Grammy-winning duo 123 Andrés will perform an engaging family-friendly show at the Guild Hall in East Hampton on Wednesday, Aug. 13 at 4:30 p.m.
Guild Hall is hosting a KidFest event beforehand, which includes a free arts-and-crafts workshop for ticket holders. The workshop, in collaboration with the Children’s Museum of the East End, starts one hour before the performance. Guild Hall is located at 158 Main St.
“The kids will like that this is not a show where you are going to be sitting quietly and listening and watching. This is going to be fully interactive. So, there’s going to be lots of opportunities to sing, to shout out your idea, to move your body—whether it’s little movements with your fingers or jumping around,” said co-star Christina Sanabria, known as Christina.
Children are encouraged to participate with their families.
“We’ll be learning and exploring things intergenerationally,” she said. The high-energy show features songs in Spanish and English with Latin American rhythms.
Performer Andrés Salguero, originally from Colombia, said language is not a barrier.
“We make it in a way that everybody feels invited and welcome and also that everybody feels they’re learning something. Many times it is the adults that come to us at the end of the show and say, ‘Wow, I learned so much today, or I refreshed my high school Spanish, so absolutely, it is for everybody.’”
Christina and Andrés began 123 Andrés with different career plans. Christina had been a public school teacher in the Philadelphia area. Andrés completed doctoral studies in music and had considered an academic path. He had long been interested in becoming a rock musician and began writing music for families.
“He kind of found his inner goofball. And when I saw what he was doing I decided to jump along,” said Christina, who is from the Kansas City area.
They have since created a podcast with PBS Kids, published four board books with Scholastic, and released eight albums available on Spotify and Apple Music.
“We’ve achieved a lot of goals,” said Andrés. “We performed at the White House. We got a Grammy, we work with PBS Kids, and we have reached and we’re reaching children all over the world with our YouTube channel. We have over 8 million subscribers, so honestly, we just want to cement our legacy that is in so many classrooms and so many places around the world.”
The group has won both Latin Grammy Awards and a Grammy Award for Best Children’s Music Album.
The program includes English and Spanish and has reached audiences internationally, including children in Iran. The performers also use American Sign Language to include the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.
Christina spoke about the importance of early exposure to the arts.
“I didn’t grow up to be a ballerina or a Mexican folklore dancer, but all those bits of exposure contribute to the work that I do today. All those things that we expose our kids to, like going to the theater, we’ll help our children dream and imagine and think of new possibilities.”
Andrés said, “My dream was to be a rock star, right? And I was writing songs that I was hoping people would fall in love with. My dream came true, just in a slightly different way.”
For more information, visit https://www.guildhall.org.