Flor Bromley is a local celebrity. Her Chiqui Music Boom CD plays on repeat in my car, and when my children see her around town, they whisper, “There’s Flor!” She is also an actual celebrity. Her three bilingual family albums have earned critical acclaim and her fourth album Adventure Day, produced by Grammy® winners Lucy Kalantari and Dean Jones, was released on August 24. Her songs have been featured on the top 13 of Kids Place Live on Sirius XM, her music and educational videos have been featured on PBS Thirteen’s Let’s Learn, and her album Fiesta Global was named an official selection of notable works for children by the American Library Association.
Luckily (for my kids, and the rest of us too), Bromley and her band will be performing Fiesta! A Bilingual Concert Experience during Hispanic Heritage Month on September 23 at the Ossining Public Library.
Bromley was born and raised in Peru. After getting degrees in Theater and Education, she moved to the U.S. to study Musical Theater, and now lives in Croton-on-Hudson with her family. Over the years she has called many places home but feels most shaped by where she came from. “Everybody comes from a place,” she said. “Even if you were born here, and you’re a native of this area, you still come from somewhere. At my shows, some kids tell me, ‘I come from Ireland’ or ‘My family comes from Colombia’ and some say, ‘My family comes from New Jersey’ and that’s fine, too! That’s still a place.”
Setting aside the age-old question of whether anyone should ever admit they are from New Jersey, Bromley makes a good point. Every family has its own unique culture worth celebrating.
Bromley’s mission is to bring positive energy and joy to her audiences and “to share the Latin-American experience through music with a new generation.” Her albums (as I well know) are a delight, but her live performances take fun to another level. They mix songs with dance, storytelling, and puppetry, getting kids up on their feet and laughing.
This concert, made possible by an Arts Alive grant through ArtsWestchester, will offer some new, immersive twists. Fiesta! will begin with a hands-on experience: families will be invited onto the stage to touch the instruments and learn about them. Most of the instruments will be typical band fare, but some may be unfamiliar like the quijada de burro. Then the audience will get a musical tour of Latin America, “getting on a plane and travelling” to Peru, Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. After the concert, children will leave with a workbook to help them explore their own as well as other cultures. Bromley said, “I hope they go home and they’re like, ‘Hey Mom, where do I come from? Where are my ancestors from?’ And [that the concert] gives them a better knowledge of their own identity.”
The bilingual concert will appeal to families who want to explore different cultures and learn some Spanish, Spanish-speaking families who want to attend an event in their native language, and global music lovers of all ages.
The free Fiesta! A Bilingual Concert Experience will be at 3:00pm on September 23 in Ossining Public Library’s Budarz Theater.
- florbromleymusic.com
- librarycalendar.com/event/fiesta-bilingual-concert-experience-flor-bromley
