Award Winning Mil's Trills Makes DC Area Debut This Week

Families from Brooklyn to Edinburgh have fallen in love with the award-winning children's music project Mil's Trills. Now DC area families have a chance to make friends with the high-spirited ensemble when Mil's Trills makes its DC area debut with shows at 10:30 a.m. today, August 6 and tomorrow, August 7 at Wolf Trap Children's Theatre-in-the-Woods, 1551 Trap Rd., Vienna, VA.

Mil's Trills is a children's music project founded and led by Brooklyn-based Amelia Robinson, which, through highly interactive live performances and beautifully produced recordings of original songs, encourages everyone -- kids, parents, caregivers, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, neighbors and friends -- to appreciate, connect, and deepen friendships through singing, dancing, and just having fun together!

Amelia Robinson, her electric ukulele, and her rockin' band will take everyone on a rhythmic expedition of music from around the world: urban funk, blues, honkey tonk, calypso, and more. They'll also offer sneak previews of participatory numbers from the new Mil's Trills album, Now That We're Friends ... . Songs like "Say Hey!," "Singing Together," and "Everybody's Got a Body" connect with both kids and grownups in a big way.

Says Amelia Robinson, "At our shows, each child is made to feel important and is recognized as an individual within the larger community. My goal is to make everyone feel they're a vital part of the bigger group. We give each child a sticker after the show that says, 'I'm in the band.' Just by attending the show, everyone is automatically part of the project!"

Mil's Trills shows are silly, playful, and spontaneous, and Amelia Robinsonknows how to build on those special, improvisatory moments. Amelia and the band use ribbons to "paint" the music and turn sound into visible shapes. They do the same with their bodies, transforming their limbs into shapes of the sky (moon, sun, stars). To keep kids engaged, Amelia invites audience suggestions for topics like favorite vegetables, wearing a wireless mic as she goes out into the crowd to "get down" with the kids. She'll bring kids (and parents) onstage, and will sometimes decide, on the spur of the moment, to have a dance-off, mid-song. A born-and-bred Brooklynite, Amelia Robinson will even teach the audience how to speak Brooklynese!

Mil's Trills' 2014 debut album, Everyone Together Now! was honored with a Parents' Choice® Award, and the ensemble received a Notable Mention in the Primary Times Children's Choice Awards for its 2014 run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Mil's Trills' second album of high-spirited, empowering songs for children and adults alike, Now That We're Friends ..., will be released on September 23rd. Personalized copies of the CD will be available at a specially discounted, pre-release price, exclusively for Wolf Trap patrons, at the August 6 and 7 Mil's Trills shows.

To post a comment, you must register and login.