Lansing State Journal

Tiempo Libre shares Cuban music in Lansing schools

Kathryn Prater • kprater@lsj.com • January 22, 2009 • From LSJ.com

Rod Sanford | Lansing State Journal

Leandro Gonzalez, front, plays congas and vocalist Joaquin Diaz, behind, plays percussion as the high
energy latin band Tiempo Libre performs during a workshop and show at Pleasant View Magnet School in
Lansing Thursday Jan. 22, 2009.

Thirteen-year-old trumpet player DaQuarius DeGree said hearing a Grammy-nominated Latin band play at

his Lansing school this morning inspired him to keep pursuing music.

The seventh-grader was one of about 40 band, strings and choir middle school students who attended a

Tiempo Libre educational concert at Pleasant View Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School.

“Sometimes if you don’t get to see a lot of things, you might want to quit,” DaQuarius said. “If you hear it and

see it, it helps you want to keep playing. Some people don’t experience cool things like this.”

Tiempo Libre plays timba music - Cuban dance music that is a mix of jazz, funk, salsa, and hip-hop. The

band has released two Grammy-nominated CDs.

“This is a wonderful experience,” said Madeline Shanahan, principal of the kindergarten through eighth-

grade school. “It just allows our kids another opportunity to see polished musicians and maybe aspire to that

themselves. It’s critical that (we do) anything we can do to enhance our arts program.”
Kids bobbed their heads and clapped to the beat during the concert. One student even pretended to drum

along with the musicians. The musicians taught several students some salsa dance steps and encouraged

the kids to sing along in Spanish.

Band members also demonstrated different sounds on their instruments, including an electric piano, a six-

string electric bass, a trumpet and several types of percussion instruments.

“It was pretty cool,” 12-year-old trombone player Alejandro Whitehead said. “It just has this certain sound. It

can make you feel good.”

Tiempo Libre’s performance was part of a partnership with Michigan State University Federal Credit Union’s

Institute for Arts and Creativity, which aims to “expose kids to different types of performing arts,” said Bryan

Jao, executive assistant for programming and operations at MSU’s Wharton Center for Performing Arts.

Through the initiative, performers put on educational sessions for students either at their schools or at

Wharton in East Lansing.

“It’s part of being a cultural resource for the community,” Jao said. “You have to kind of foster the performing

arts in people at a young age so that they can be inspired and also learn a little bit more about different

cultures.”

Tiempo Libre, which also visited Pleasant View last year, has stayed in the Lansing area all week making

various appearances, including at Waverly High School and MSU’s College of Music.