The joy, community and resilience of Lucy Kalantari

Family music artist Lucy Kalantari on the power of intention, why gardening is her favorite metaphor for living a creative life, staying curious, parenthood, and the Grammys.

Lucy Kalantari was a self described singer of angsty adult music, hustling her way through New York bar gigs and wondering why she wasn’t more successful. She knew music was a passion early on, but she grew up in a family where becoming a professional musician was not on anybody’s radar. She was raised between the Dominican Republic and New York, and in both places she felt she had to adjust who she was in order to fit in. 

Lucy made her way to college at Purchase Conservatory of Music where she got interested in recording and production - something that was not common for young women in the late 90s. And then she set out to make her mark as an artist. 

But it wasn’t until after the birth of her son Darius that she discovered her true calling of making music for kids and families. In fact, it may be fair to say that her love of being a mother - especially Darius’ mother - put her on her professional path. 

Today she is a Grammy winner multiple times over, one of the most highly regarded bilingual family music artists (with her group Lucy Kalantari and the Jazz Cats) and producers. Recently she has written songs for the newly rebooted Dora series, and is also an advocate and mentor. She serves as a soundBoard mentor for We Are Moving the Needle, striving to correct the balance in an industry where women and non-binary individuals are underrepresented. She’s also a mentor for GRAMMY U and an active member of the Recording Academy. Her most recent album Creciendo is her first entirely in Spanish.

And Darius turned out to be a naturally gifted musician himself. At 11 years old, the young cellist is not only a member of Lucy’s band, but he has also performed as a soloist around the country. 

Lucy is someone who doesn’t just set intentions in a vague or general way, she tends to find mantras, mottos and specific language to help guide her process. For example, when she began doing family music, she decided that her first principals would be joy, community and resilience and that she would return to those principals to help decide which projects she should take on and how she should approach them.

We spoke earlier this year about the power of intention, why gardening is her favorite metaphor for living a creative life, staying curious, parenthood, and the Grammys.

“I need to love and absolutely believe in the thing that I’m doing. That is success.”

A note about the Grammys: Every year, there is a week when the Grammy voting submissions begin and those of us who follow and are followed by a lot of musicians are bombarded with FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION posts, emails and texts. Inevitably this reopens the perennial and sensitive conversation around the Grammys, what they represent and who they serve.

Lucy is perhaps a rare example of an artist for whom the Grammys and the Recording Academy have been a very productive and positive force in her life, and she talks about the value of being involved in the academy for her.

Visit the archive and check out past episodes, including conversations with other family music artists - or artists who have at least dipped their toes into the family stream - like Dan and Claudia Zanes, Michael Hearst, Peter Himmelman, John Medeski, and Falu.