Arsht for Miami Dan + Claudia Zanes Holiday Sing Along

Grammy Award-winner Dan Zanes occupies a festive place in American music - where sea shanties, early rock-n-roll, English music hall, play party songs, North American and West Indian folk music collide. From thrift shop basements to Carnegie Hall, from Brooklyn to Bahrain, for over 20 years Zanes has been introducing new songs and reconnecting people to the forgotten music of the past. Referred to as “the family-music genre’s most outspoken and eloquent advocate” by Time Magazine, his critically acclaimed music has been featured on Sesame Street, Playhouse Disney, Nickelodeon, HBO Family, and Sprout. Over the course of several albums, DVDs, picture books, videos, he has collaborated with Philip Glass, Lou Reed, Angelique Kidjo, Natalie Merchant, Carol Channing, Sharon Jones, Bob Weir, Debbie Harry, Rosanne Cash, The Blind Boys of Alabama, and many more.

In the 1980’s, Zanes wasted his youth with The Del Fuegos, a roots rock band who released several albums and toured heavily before spontaneously combusting in 1989. In 1994 he became a father and began trying to create music he and his daughter could enjoy together; an updated version of the Folkways records he grew up on. In 2000, Zanes moved to Brooklyn and released Rocket Ship Beach, which became an immediate hit with families across America. NPR called him “The Gold Standard in kid’s music.” He spent the next 16 years recording and touring.

In 2016, Dan met Haitian-American jazz vocalist Music Therapist Claudia Eliaza, the person he’d been dreaming about for his entire life (now Claudia Zanes!). The two immediately began performing together and were married the following year. Their commitment to Sensory Friendly performance led to a commission from the Kennedy Center to create America’s first Sensory Friendly Comic Folk Opera, Night Train 57.

During this time, they made an award-winning songbook called Dan Zanes House Party: A Family Roots Music Treasury which was published by The Quarto Group in late 2018 to widespread acclaim from families, educators, and folk enthusiasts.

In 2019, the Zanes moved to beautiful Baltimore. They spent the first 200 days of the pandemic recording and releasing a video of a song every day. The Social Isolation Song Series, now housed in the Library of Congress Digital Archives, led to conversations with Smithsonian Folkways and the release of their electric folk album Let Love Be Your Guide, the couple’s first duo recording. The widely celebrated record features Dr. Kaye Wise Whitehead delivering a killer intro to the sing along song entitled “Reparations is a Must (4th of July Love Song)”.

In 2011, Dan founded Constructive White Conversations, a white antiracist affinity organization which has grown to eight online monthly meetings. For more information, please visit www.constructivewhiteconversations.org

Dan + Claudia’s second Smithsonian Folkways record, Walkin’ Talkin’ Baltimore will be released in August 2024.

Haitian-American Vocalist and Music Therapist Claudia Zanes has spent her life combining performance and music therapy to create a new paradigm for joyful, inclusive, participatory music making.

Born in New Hampshire and raised in Northern California, Claudia’s desire to use music compassionately led her to the music therapy degree program at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2005 where she worked with a spectrum of individuals through the life span – from children with special needs in public and private schools, orphans and youth in Nairobi, to frail and well-elders in adult day health programs.

In 2013, she became the Director of Music Therapy at the Community Music Center of Boston - the first Black woman to run a music therapy program in New England - where her community-based model helped redefine how music is used clinically through the organization.

During this time Claudia’s gifts as a jazz vocalist had her touring near and far including concerts in the US, England, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, and Kenya, Africa. She has appeared extensively throughout Russia in solo concerts and Jazz festivals.

On Labor Day 2016, Claudia met Dan Zanes and within a month the two were performing regularly. From the beginning Dan and Claudia have been committed to working with presenters to create Sensory Friendly conditions at their shows. This dedication to increased inclusion led to a commission from the Kennedy Center in 2017 to write and perform America’s first Sensory Friendly Comic Folk Opera entitled Night Train 57.

In 2018 Claudia and Dan were married! In the midst of all the celebrations they collaborated on the songbook Dan Zanes House Party: A Family Roots Music Treasury which was published by The Quarto Group in December 2018.

In 2019, the Zanes moved to beautiful Baltimore. They spent the first 200 days of the pandemic recording and releasing a video of a song every day. The Social Isolation Song Series, now housed in the Library of Congress Digital Archives, led to conversations with Smithsonian Folkways and the release of Let Love Be Your Guide, the couple’s first duo recording. The widely celebrated record features Dr. Kaye Wise Whitehead delivering a killer intro to the singalong song entitled “Reparations is a Must (4th of July Love Song)”.

When Claudia isn’t busy making music and traveling, she creates handmade luxury artisan soaps under the name CLEO. For more information, please visit cleo.soap.com

Dan + Claudia’s second Smithsonian Folkways record, Walkin’ Talkin’ Baltimore will be released in August 2024.

Elena Moon Park is a musician, educator, and producer living in Brooklyn, NY. She is a freelance violinist and multi-instrumentalist in NYC, specializing in contemporary classical and family music. She is also co-Artistic Director of the Brooklyn-based arts organization Found Sound Nation, which uses collaborative music creation to connect people across cultural divides. Originally from Oak Ridge, TN, Elena studied anthropology and ethnomusicology at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL and completed her M.A. in Urban Policy from The New School in New York. Before moving to NYC, Elena served as a development consultant for grassroots social justice organizations on the south and west sides of Chicago. While pursuing an urban policy degree from The New School, she began performing and touring the world with the all-ages folk rock band Dan Zanes and Friends, singing and playing violin, trumpet, mandolin, jarana, spoons, and musical saw. In 2012, Found Sound Nation entered into a partnership with the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to launch OneBeat, an annual global music diplomacy program that brings together musicians from around the globe to the U.S. each fall for one month of creative collaboration, performance and engagement with communities. In 2012, Elena also released her debut all-ages album called Rabbit Days and Dumplings, featuring reimagined folk and children's music from East Asia. Elena continues to perform with all-ages musicians Dan Zanes and Sonia De Los Santos, and leads her own all-ages folk rock band, Elena Moon Park and Friends.