Building New Audiences for the Arts

Change is in the air – not just globally, but right here in Mamaroneck, where David Bander left Seattle seven months ago to head up the Emelin Theatre as its new executive director. Quickly, in understanding the winds of change, Bander is reaching out to new audiences in Mamaroneck, where he says a quarter of the population is now Latino. No grass growing under his feet. Emelin received one of 114 Arts Alive grants recently awarded by ArtsWestchester to organizations and artists throughout Westchester and Rockland. Bander’s goal is to reach out more broadly to build bilingual audiences for the theater.

On September 29, the Emelin will be presenting The Okee Dokee Brothers & Sonia De Los Santos, a program of bilingual folk and roots music geared at family audiences, especially kids aged five to 10. The Grammy Award-winning “brothers” were really childhood friends who grew up exploring nature together. Their folk songs encourage a whole new generation to have a love of the outdoors, too. Joining forces with them for this performance is Latin Grammy nominee Sonia De Los Santos, who has several bilingual family music albums. The interactive performance will have kids singing and dancing along. To find out what else the Emelin has coming up, visit emelin.org.

photo: The Okee Dokee Brothers and Sonia De Los Santos (credit: Jack Hartin)