Katheryn Petersen
Location: Vancouver, B.C.
Occupation: I am a professional musician, plus I work several part-time jobs to fill in the blank in my income stream.
Connection to Balkan music/dance: I perform with several groups that have varying levels of Balkan content:
http://www.balkanshmalkan.com/
https://www.facebook.com/somethingaboutreptiles/
https://teapotinthetuba.wordpress.com/
Number of times at Balkan camp: This was my first
Katheryn Petersen
year.
Studied at camp: Accordion and voice.
Memorable moment at camp:
Practicing with the Albanian orchestra ensemble in the woods
Sleeping in the beautiful old historic cabins
Deep conversations with new friends over beautiful food
The campfire late at night with impromptu music by the uber-talented teenager/young adult players
Becoming hypnotized by the power of the circle dancing at night
The kafana.
I took this photo to document the accordions that I collected and fixed over the past two years. The bulk of those accordions were destined for donation to a music program that I ran over the past year through St. James Music Academy (which serves disadvantaged families and youth in the east side of Vancouver). At one point there were 16 accordions in my small apartment (not all are showing in the photo). My boyfriend and I were literally tripping over accordions! I am currently back down to my four core instruments plus two that I am fixing for sale and one that is a “trick accordion” that I kitted out to be able to use on stage for the emergence of a monkey puppet.