The Parenting Panel with Lucy Kalantari
Lucy Kalantari is a 2x GRAMMY® Award winning artist, composer, arranger and producer passionate about creating children’s media that brings joy, inspires community and highlights the power of resilience. She's the frontwoman and bandleader for Lucy Kalantari & the Jazz Cats, making bilingual, jazz age-inspired music for families. Her album All the Sounds, won the GRAMMY® Award for Best Children’s Album, bringing joy and pride to the Dominican Republic, where she grew up. Most recently, Kalantari produced, recorded and arranged the GRAMMY® Award winning album “All the Ladies,” by Joanie Leeds, an impactful collection of songs to empower young girls and shape future minds of the world.
Born to Dominican & Puerto Rican parents, she writes swingin’ ukulele tunes both in English and in Spanish. Kalantari’s songs have been featured on Universal Kids (NBCUniversal Television) and can often be found topping the charts on SiriusXM Kids Place Live and other family programs around the country. She has performed in venues and festivals around the country such as Lollapalooza in Chicago, IL, Levitt Pavilion in Westport, CT, Symphony Space in NYC, among others. As a full-time music creator and a mother to an 8 year-old musician, she still makes time to mentor, teaching high school and college students to follow the sounds in their hearts and pursue their passion.
1. Did you have fears or concerns about how becoming a parent would interfere with your artistic endeavors?
I was 100% certain that I would forget all the musical things I had learned in my lifetime, with each diaper change, and music would just be a “hobby.”
2. Have those fears come true, or no?
I’m happy to report that not only was I incredibly wrong, my musical creativity increased exponentially! A couple of weeks after having my son, I received an invitation to participate in a song a week program for a full year. My thought was, that if I said yes, I would stay connected to my craft. So I went into an adventure of daily mommying and weekly songwriting, the combo fed each other in an amazing symbiotic relationship.
3. In what ways has parenthood helped your creativity, if any?
Parenthood has taught me the art of letting go. There’s not enough time to dwell on all the little things, and kids are constantly evolving to their next stage of development. As a parent, you have to be ready to fill the role they need for this next phase. And since children are constantly growing, so is the parent. There’s no stagnance!
4. What has parenthood taught you about yourself, your music, or your creative process?
Parenthood made me realize how much I love creating music for kids and families! It felt like a gift that had been waiting for me my entire life. Being a parent also confirmed how much I love being immersed in music throughout my days. I realized that when I busy my hands with work around our home, it frees my mind to create. Melodies, lyrics and arrangements come pouring in when I give it space to come. And as a bonus, my son is being raised in this musical environment, it’s a natural place for him. I’ll find him doing similar things: humming a melody while building legos, and suddenly needing to stop so he could play it on his cello or at the piano.
5. How do you juggle your family and your career? Who’s your support system?
I think I’m still trying to figure this one out! The juggle can get so intense! We have a few basic rules at home that we all practice, like all of our meals are at the table without any phones or TVs on so we stay connected to each other no matter how busy we get. I’m also blessed with two besties. We have a weekly video call to catch up and unload, though sometimes we get so crazed it gets pushed out for weeks, but we’ll stay connected with our group chat cheering each other on and doing mental health checks.
6. Has the pandemic taken away or added to your creative flow? Are you taking good care of yourself these days?
This pandemic has both taken away and given to my creativity. At the beginning of the lockdown, it was very, very difficult. NYC was hit so hard and we lost so many neighbors. I was in a constant state of anxiety hearing ambulance after ambulance non-stop in the neighborhood. I tried to stick with my weekly virtual sing-alongs for families, but it was getting harder and harder to keep up, I was running out of energy fast. To feed my soul, I spent more and more time in my yard gardening, doing yoga and eventually I recorded a few shows in the yard. I also did other interesting projects like Handwash Jukebox, an Alexa skill to help families wash their hands for the recommended 20 seconds, as stated by the CDC. My biggest takeaway from all this, and as I always tell my son, listen to your body. It sends you cues when you’re in need, no one can respect that nor grant that to you but yourself.
7. Have you ever written a song for or about your kids? If so please share a description and a link.
Because I focus my work on children’s media, my son has been a HUGE inspiration and motivation. One of the tunes I wrote is 100% about him and his cello. He wanted to play cello when he was 2 ½ years old, he pretended his ukulele was a cello and bowed it with a drumstick. I told him that when he turned 3, we’ll get him lessons. He started to tell everyone and ANYONE who would listen, “When I turn THREE, I’m going to play a REALLLL cello!” and he did. In this recording and video he was 5 ½ !
Follow Lucy Kalantari via:
LucyKalantari.com
twitter.com/lucytoon
www.facebook.com/LucyKalantari