Family Drumming Circle

Join professional LA-based percussionist Andrew Grueschow to participate in a family drumming circle with an emphasis on African drumming! Recommended for ages 2-8. Andrew will teach children the basics of drumming and music, then children will participate in the indigenous Mexican drumming circle and sound great! The drumming circle and the art studio are complimentary with admission.

Andrew has an interest in music from all over the world. He has traveled to Ghana, West Africa several times, studying the music of the Ewe and the Dagombas and recording traditional drumming for Zadonu Records. In addition to the Hands On’Semble, an award-winning percussion ensemble, Andrew is a member of the Zadonu African Music and Dance Company, featured on the “ALI” soundtrack. He has also performed with Adam Rudolph’s “Go: Organic Orchestra,” Lian Ensemble, and Vinny Golia’s “Large Ensemble.” Andrew also teaches with the Music Center – Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles Philharmonic, CalArts, and the Orange County Performing Arts Center. He is currently involved with work in the LSSN Network (Music-In-Education National Consortium), affiliated with the New England Conservatory. Andrew has performed in Germany, Brazil, Ghana, Taiwan, and throughout the US.

Did you know that music activates different parts of the brain, including areas that control language skills? Studies also show that music can elevate our emotional state, increase our ability to focus, and strengthen math skills!

In the Art Studio today (from 10am – 4:00pm) children can make their very own maracas and rainsticks to take the music home!

Rainsticks are ceremonial musical instruments used to invoke the rain spirits. They are made by people who live in the deserts of northern Chile. In Chile, rainsticks are traditionally made from dead cactus tubes with hundreds of cactus spines hammered into the tube. Tiny lava pebbles cascade gently through the tube, sounding much like rain.

The rainstick we will create is definitely not traditional but much safer for kids. It is made from a cardboard tube (instead of a dried cactus) and aluminum foil (in place of cactus spines).

The Latin American maracas are traditionally made form dried out gourds. Kidseum maracas will be created with decorated water bottles, but they are just as fun to shake!