Award-Winning Kids' Musicians Andrew & Polly Set for DC Area Debut This August

Award-winning kids' musicians Andrew & Polly will make their DC area debut with a show filled with sweet and quirky, imaginative and fun music. On Saturday, August 1. At 10:30 a.m. Andrew & Polly will perform at Jammin' Java, 227 Maple Ave. E., Vienna, VA

Kids and families nationwide know and love the music of L.A.-based composer/performers Andrew & Polly from hearing their songs on Nickelodeon's Wallykazam!, as well as the score to the Nick digital series Welcome To The Wayne.

Andrew Barkan and Polly Hall are in demand for their sparkling music for grown-up films, TV, and commercials, but their true love is creating and performing music for children. The married couple makes no bones about where their priorities lie. According to Andrew, "The commercial accolades are nice, but much more meaningful to us was winning the prestigious ASCAP Foundation Joe Raposo Children's Music Award for a song from our debut children's album, Up and At 'Em!"

Andrew & Polly connect with kids in a big way. They open all their live shows with a number that draws children and parents alike into their special brand of smart, imaginative, and bravely silly performance. Using anything from banana-concealed kazoos to Japanese synthizers, Andrew & Polly encourage audience participation as they improvise according to suggestions from the kids. Sometimes Andrew is very shy, and he often falls asleep and needs an entire audience to roar him awake. Polly can magically lift Andrew's extremely heavy accordion suitcase with ease, but she'll forget the simplest lyrics ("Are you sure that's how the ABC's go? That's not how we sing it in Arkansas ...")

The duo takes time during each concert to demonstrate their instruments, secretly slipping musical vocabulary into the show. While their studio arrangements are lushly layered, Andrew & Polly rely on the audience to act as back-up singers and percussion during their live shows, fleshing out the duo's quirky instrumentation, which includes ukulele, accordion, harmonica, glockenspiel, and assorted percussion. All in all, Andrew & Polly's shows are fantastic sing-a-long experiences that focus on children's participation to keep them engaged.

Andrew & Polly's second album of playful pop tunes for kids, Odds & Ends, will be released on September 25th. The dynamic duo have also developed Ear Snacks, a delicious new podcast for kids, featuring kids. Episode 1, FRUIT!, is available on iTunes HERE, Stitcher HERE, SoundCloud HERE, and tuneinHERE.