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Our Story
Growing up, Seren Koo was introduced to multiple musical instruments.
Being part of a Chinese Orchestra during Middle School left the greatest impact on her.
She eventually tried her hand at selling Traditional Chinese Musical Instruments, with the Sanxian, a rare niche musical instrument as her favorite. Here are two product photos of this rare instrument, photographed in upstate New York in 2018.
Although the experience brought her knowledge about instrument making and new friends within the industry, it was not sustainable. The delicate instruments frequently sustained shipping damages, and the skills required to play them was too difficult for most people.
Seren received many requests for teaching in regards to the Guzheng, but found it absolutely necessary to have in-person teaching, as online teaching was deeply insufficient to learn traditional chinese musical instrument skills.
In the depth of the Pandemic lockdown in 2020, Seren decided to team up with her current business partner, the patent holder for all of Chill Angels' chromatic kalimbas. We began our journey with CLASSIC, our 36 Key Kalimba, one of the best Kalimbas in the market. Combined with Seren's layout design, we were mesmerized by what the Chromatic Kalimba could do, how portable it was, and how it was so simple that online teaching would suffice.
In February 2021, we launched our 2-OCTAVE series of Chromatic Kalimbas, to provide an entry level, lightweight instrument, suitable for hands as small as 5 years old. It has tines positioned slightly further apart and can accomodate adults with big thumbs as well. 2-OCTAVE Kalimbas are very forgiving compared to the CLASSIC, because the slight increase in distance between tines reduces mistakes without affecting glissandos. We will continue to improve on this Series.
In September 2021, we are proud to launch ECO, our 34 Key Chromatic Kalimba that embodies the experience we gathered from selling CLASSIC and 2-OCATVE. Here are the changes we made, with the purpose of bringing our expertise to the mainstream:
- A simpler layout (compared to CLASSIC), more suitable for beginners
- The same high quality sound
- Increased soundboard thickness to make it hardier
- A price that is affordable to most customers
Chill Angels focuses solely on the Chromatic Kalimba because of how emotionally moving and musically versatile it is compared to the normal diatonic Kalimba. We just could not stop thinking about it. The exclusive Patents of the Kalimba components and copyrighted tuning layouts and other designs are the result of passionate study, never-ending research, frequent innovation and financial sacrifices in order to give you the very best.
Our Future Goals
We absolutely believe in our products, and we desperately need get the word out in order to sustain our business. Staying behind the scenes was not doing any justice to how wonderful our Chromatic Kalimbas are!
Our new strategy is for Chill Angels founder, Seren Koo to step out of her "backseat" comfort zone, to lead as the interactive "face" of the brand.
Our goal for 2022 is to turn our YouTube channel into a learning channel!
Who better to learn from than our Kalimba boss? Let's learn how to play from Seren, the person who designed the tine arrangement (upper layer key layout) of the Chromatic Kalimbas of Chill Angels.
Logo Inspiration
"Music is well said to be the speech of Angels” ―
Free Shipping Details
For a limited time we will absorb all shipping costs! :-)
This is an opportunity for customers to grab a Chill Angels Kalimba without additional shipping and import taxes.
From November 2021, Chill Angels will no longer ship from NYC Headquarters. The bamboo for our ECO Kalimba is grown and harvested in China, and the Kalimba workshop is in China. Hence, we are glad to have a trustworthy warehouse partner there too.
Shipping the item from our warehouse partner to your country is very quick, but once it gets to your country, the speed of your country's postal services would vary depending on your location.
Hence depending on your location, and pandemic situation, we estimate international deliveries to be 6 to 24 business days.
Our warehouse partner gently handles the musical instruments and packages it carefully. Generally, their packages arrive looking better on the outside than Amazon's. Looking better on the outside of a package may mean that it is less risky to the instrument inside. The condition of the outer packaging can also be an important consideration for those who wish to give the Kalimba as a gift.
Returns
All items sold to customers are brand new because we generally do not accept returns for repackaging and resale. In the unlikely event that you received a Kalimba with problems after unboxing, such as dead tines, let us know about it. We will replace the instrument for free, shipping not included. You get to keep both instruments. It is our responsibility to get it right the first time. :-)
Contact Information
Headquarters Address: 310 E 2nd Street, New York, NY 10009
Text/ Call/ Whatsapp: +1 347 788 8566
Email: seren@chillangels.com