly anyone else on earth. His hands, seemingly powered by two different people, produce a totally unique, symphonic fullness of sound, a rapid-fire of chords, balance of melodic figures and drive, served with euphoric Latin American rhythms, and the improvisatory freedom of a trained jazz musician...captivating virtuosity, but in no way only virtuosity for its own sake,” says Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.