The Wall Street Journal calls him “the Hippest Harpist,” playing a 32-string instrument from Colombia (his homeland) and Venezuela. To packed houses, the Music of the Americas series presented Castañeda in three concerts with his trio – saxophonist Shlomi Cohen and drummer/percussionist David Silliman. Guests are vocalist Andrea Tierra, bandoneonist Héctor Del Curto, vibraphonist Joe Locke, flutist Itai Kriss, and cuatro legend Jorge Glem. Imagine the possibilities! We have highlights.

You may think you know a definition of life, but you would be wrong. Many biologists and scientists are struggling to come up with a theory of life that we can test. In recent decades bacteria have been discovered living in hot springs in temperatures high enough to cook all other life. Life has now been found living in sulphur springs, in caustic soda lakes, deep in the earth’s crust and even in the salt lakes. All places we thought life could never exist. But these extremophile forms of life are only the beginning. Supposed there is life not based on the Carbon atom?