(photo: Ella Dascalos)
We know you’re inundated with information—especially this year, as the national and international news brings ever more amazing, or appalling, things to read about.
Not to mention the reading you may need to do for work or want to do for pleasure, or that addiction you may or may not have to social media.
Information overload is the reason the EEFC publishes a shorter newsletter every few months delivering smaller bits of information to your inbox. (If you’re not receiving that and want to, go to this link). And for timely event news and discussion of specific topics, there’s the fabulous EEFC discussion list / listserv.
But we know that our community’s interest in the music and dance we study runs deep, and we are thrilled that Kef Times continues to provide a vehicle for longer-format stories with photographs.
Where else can you read about Merita Halili and Raif Hyseni’s experiences growing up in Albania and Kosova, or the evolution of Raif’s mysterious accordion keyboard sheath?
Where else can you read about the development of Boston Balkan Music Night and read in-depth articles about two of our beloved teachers who died last year, Vassil Bebelekov and Esma Redžepova?
And how better to whet your appetite for this year's workshops? (Registration is open at eefc.org.) I challenge you to read any two or three reports from the 2016 scholarship recipients and find yourself unmoved by their experiences at the Workshops.
Thanks to all who contributed to this issue, including Henry Goldberg, Steward Hartman, Biz Hertzberg, Craig Kurumada, Carol Silverman, all the scholarship recipients, and especially Margaret Loomis, not only for her beautiful photos of the most recent Iroquois Springs workshop but also above-and-beyond help with captions and tracking down old photos. Special thanks to Alexandra Charney for pitching in with Rachel MacFarlane, Kef Times Production Manager, and me on formatting the issue.
And to all our readers, we hope you find at least a little time to enjoy this issue and we welcome your suggestions for topics to be included in future issues.