School-Time Matinee with Sonia De Los Santos

The 2024-25 season marks the return of our School-Time Matinee programs. Make the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State your field trip destination! Perfect for Hispanic Heritage Month! Sonia De Los Santos sings and plays instruments traditional to her hometown in the state of Nuevo Leon, Mexico. She playfully weaves Spanish and English in songs about making new friends and moving to New York. Born with a smile on her face (that’s what her mom says), she mixes in North American folk traditions from the United States, and sings in Spanish and English. Since 2007, she has brought audiences of all ages together to celebrate and to learn from each other. Her songs are about her favorite things, like migrating birds, friendship, chocolate, growing up in Mexico, and realizing her childhood dream of moving to New York. De Los Santos has been nominated for a Latin Grammy Award, and she was hailed by Billboard as “one of the Latin children’s music artists you should know” and "Best Latin Children's Music.” To us, an educator is anyone who recognizes the value of culturally responsive performing arts that help youth to achieve academic, social, and emotional success. Why give the performing arts a role in education? The performing arts can be used to explore almost anything. Education is performative. The performing arts help to create conditions for everyday awe, places where all learners can thrive.