Cimarrón Brought Rhythm, Music, and Joy to Salt Lake City
It was a short stay in Salt Lake City, but the musicians from Cimarrón made the most of their time here.
On Tuesday, Sept 26, the band taught a maraca class to community members at Sorenson Unity Center in Salt Lake City’s westside. The two maraca players from Cimarrón impressed the group with their show-stopping talents, and then taught several participants some basic rhythms on the maracas.
The event was a partnership with Bomba Marile, a local Afro Puerto Rican Bomba music & dance group, who taught the group a series of dance steps. The night culminated in a dance circle, with Bomba Marile artists, musicians from Cimarrón, and community members all taking turns showing off their newfound artistic skills in the center.
Wednesday morning started with a visit to Telemundo Utah where the group performed and the band’s leader and vocalist Ana Veydó spoke about the group’s history, their focus on joropo music, and what audiences could expect from the performance. See the spot (in Spanish).
That afternoon, members of the band taught a maracas class to elementary school students as part of an after school program for refugees, organized by our community partner Promise South Salt Lake. The kids had so much fun as they learned about the performance and history of this important instrument from these artists.
The public performance that evening at Kingsbury Hall had the audience on their feet with the incredible beats and energy of the band. The following morning, they repeated the show for an audience of K-12 students from along the Wasatch Front. The students’ energy was palpable, with one teacher reporting that her student musicians were “very excited to see unique musical instruments being used in a culturally significant way.”
Over three short but action-packed days, Cimarron reached more than 1100 people throughout the Salt Lake Area.
