Outside the Basque community, Kalakan is best known for accompanying Madonna on her 2012 MDNA tour. Within their community, they are rock stars in their own right

It was the Fourth of July, and it was raining. Martha González, lead singer and songwriter of GRAMMY-winning band Quetzal, had just finished performing in a lively FandangObon performance at the 2016 Folklife Festival.

In 1937, Cuban public radio broadcast for the first time the sounds of the batá drums.

What role does music play in your life? Is it for solitary enjoyment or social interaction? In this interview, music scholar Oliver Wang describes the social power of music to form connections

Throughout our interview, she often referenced dreamlike interactions with magical figures, including a fairy who welcomed her to a treehouse deep in the woods.

Raymundo Guzmán, also known as MixteKo, is an artist based in the San Joaquin Valley of California.

George Abe is an energetic, enigmatic man. A Japanese American born and raised in California, he presented and performed as part of the Sounds of California program.

Based in San Antonio, Texas, Los Texmaniacs is a Grammy Award-winning Smithsonian Folkways conjunto rock band.

As Smithsonian Folkways artists, Chicano rock band Quetzal has appeared at the Folklife Festival multiple times, this year representing the Sounds of California.

Beyond the 2016 Folklife Festival, Sounds of California is part of a collaborative project with the Alliance for California Traditional Arts and Radio Bilingüe.