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Musician uses his tunes to teach in Carbondale
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José-Luis Orozco, the famed bilingual educator, performer and more is putting on a Carbondale concert tonight.
Courtesy photo
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By Stina Sieg
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
April 11, 2008
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CARBONDALE— Even after 37 years, the world of children’s music could never get stale for him.
On that point, José-Luis Orozco was insistent.
“It never feels old, because music is simple,” he laughed. “Music is great.”
The bilingual musician, educator, songwriter, performer and recording artist had a thick, rolling Mexican accent. He was speaking from Los Angeles, and his words grew slow and contented as he went on about his profession. He really believes in what he’s doing. There’s no doubt.
With passion, he described his interactive shows. He sings in both English and Spanish and teaches his crowd rudimentary lessons about friendship, numbers, colors and such. Sometimes, at the start of a performance, he’s not always sure how to gauge a crowd, he went on. But after a while, as people get warmed up, he can feel how much they’re enjoying themselves.
“At the end, I would say, a hundred percent of the time, it turns out to be a great success,” he said. “That’s what keeps me going.”
| Educational entertainment |
WHO: José-Luis Orozco, a bilingual educator, author, songwriter, performer and recording artist, playing live. A folklórico concert will open the event.
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. tonight
WHERE: Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale
TICKETS: $8, available at Crystal River Elementary School in Carbondale, Carbondale Community School, Ross Montessori School, the Carbondale Council on Arts & Humanities and at the door. Thanks to a grant, a limited number of reduced priced tickets ($4) will be available to lower-income families at Crystal River Elementary.
MORE INFORMATION: www.joseluisorozco.com
WHY? Because Orozco loves to teach, and who knows — you just might learn something. |
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And on the go he’s been. In 1971, he was invited to perform his blend of tunes and education at schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the years since, he’s played at community centers, libraries and festivals across the country. He’s trying to teach about culture, diversity, basic human connection, he said, and he goes wherever there’s a need. Tonight, that would be this valley.
“It — feels — great,” he explained, emphasizing each word. “I have all these beautiful songs I can share with this beautiful audience.”
He mentioned that he’d recently finished "Cantamos y Aprendemos," a new Spanish instruction DVD. If you go to his website, you’ll see more than a dozen songbooks, albums and more. There’s a list of his awards, a collection of newspaper articles written about him. As much as he loves his work, it seems that people love him right back.
But how does someone even get to where he is?
That’s quite a story, and one that he told quickly. Back in Mexico, his grandmother and mother loved to sing, and his father played violin. Introduced to music at a young age, he took to it quickly, and at 8 joined the Mexico City Boy’s Choir. What started as tours around his home country became an international experience. By 13, he had traveled to 32 countries around the world. Everywhere they went, he said, they stayed with host families. In that way, he was injected right into so many new worlds.
“I learned a lot about different cultures,” he said. “Geography, cultures, politics, so many things.”
At 19, he went on the study education at University of California at Berkeley, and later got a degree at the University of San Francisco.
While this past is far different from most, Orozco didn’t pause on any of it. Instead, he was all about the music. It makes such a great, “non-threatening” teaching tool, he explained. It’s one thing we all understand.
“Music is universal,” he said. “From time we are born to the time we die, there is music in the culture.”
You can find it on the Internet, he continued, you can find it in “tiny tribes in Africa.”
“We use it express our feelings, good, bad, ugly, everything.”
With him, wherever he is, this expression means education.
“The most important thing, the bottom line, is teaching something,” he explained. “If I can offer my presentation and people learn something, then that is my reward.”
He then went into heavier subjects, about bilingual education, the recent surge of anti-immigrant sentiment, the war, the economic downturn. He sees hard times all around, he said, yet he didn’t sound discouraged. This is a great country and it will get better here, he asserted. He feels what will help are things like language, culture and human contact. That’s also exactly what he brings to his songs.
“And it works,” he said. “It really works.”
Contact Stina Sieg: 384-9111
ssieg@postindependent.com
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
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