EDUCATIONAL CONCERTS

EDUCATIONAL CONCERTS
"Paula Monsalve's educational artistic presentations ignite your student's imaginations while introducing the history of Latin American folk music, its rhythms and meanings. Students realize how music can transport them, allow them to express their environment, roots, traditions, culture and history." Marsha McClelland, LaFontaine Arts Council.

SCHOOLS
Students are fascinated by diversity. The kids love to learn about what is going on in other countries, the music, the ways of living and the traditions. We bring music with different rhythms, inviting them to go with us on a musical trip. There is a great time of interaction between the students and us. There is also a time for questions, and this is their favorite part. We teach them Spanish during the program and by the end, we are all singing and dancing.

COLLEGE
The college concerts present both an taste of Latin culture and entertainment. We choose a repertoire that is full of diverse rhythms and folk mystic. We tell how "life goes on" in those parts of the world.

To enhance the understanding of the lyrics and rhythms, we translate the poetry so everyone can experience the images in the songs. The repertoire goes beyond the commercial-type Latin music into the works of such great folk composers as Violeta Parra (Chile), Atahualpa Yupanqui (Argentina), Silvio Rodriguez (Cuba), Armando Manzanero (Mexico), and others.

A complete taste of Latin American music has to involve the joy of dancing, the natural movements of the body through variety of the Latin rhythms. Listening to music, such as Spanish soft flamenco, Brazilian samba, Colombian cumbia, Puerto Rican salsa, Dominican Republic merengue, …doing the basic steps of Latin dances…we go dancing to all these places gracefully!