Octopretzel

For four years now, Octopretzel has been delighting young Bay Area audiences with their colorful and inspired performances. Their shows feature handmade puppets, bubbles of all sizes, and at times hula-hooping Kindergartners - inspiring spontaneous kiddie mosh-pits, while still maintaining focus and interactive participation.

Octopretzel plays regularly at favorite Bay Area venues such as the Discovery Museum in Sausalito, Fairyland in Oakland and the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. One of their recent performances, at the historic Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, collected a line of parents and toddlers that stretched around city blocks.

Octopretzel's new studio album, "If I Were a Song..." captures the dynamic energy of a live show while highlighting their impressive four-part harmonies and roots-music instrumentation.

With backgrounds in folk music and extensive world travel, band leaders Melita Doostan and Sarita Pockell came together as musical collaborators over ten years ago. Their songwriting presents imagery of spinning tops, roly polies, whimsical imaginary creatures such as the band's namesake - the "Octopretzel", nature, cycles of life, and more. From unique interpretations of traditional folk classics to fun and catchy originals, this is music that parents love and that has kids asking for more! Along with fiddles and guitars, the band's instrumentation features mandolin, marimba, the middle-eastern tambourine (or riq), African drums, and many other unique sounds from around the world.