WMI Plus At Home - Oran Etkin and Benjamim Taubkin
Oran Etkin has been described as “Ebullient” by the New York Times, and voted #1 rising star clarinetist in DownBeat Magazine’s Critic’s Poll. His music can be heard on concert stages worldwide and on numerous recordings, including a Grammy Award Winning anti-bullying compilation. He is on the faculty of The New School University and has also appeared as a guest lecturer at Harvard University. French newspaper Libération chose his Paris concert as one of the top 6 musical events of the year, hailing it as ”a concert of weightlessness, class, spark, inspiration and sharing. Magic uninterrupted... for such is the music of Etkin: sensitive to the exchange with the audience.”
Whether standing in front of an orchestra or sitting crosslegged on the floor surrounded by a gaggle of children, Etkin’s work is about imagination, expression, playfulness and emotion. It draws its strength from the conviction that the the true power of music lies not just in the individual's pursuit of technical mastery but in the joyful and soulful creation of community!
Brazilian music and its dialogue with other cultures have been the field of activity of pianist, arranger, composer and producer, Benjamim Taubkin.Taubkin has regularly performed solo piano and symphony orchestra at festivals in cultural centers in Brazil, Latin America, Canada, the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. He also held concerts and artistic residencies in Morocco, Austria, Korea, Venezuela and Argentina.
He created several soundtracks for documentaries, including Eu Maior, Carvos and Genesis – educational material with Sebastião Salgado. Taubkin coordinated and programmed several initiatives in public and private institutions such as the State Department of Culture, Itaú Cultural, Mercado Cultural da Bahia, and SESC, among others. He is a member of the European Forum of World Music Festivals and the Ibero-American Association for the Development of Music.