Oran Etkin
Encyclopedia
Oran Etkin is an internationally acclaimed jazz/world artist and composer who is known for giving music classes for children in New York City. He recently released Wake Up Clarinet!, his first release in the genre of family music. In 2010 he formed a new music education program called Timbalooloo.

Oran Etkin has been described as a "great clarinet player" and "an excellent improviser" by the New York Times' jazz critic Ben Ratliff and a "woodwind maestro" by PRI
Public Radio International
Public Radio International is a Minneapolis-based American public radio organization, with locations in Boston, New York, London and Beijing. PRI's tagline is "Hear a different voice." PRI is a major public media content creator and also distributes programs from many sources...

's internationally syndicated show, Afropop Worldwide. He has performed around the world with musicians ranging from jazz guitarist Mike Stern
Mike Stern
Mike Stern is an American jazz guitarist. After playing for a few years with Blood, Sweat & Tears, he landed a gig with Billy Cobham and then broke through with Miles Davis' comeback band from 1981 to 1983, and again in 1985. Since then, he launched a solo career, releasing more than a dozen albums...

 to rapper Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean is a Haitian musician, record producer, and politician. At age nine, Jean moved to the United States with his family and has spent much of his life in the country...

. His 2009 album Kelenia (Motema Music), fuses traditional Malian and Jewish music
Jewish music
Jewish music is the music and melodies of the Jewish People which have evolved over time throughout the long course of Jewish History. In some instances Jewish Music is of a religious nature, spiritual songs and refrains are common in Jewish Services throughout the world, while other times, it is...

 with modern jazz creating what the Boston Globe dubbed a "hypnotic balance between straight-ahead jazz and world music. The album was named "Best World Music Album of 2009" by the Independent Music Awards.

Etkin brings this uniquely diverse perspective to his music for children, which incorporates rhythms and melodies from all over the world. For example, after concert tours in Haiti, Africa and Europe, Etkin returned to New York and adapted songs from these regions for his Timbalooloo music classes.

Etkin has earned the respect of his peers through his various musical activities. Ken Burns
Ken Burns
Kenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns is an American director and producer of documentary films, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs...

 and Julie Burns remarked that they were "very happy to see how Oran Etkin's Timbalooloo classes awakened an excitement about music in our daughter, enabling her to be creative and express herself through music." According to Naomi Watts
Naomi Watts
Naomi Ellen Watts is a British actress. Watts began her career in Australian television, where she appeared in series such as Hey Dad..! , Brides of Christ , and Home and Away . Her film debut was the 1986 drama For Love Alone...

 and Liev Schreiber
Liev Schreiber
Isaac Liev Schreiber , commonly known as Liev Schreiber, is an American actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. He became known during the late 1990s and early 2000s, having initially appeared in several independent films, and later mainstream Hollywood films, including the Scream trilogy of...

, "His ability to teach children...and keep them fully engaged and willing to learn was really really remarkable." And Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...

 and Daphna Kastner Keitel stated that "Oran Etkin makes music from all over the world accessible and fun for children to listen to and learn about. From the age of two, our son was talking about Herbie Hancock, Mozart, Samba, and African music - and he knew the difference."
In January, 2011, Wake Up, Clarinet! won in the Children's Music Album category in The 10th Annual Independent Music Awards. Etkin received a Grammy nomination for his song "Unique Monique" which appears on Healthy Food for Thought, nominated for Best Spoken Word Album for Children.

Biography

At age 14, Etkin began his musical studies in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 with the saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

 under the tutelage of George Garzone
George Garzone
George Garzone is a saxophonist and jazz educator residing in New York city.Saxophonist George Garzone is a member of The Fringe, a jazz trio founded in 1972 that includes bassist John Lockwood and drummer Bob Gullotti, that performs regularly in the Boston area and has toured world wide. The...

. He expanded to the clarinet and completed a bachelor's degree in classical clarinet and composition from Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...

. He spent one year of that at the Rubin Academy of Music
Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance
The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance , founded in 1958 as the Rubin Academy of Music, is located on the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.-History:...

 in Jerusalem, where he studied Arabic music. He got his master's degree from Manhattan School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...

, where he was taught by Dave Liebman
Dave Liebman
Dave Liebman is an American saxophonist and flautist. In June 2010, he received a NEA Jazz Masters lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts.-Biography:...

 and David Krakauer
David Krakauer
David Krakauer is an American clarinetist. He is a graduate of the High School of Music & Art, class of 1974. He is mostly known for his klezmer compositions. He became involved with klezmer music in the late 1980s while working as a classical musician, joining The Klezmatics...

. He continued to study jazz with Garzone and Charlie Banacos
Charlie Banacos
Charlie Banacos was an American pianist, composer, author and educator, concentrating on jazz.Banacos created over 100 courses of study for improvisation and composition. His concepts of teaching and his courses influenced educators since the late 1950s...

 during this period. His exposure to Malian music is also a significant influence, having played in Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

 with Toumani Diabaté
Toumani Diabaté
Toumani Diabaté is a Malian kora player. In addition to performing the traditional music of Mali, he has also been involved in cross-cultural collaborations with flamenco, blues, jazz, and other international styles.-Biography:...

, Super Rail Band, and Habibe Koité.

Band members

  • Oran Etkin - lead vocals, clarinet, saxophone
  • Jason Marsalis - drums
  • Charenee Wade - jazz vocalist
  • Fabian Almazan - piano
  • Curtis Fowlkes - trombone
  • Garth Stevenson - bass

External links

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