His free performance, given as part of the Friday Night at the Library series, begins at 7 p.m. May 22.
A storehouse of Latin American and other musical and cultural tradition, Orozco is a popular visitor, said librarian Armando Ramirez. He draws more than 300 English- and Spanish-speaking listeners for family-oriented shows.
 Jose-Luis Orozco makes his seventh annual visit to the Half Moon Bay Library on Friday. |
Orozco is skilled at drawing audiences into his show by getting them involved in singing, dance and frolic, said Ramirez. “He makes the audience very welcomed to his program.”
Born in Mexico City, Orozco fell in love with music early, joining the globe-trotting Mexico City Boy’s Choir at 8. He traveled with the choir to 32 countries in Europe, the Caribbean, Central and South America, gaining cultural knowledge that he would later put into his books and recordings.
At 19 he moved to California, and earned a master’s degree in multicultural education from the University of San Francisco. Then he built a career as a children’s author, songwriter, performer and recording artist.
He has recorded 13 volumes of “Lirica Infantil, Latin American Children’s Music” and written three award-winning books, “De Colores and Other Latin American Folk Songs for Children” (1994,) “Diez Deditos — Ten Little Fingers” (1997) and “Fiestas” (2002.) His music and books offer a bilingual medley of song, rhyme, tongue-twisters, lullabyes, games and holiday fetes.
His latest book, “Rin, Rin Rin ... Do, Re, Mi” lyrically shows how everyday family activities like cooking, singing, reading or storytelling foster literacy skills. It is the first book in a series through Scholastic’s Latino initiative “Lee y Seras” (“Read and You Will Be,”) created to improve literacy development of Latino children.
The library is located at 620 Correas St., Half Moon Bay, and can be reached at 726-2316.
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