Clarinet player Oran Etkin, middle, performs with his band at the Pfleeger Concert Hall. Glassboro, NJ. Sunday, March 16, 2025. - Staff Photographer / Ashtaye-Ann Ashley
The Marie Rader Series hosted the “Timbalooloo: Jazz for Kids” concert in Rowan University’s Pfleeger Hall. During the minutes before the concert began, the room was abuzz with chaotic noise: talking, laughing, a couple of high-pitched shrieks, some babbling nonsense, and one crying baby. One thing was unanimous among the kids—everyone was thrilled to see the show.
As the audience began to trickle into Pfleeger Hall on Sunday, March 16, an eager toddler came in who confirmed he was highly excited, and that sentiment was palpable.
“See that ‘pinano?’ We have a ‘pinano’ at home,” said Ronan.
Eight-year-old Darren, a natural-born artist, also spoke about his anticipation and how he didn’t know anything about jazz.
“No, not really, but one of the kids in my class does jazz,” said Darren.
The Marie Rader Series’ audience curator, Debbie Shapiro, stepped onto the stage to greet the attendees, and she let the audience know just how kid-friendly that concert was.
She welcomed the children to talk and make noise as needed or wanted, encouraged everyone to get up and dance when the mood struck, and even offered parents a quiet place to take their little ones should the music or atmosphere become too overwhelming. Then, the main act entered the stage left.
According to Grammy award-winning musician Oran Etkin, the concert’s creator, Timbalooloo, is a term coined by one of his three-year-old students when trying to describe an instrument from class to his parents. Throughout his plentiful travels around the world—including Zimbabwe, Czech Republic, Turkey, China, and Brazil, where he, his wife Laura, and their 18-month-old baby Lia have made their home—he has encountered all varieties of music, inspiring him to do something inventive for the sake of preservation.
Etkin found a way to blend music from Herbie Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie, Mozart, Babatunde Olatunji, and many others. That concoction of styles makes these concerts the perfect way to introduce kids to varieties of music they might not be able to hear elsewhere.
Etkin and his band slowly introduced the kids to the instruments on stage and the kinds of noises they made. The first was his baby, ‘Clara Net.’ (As you may have guessed, she is a clarinet.) Etkin said he has played the violin since age eight, the saxophone since age nine, and the guitar since age 10, and then he picked up the clarinet at age 11, making him something akin to a musical polyglot.
From the very beginning, Etkin invited the kids to participate fully in the music-making process. It was an interactive concert that kept the kids’ attention for an entire hour, which is pretty impressive considering they say children have the attention spans of a metaphorical gnat.
Etkin even asked three kids, Bennett, Aliyah, and Magnolia, to come onto the stage with him at one point to honk the imaginary car horn. The kids were drawn into the music, expressing themselves verbally, dancing, jumping around, and clapping their hands along with the show’s creator.
After all was said and done, the audience meandered around the lobby, and four-and-a-half-year-old Hannah agreed to talk. She liked the show a lot, with which every other toddler concurred. Her favorite parts were the crowdpleasers.
“Dancing and Clara Net,” said Hannah.
If the show’s primary goal was to introduce new genres, its secondary goal was to inspire the kids to pick up an instrument and try something new. As the program guide states, “We strive to empower a new generation to become as fluent in the language of music as they are in their mother tongue.”
Etkins encourages people to realize that music is so good for developing brains and affects us into adulthood. It teaches us about change and emotions, how we are rhythmic beings, and that dancing and singing to music is second nature.
“[I] want kids to be fluent with music and able to express themselves…to invite them to see other cultures,” said Etkin. He also pointed out that when parents aren’t musically inclined, they feel too intimidated by it to set their kids down a musical path, which is a barrier he aims to break.
Timbalooloo seeks to inspire us all to lean into our harmonious and even discordant sides and embrace the necessity and privilege of music. Elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide are shuttering their music education programs. More than anything, Etkin and his group are trying to bridge the gap in a way that is fun and educational for all involved.
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