Eastern European Threads

Posted on September 16, 2014 at 7:46 pm. By Julie Lancaster

Our Eastern European Threads series brings you information and tips about Balkan and other Eastern European textiles and costumes. In this issue, Caring for Your Folk Costume.

Caring for Your Folk Costume

By Wendi Kiss, Fall 2014

Tablet-woven belts from the Shope region, Bulgaria, from the author’s collection.

Well, how do you care for your folk costume? First of all, we are assuming that this is a costume you wear to dance or perform in, not a museum-quality piece that you intend to preserve for posterity. Unless you made the costume yourself and prewashed all the components, you cannot be certain how it will react to washing or dry cleaning, but you want to keep the costume clean and dust free. So here are a few guidelines.

Fabric in folk costumes can generally be broken down into three groups—animal/protein, vegetable and manmade. Wool and silk are in the first group, linen/hemp and cotton in the second, and rayon/acetate and polyester in the third. You need to treat each group differently AND be aware that your trim or embroidery may not be the same fiber. If you live near a museum or university that houses a textile collection you can find out what dry cleaner they use. Searching out a dry cleaner yourself is a matter of finding one that is willing to work with you and preferably has the plant on premise. If you don’t have that resource available or choose not to dry-clean, it is possible you can hand wash the costume yourself. Do be aware that once you use water, you cannot undo any of its effects. If the piece is a blend of fabric, treat it according to the least hardy component.

Test for colorfastness first. Pick an inconspicuous area of the garment, put several folded white paper towels under the area you’re checking. Dampen the area with cold water, put several folded towels on top and place a weight on top. Check the towels at 5 minutes and again at 15 and 20. Any color on them means the piece is NOT colorfast. Also do this check on any embroidery or trim. WARNING—wetting silk or acetate/rayon material can stain the fabric itself!

If you pass the colorfast test, you can attempt washing. Do it in a large flat basin with lots of cold running water—your bathtub or shower. Start with a plain cool water soak and rinse until the water runs clean. If needed, you can wash again with a translucent dish washing soap such as Dawn (avoid the milky lotion kind). You can also use Synthrapol or Orvus. Do NOT ever use a commercial laundry product, as many of them have bleaching agents and they are alkaline, which is bad for wool and silk. Again, rinse until the water runs clear. DON’T EVER use any kind of chlorine bleach or enzyme on wool or silk. It will eat the fabric.

To dry your costume, remove excess water by rolling the costume in dry towels and gently squeezing. A clean chamois-type towel will work well. Finish drying your costume spread out flat on towels if it’s heavy. You can flip the costume from front to back to speed drying. If it's lighter, you can use a plastic hanger—never use metal or wood as they may stain the fabric. It may take several days to dry, so be patient. This is also an excellent time to finger-press in any pleats.

Now that your costume is clean, DON'T store it in plastic, especially not if it’s damp! Use a padded hanger for lightweight costumes. In fact, most folk costumes were traditionally folded and stored in chests. See if you can find someone to show you how the costume should be folded. When you wear your costume, use an old T-shirt or garment shields underneath and ALWAYS wash or clean your costume after wearing it—even though it may not smell bad, contact with your body oils and salts means it needs cleaning!

Wendi Kiss first encountered Eastern European music, dance and costume quite some time ago and has never looked back. A former AVAZ member and group costume director, and one of the early members of Zhena Women's Choir, she is currently a member and costume director of Planina Songs of Eastern Europe, Storm Mountain Folk Dancers (retired, but still costume director) and the Loveland Choral Society.

Wendi is editor of Kef Times' Eastern European Threads. If you have an idea for an interesting textile, costume, costume tradition, etc., to be featured in a future issue, please contact her.

Caring for Your Folk Costume

Posted on September 16, 2014 at 7:35 pm. By Julie Lancaster

Tablet-woven belts from the Shope region, Bulgaria, from the author’s collection.

To dry your costume, remove excess water by rolling the costume in dry towels and gently squeezing. A clean chamois-type towel will work well. Finish drying your costume spread out flat on towels if it’s heavy. You can flip the costume from front to back to speed drying. If it’s lighter, you can use a plastic hanger—never use metal or wood as they may stain the fabric. It may take several days to dry, so be patient. This is also an excellent time to finger-press in any pleats.

Now that your costume is clean, DON’T store it in plastic, especially not if it’s damp! Use a padded hanger for lightweight costumes. In fact, most folk costumes were traditionally folded and stored in chests. See if you can find someone to show you how the costume should be folded. When you wear your costume, use an old T-shirt or garment shields underneath and ALWAYS wash or clean your costume after wearing it—even though it may not smell bad, contact with your body oils and salts means it needs cleaning!

Wendi Kiss first encountered Eastern European music, dance and costume quite some time ago and has never looked back. A former AVAZ member and group costume director, and one of the early members of Zhena Women’s Choir, she is currently a member and costume director of Planina Songs of Eastern Europe, Storm Mountain Folk Dancers (retired, but still costume director) and the Loveland Choral Society.

Wendi is editor of Kef Times’ Eastern European Threads. If you have an idea for an interesting textile, costume, costume tradition, etc., to be featured in a future issue, please contact her.

EEFC Fundraising and Outreach

Posted on September 16, 2014 at 12:11 am. By Julie Lancaster

Jay House Samios

Welcome to the second issue of the all-new, online Kef Times. I’m delighted to release to you the second issue in what we are planning as a thrice-yearly publication. I encourage you to share the articles you find most interesting, and let Julie and the rest of the team know what you think of their work.

Thanks to volunteers, we are moving forward with an improved database that will better equip us to communicate effectively with different groups of people, including funders, potential campers and new communities entirely. Since East Coast camp, a team comprised of Jeanne Busch, Noel Kropf and Martie Ripson has stepped up, taking on the task of assessing and setting up a new, more powerful database.

I am also happy to provide the following updates to our work in Fundraising and Outreach.

Fundraising

I am in conversation with the Good Family Foundation, which previously funded Forum Folkloristika, about a proposal for subsequent funding. Foundation representatives and I are discussing a project that is a good fit for both the EEFC and the Foundation. That conversation will be ongoing through this fall, and I expect to know more about our next steps before the end of 2014. In addition, Board Member Nancy Leeper has agreed to take on a preliminary search for foundations that offer grant opportunities that are a good match for the EEFC.
At both of our camps, we raised a grand total of $33,000 through auctions, pazar and donation stores, which means we exceeded at-camp fundraising goals by nine percent.

Outreach

This year, we have put together a core team dedicated to focusing on marketing the EEFC and our workshops. Elena Erber is the chair of the committee charged with this work, and we were recently joined by Eva Salina as a committee member. With this team in place, we have a new focus on marketing for the purpose of making more people aware of our workshops and bringing more (and new) people to camp. The team will work closely with Workshop Manager Rachel MacFarlane and other Board members to target specific groups, such as past campers who have not returned in a while, past scholarship recipients and people whom we don’t reach yet.
One arrow in our quiver is the scholarship money that we raised at the two auctions. We anticipate this being a powerful tool for reaching people who are not currently coming to camp.
We are also working with a volunteer marketing expert to better understand the EEFC’s brand image (how we are perceived, rather than who we think we are). The purpose of this is to help us do a better job communicating with the groups mentioned above, as well as to help us be clear about what our current practices do communicate, whether intentionally or not.

Next month, look for an update from me on what’s happening with the Program Committee, the fall board meeting, and the latest word on the organization’s finances.

Balkan Night Northwest

Posted on September 16, 2014 at 12:02 am. By Julie Lancaster

You know when it’s January? And you haven’t seen the sun since September? And the long, grey spring stretches out ahead of you with that little twinkle called Balkan camp at the end of the tunnel? And everybody else is partying out at Golden Fest? Every year at that time we would think, we really need to have something like Golden Fest that we can go to! In our town!

Then, at Mendocino camp in 2011, we were sitting around the smoking table with Christos [Govetas; Ruth’s husband], and the three of us looked at each other and said, “Let’s do it!” We pulled Steve Ramsey in to help, and that is where Balkan Night Northwest began.

So, on the one hand, it was a self-serving act. But underlying it was a very clear and specific goal: to bring in people from the cultures of the Balkans, as well as local “American” groups. Ethnic groups stick with themselves, and know their own cultures, but it is a revelation to them to see that their Balkan neighbors share some of the same traditions, and certainly the same passion for music, dance and community.

It was a bit of a gamble. We ran a Kickstarter to get seed money for the festival and rounded up more than a dozen bands (just locally). We made the decision that all performers at the event would volunteer their creative time and forego payment for services or travel; bands would be able to sell their recordings and merchandise with no commission taken.

We got the hall, arranged for the Seattle Junior Tamburitzans to run the kitchen and bar, crossed our fingers and did it. We remember when we opened the doors at the first Balkan Night—the hall was full from the 4 p.m. start time; it was like stepping on a conveyer belt that was running a little bit too fast, but in a great way. Everyone was so thrilled and excited by what was happening, and we are just trying to keep that feeling continuing.

The first year Balkan Night Northwest (BNNW) had over 700 people in a hall that holds 350! Everyone came and no one left until the end. At one point the cops showed up, looked around, crossed their arms, nodded and said, “Yep, that’s illegal,” and left!

Logistics

There are two stages, the main dance stage and the Kafana stage. The first year we had more than a dozen bands; the second year we expanded to two nights (Friday and Saturday) and ended up with 24 bands! The problem was that we still had the same number of attendees. So we went back to one night in 2013 in a bigger venue, and by all reports it is better than ever. We generally have about 100 performers and about 700 attendees.

BNNW was held at the Russian Center in 2012 and 2013. In 2014, it moved to St. Demetrios Hall and we expect to keep it there. Dates have ranged from as early as February 21 (scheduled for 2015) to as late as March 16. Why the roaming dates? We are trying to keep it on the weekend of Apokries (Orthodox Mardi Gras). That way, all the Kukeri and Babouyeri (traditional Balkan mummers) make sense!

We charge $25 per person (youth 10-18 $10; under 10 free). Traditional Greek and Croatian food, along with beer, wine and soft drinks, are available for purchase. Funds are used to secure the hall, help with publicity, and bring world-class acts to the event from outside the Pacific Northwest. We sell advance tickets online and publicize the event heavily through Facebook and other avenues, with the help of local marketing genius Devon Leger.

Another part of our motivation is to inspire and support young people to play Balkan music, so we take whatever proceeds we make to fund scholarships to the Mendocino Balkan Music & Dance Workshop and balkanalia!. It takes a lot of work and support from community members to pull this off, and thankfully, people have been willing to work hard and help by volunteering at the festival. So far we have been able to fund three full scholarships to the Mendocino Balkan Music & Dance Workshop, and seven scholarships to balkanalia!.

Program

Each year we bring in a featured band from a specific region, and present a separate event the following night that just focuses on that band. This year we brought Kalin Kirilov and his group, and on the night after Balkan Night, the local Bulgarians put together an amazing evening of games and rituals that was delightful and meaningful. The year before, we brought Merita Halili and Raif Hyseni, and they sold out the Triple Door, full of Albanians from all over Albania—it was just electrifying!

In 2015 our featured artist will be Chris Bajmakovich and his band—and as always, there will be local community bands, ethnic ensembles, choirs (Mary Sherhart has an amazing choir of Bulgarian women, many of them older women, that will cut straight to your soul), young avant-garde people new to the genre. We are always in search of willing volunteers to help with the festival, so please contact us if you are interested.

Read more at www.balkannightnw.com and the BNNW Facebook page.

Ruth Hunter has been an active participant at the Mendocino Balkan Music & Dance Workshops since the early 80s, and has been a resident of the Pacific Northwest since 1998. Ruth plays Greek and Balkan music in Drómeno with her husband Christos and their kids, and she directs the youth choir at Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Seattle. Ruth and her family were profiled in the Spring 2010 Kef Times.

Musician, singer and teacher John Morovich specializes in the folklore of Croatia. He is artistic director of the Seattle Junior Tamburitzans, and Ženska Klapa Ružmarin. He performs regularly with the Sinovi Tamburitzans, a group he co-founded in 1979. He has created dozens of choreographies, scores for tamburitza orchestra and choirs, and has taught regularly at EEFC camps since 1987.

Mark Forry

Posted on September 15, 2014 at 9:31 pm. By Julie Lancaster

Mark Forry

Likely to be spotted with mouth open wide, leading a tamburica ensemble and often knowing more lyrics than anyone else in the room, Mark Forry has been involved in Balkan camps since the 1975 Sweet’s Mill camp (a precursor to the EEFC camps). Since 1981, he has frequently taught at the EEFC’s Mendocino or East Coast workshops, usually teaching singing or tamburica ensemble and leading group sings.

Mark Forry remembers his first taste of the Slavic music that would become such a beacon in his life. It was in the summer of 1974, when he was completing his studies at the University of California-Santa Cruz, where he had a dual major in music (bassoon and piano) and dance (mostly modern).

“One of my college roommates came back from the Center for World Music in Berkeley saying, ‘We just learned this great music!’” Mark remembers. The scheduled Turkish musicians for the workshop hadn’t gotten their visas and instead two students, Mark Levy and Lauren Brody, volunteered to teach Bulgarian music. His roommate played a record she’d heard there (the first Nonesuch Music of Bulgaria) and another of Mark’s roommates said, “I used to dance to that music at my Jewish summer camp.”

Mark liked the idea of “this cool music that you could dance to.” He started going folk dancing in Santa Cruz.

“What got me about the music were the rhythms and scales,” Mark says. As a music student he already loved Stravinsky and Central European composers such as Bartók and Janáček. Now he was drawn to the rhythms and harmonization of Bulgarian music as well. He even got to experiment with a village instrument when David Kilpatrick, a newly hired UCSC ethnomusicologist who had spent time in Greece, loaned him a zurna.

Music Done by Everybody

Playing brač at Mendocino in the 1980s.

For two different blocks of time, once before graduating from UCSC and once after, Mark went to Cleveland, originally to study modern dance and bassoon. He went folk dancing there and soon met Walt Mahovlich and began playing kaval and tapan for Macedonian gigs with him. Also through Walt, Mark started dancing with the Croatian group Slava. At one concert, Slava was performing a Croatian suite and the tamburica group’s bass player didn’t show up. Mark not only figured out how to play the bass parts that afternoon but also learned his first two tamburica songs: “Sliku tvoju ljubim” and “Osman Aga.”

When Ethel Raim came to Cleveland and Mark attended a workshop she gave on Balkan singing, Mark says, “I discovered that I had a big voice.” In addition, he says, one of his modern dance teachers insisted that her students do vocalizations with their exercises, which helped him free his natural voice.

“The more I got into it,” he says, “I was just thrilled by the idea of community music, music done by everybody.”

Mark had grown up in a close, Anglo-American community in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area). People liked and respected music—Mark’s parents certainly loved music and supported him in his classical music pursuits—but music was in a different category from everyday life. It was not a central part of weddings, parties and other important events.

But for Mark, it was already becoming more important. A student of classical music, he also played guitar in rock-and-roll garage bands and “sit around the campfire” settings.

Music: Essential to Who We Are

“Growing up near San Francisco in the ’60s,” he says, “music was really important to who we were and our culture. I was thrilled to find with the Croatians, Serbians, Macedonians, Hungarians and Slovenians I met in Cleveland, music wasn’t just an ‘oh, by the way’ kind of thing. It was essential to who they were and how they made community and bonded with each other. As a musician, I was charmed and thrilled by that.”

He also loved the variety of ethnic experience he encountered in Cleveland. In the Bay Area, the ethnic areas he had known had been Asian and African American. In Cleveland he found a myriad of ethnic neighborhoods—Slovenian, Croatian, Hungarian, Romanian and more—each one with its own music and dance groups, social halls and picnics.

While in Cleveland, Mark became captivated by the idea of pursuing ethnomusicology. After two winters in Cleveland, he moved back to California with the intention of starting grad school at the University of California-Los Angeles.

But before moving to L.A., he lived for about a year in Berkeley, where he sang with the Balkan chorus Danica, played Bulgarian and Macedonian music with Stewart Mennin, and played Croatian music with Frank Dubinskas. He also heard his first Georgian singing, another flavor that would become a lifelong interest.

With Aman in the late ’70s.

Once in L.A. and studying ethnomusicology, Mark continued his involvement with international folk dancing and Balkan music. He started playing in the UCLA Balkan Music Ensemble led by Jane Sugarman and Mark Levy. (He also performed in the Korean and Persian ensembles, playing kayageum and tar, respectively.) He got to know Michael Alpert and the musicians of the group Pitu Guli, organized by Mark Levy, which rehearsed weekly and served as staff at the early Balkan camps. He started taking Yugoslav dance classes with Elsie Dunin, who also involved him with her research projects and encouraged his interest in Croatian and Serbian cultural life in L.A.

Soon he was playing and singing in the folk dance performing ensemble Aman as well as the short-lived ensemble El Conjunto Strandzhansko, later dubbed Meden Glas (Honey Voice; Michelle Breger, Cindy Burton, Bill Cope, and Mark, occasionally with Ed Leddel; Bulgarian music). He also played bass with the Tisza River Valley Boys (Miamon Miller, Don Sparks, Jim Knight and Mark, with Deanne Hendricks singing; music from Serbia, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia). Mark started getting serious about tamburica music—more on that below. And he started attending Balkan camp in Mendocino.

Early Mendocino Camps

Playing accordion at Mendocino in the 1980s as Nestor Georgievski sings.

“It was a rich time,” he says, referring to the first Mendocino camps. “We were all young. Those times in your life are cemented in your memory forever—discovering other people crazy about the same beautiful obscure music that you were, and finding each other in this beautiful place in the redwoods.”

There was also a countercultural aspect to this fascination, he says, especially at the beginning.

“All that I had hoped for, all the promise of the Counterculture and the Revolution, returning to a set of values, it was offered to us in some way. There was the hope that we’ve arrived in this beautiful, magical place; by gosh, we’re going to live here the rest of our lives! One of our friends, I think it was Michael Alpert, used to say that going to Mendocino is like going to Brigadoon: it’s a magical place that materializes once a year and then it’s gone. But the hope for me and maybe for others was that it wasn’t just once a year. This was our reality. There was something really hopeful and positive about it.”

Mendocino ’78 kaval class.

Over the years Mark’s teaching at the workshops has included singing, in which he has presented, at different times, songs from Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and even Hungary; Dalmatian klapa singing; and tamburica ensemble. He also taught beginning Bulgarian kaval in the days before teachers from Bulgaria came to camp.

Deeper into Tamburica Music

To complement his ethnomusicology studies, Mark started studying Serbo-Croatian and Hungarian. In 1978 he got a language study grant to attend a Slavists’ gathering in Belgrade—a three-week language and literature seminar with teaching and cultural activities. He took the opportunity to travel around Yugoslavia, attending a session of the Badija summer folklore school in Croatia and taking buses and trains around the country, looking for musicians of various sorts and buying “piles and piles of LPs.”

Back in L.A., Mark worked as both a teaching assistant and a research assistant in the ethnomusicology archive at UCLA where, among other things, he was able to find amazing resources for Georgian music. “At the time, it was next to impossible for Americans to get to Georgia,” he says.

He also started spending more and more time in the Serbian and Croatian communities in the area. St. Steven’s Serbian Orthodox Church had a tamburica orchestra led by Nikola Bakajin and Dragutin Mijatović, accomplished tambura players from Vojvodina, with whom Mark started studying tambura more seriously. (By the way, in Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian, the word “tambura” is the generic name for the instruments in a tamburica orchestra; in Bulgarian and Macedonian, “tambura” generally refers to the long-necked lute used in those countries. Throughout this article, the term is used with the former meaning.) In the Aman Ensemble’s tamburica band, which was directed by Chris Yeseta, Mark learned even more technique and repertoire. His connection with Yeseta, one of four musician brothers, eventually led to the opportunity to play in the big tamburica ensemble “Croatia” at St. Anthony’s Croatian Catholic Church and, later, with the smaller Yeseta Brothers Orchestra, with whom Mark still plays when he’s in town.

Experiences like these gave Mark fodder for his master’s thesis on tambura music in the U.S.: The Bećar Music of Yugoslav-Americans (1982). By this time he was teaching singing in settings as diverse as ethnomusicology conferences, a cappella festivals and folk dance camps.

In 1983-84 Mark embarked on a 15-month fieldwork project in Yugoslavia, focusing on tambura music in Vojvodina. That fieldwork eventually gave rise to his Ph.D. dissertation, The Mediation of “Tradition” and “Culture” in the Tamburica Music of Vojvodina (Yugoslavia) (1990).

Moving Back North

In 1988 Mark moved back to Santa Cruz, where he worked in various jobs, including serving as a research assistant for Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead drummer) and as arts administrator for Tandy Beal and Company (an internationally known dance company; Tandy Beal has attended the EEFC workshops). Mark was focusing on finishing his dissertation, but also found time to play kaval and record with the Santa Cruz-based, all-female-until-he-came-along Balkan band Medna Usta.

Mark and Esma Redžepova at East Coast camp, 1998.

A Fulbright post-doc took him to Yugoslavia again in 1990. This time he lived in Zagreb and focused on tambura in Croatia, but kept in touch with friends and colleagues in Vojvodina. Upon his return, not finding an academic job, he signed up for temporary work doing data entry and ended up working for a UNIX company on a technical publications project. He has worked for technology companies ever since.

In the 2000s Mark continued to play with the Yeseta Brothers in Southern California and performed with his own ensemble, Zapadne Lole (later Mark Forry and Friends), in Northern California, while continuing to teach at camps, workshops and festivals. He taught for Village Harmony camps, a teen touring camp in the U.S. and two adult camps, one in the U.S. and one in Bosnia. The experience revived his interest in Georgian music and he started studying the language, ran a “self-help Georgian singing group” in Santa Cruz, and traveled to Georgia in 2008.

In 2011 Mark was inducted into the Tamburitza Association of America Hall of Fame. (Joseph L. Kroupa)

In 2011 he was inducted into the Tamburitza Association of America Hall of Fame, and his translated dissertation was published in Novi Sad (Serbia).

In Hungary

Mark is now living in Baja, Hungary, 30 kilometers from the Serbian border. He lives with Zsuzsa Farkas, whom he met in Novi Sad in 1983.

“My job is portable; I am still employed in Silicon Valley,” he says. “Zsuzsa is an arts teacher here.” Mark lives in Hungary most of the year and goes to California for work and to catch up with family and friends four times per year.

“I live in southern Hungary, where there are a lot of South Slavs, mostly Bunjevci, some other Croatians and a smaller number of Serbians,” he says. “There’s a tradition of tambura music in Hungary that goes back quite a ways.” He sits in occasionally with a couple of Bunjevac groups locally.

(Photo: John Daly)

“It is nice to see, after all that happened during the war, especially in Eastern Croatia and Slavonia, that there remains a lot of contact between musicians. There’s a big festival in Novi Sad that I’ve been involved with and it’s good to see that there’s Croatian representation there. That festival features many small ensembles, kafana or wedding bands, working musicians who play for parties, and also people looking to preserve local traditions, such as Serbs from Romania or Austria or Montenegro. And there is music being written for large tambura orchestras, not only in Croatia but for the Croatian and Serbian communities in surrounding countries—Austria and Hungary and Romania and elsewhere.”

Thoughts About the EEFC Workshops

Playing saz at the 2010 Mendocino workshop with Jesse Manno, James Hoskins, Bob Beer and a host of frame-drum players. (Barbara Saxton)

One significant change Mark has seen in the workshops pertains to men’s singing. “In the late ’70s and early ’80s, we had all these great women teaching that phenomenal women’s repertoire at camp,” he says. “But at the time, nobody was really teaching the men singing. Michael Alpert came occasionally and Lorin Sklamberg (lead vocalist for the Klezmatics) came one year. But now, he says, with Dragi Spasovski, John Morovich, Christos Govetas, Ljuba Živkov and others, “it’s phenomenal for men who want to sing.

“I think the EEFC is going in a great direction,” he adds. “It’s really exciting to see more and more younger people involved. I feel like we really got past what has been a stumbling block for a lot of cultural organizations: how do you take the vision and passion of our founders and turn it into something sustainable? That’s a real credit to Mark [Levy] and Carol [Silverman] , and to everybody else who’s stepped up in the meantime.

“All those things we enjoyed when we were in our 20s—now there have been two subsequent generations of people in their 20s coming to camps. There’s a strong desire on the part of everybody involved to keep it viable.”

2013 Workshop Photos

Posted on June 13, 2014 at 2:39 pm. By Matthew Fass

Mendocino

Jessica Ruiz and Milo Destanovski. (Biz Hertzberg)
Tanya, Radka and Tzvetanka Varimezova, and Ivanka Paunova bring Bulgarian visual beauty along with their superlative musical talents. (Biz Hertzberg)
Joe Graziosi leads a dance in the zourna/daouli set by Bobby, Christos and Eleni Govetas. (Biz Hertzberg)
Alex and Greg Jenkins rip it up in the kafana. (Biz Hertzberg)
Merita Halili gives us her all in the dance hall, backed by Jesse Kotansky, Christos Govetas, and Baže Smilevski. (Biz Hertzberg)
Vassil Bebelekov and Tali McGill. (Biz Hertzberg)
Rachel MacFarlane, Christi Proffitt, and Joe Graziosi. (Biz Hertzberg)
Brass Band Ensemble synchronizes its beats en plein air. (Arlene Imagawa)
Tamburica Ensemble in the Dance Hall. (Arlene Imagawa)

Iroquois Springs

Catherine Foster teaches clarinet alfresco. (Margaret Loomis)
The beguiling Adam Good on oud. (Margaret Loomis)
Dragi Spasovski stands and delivers the best of Macedonian singing. (Margaret Loomis)
Cristian Florescu and Sonia Dion bring playful humor to their Romanian dance class. (Margaret Loomis)
Up past bedtime: Sarah Ferholt’s children Raya and Asher Ferholt-Wirz. (Margaret Loomis)
Who’s gonna cut the cake? Zlatne Uste’s 30th-anniversary celebration. (Margaret Loomis)
The late-night kafana grill is the place to find delicious food and stellar music. (Margaret Loomis)
Dragi Spasovski, Bill Cope, Sergiu Popa, Ljuba Žifkov and Mensur Hatić hold forth on Mensur’s porch. (Margaret Loomis)
Table music: Čoček Nation, the kids’ band, provides a serenade during the dinner hour. (Margaret Loomis)

Program Committee Report

Posted on June 13, 2014 at 2:32 pm. By Matthew Fass

ATTN Julie, Elena Is this supposed to by on the page? It’s spec’d in your PDF, Elena, but didn’t see it in article list.

2013 Scholarship Recipients

Posted on June 9, 2014 at 6:18 pm. By Julie Lancaster

Recipients of the 2013 Dick Crum / Kef Scholarships, Balkan Night Northwest Scholarship, and Steffi Agin Scholarship chime in about what made their 2013 Workshop experiences extraordinary. Mendocino: Janet Finney-Krull, Morgan Nilsen and Lizzy Pedersen; Iroquois Springs: Dylan Crossen. Danielle Smith (Mendocino) was the recipient of the Balkan Night Northwest Scholarship; Michelle Tsigaridas Weller received the Steffi Agin Scholarship.

To learn about applying for a scholarship for a future Workshop, visit the Scholarships page on the EEFC website.

Mendocino 2013: Janet Finney-Krull

By Janet Finney-Krull, Spring 2014

Janet Finney-Krull

Location: Arcata, Calif.

Occupation: I have been retired from Humboldt State University for one year and help my husband deliver mail on his contracted mail route in our surrounding rural countryside.

Connection to Balkan music/dance: I play music throughout the year in the International Folk Dance band, Chubritza. You might have seen us play on Sunday night in the kafana at Mendocino Balkan camp. [Ed. note: Janet plays brač, accordion, doumbek, tupan, recorders, Irish flute, silver flute, frula and pennywhistles.]

Number of times at Balkan camp: I have been coming to Balkan Camp for many years beginning in 1994, when I started playing Balkan music with Chubritza.

Experience at camp: On the last day of kaval class my teacher, Valeri Georgiev, and I discovered that my Irish flute played very nicely with the kaval. The two instruments have similar warm sounds and some similar fingering patterns. As a beginner kaval player I was naturally struggling to play the kaval and found it to be the most difficult instrument that I had ever attempted to play. As a flute player of 50-plus years this was a humbling experience. I play the Irish flute in Chubritza as well as another Celtic folk band, Good Company, and so was naturally eager for my teacher to hear that I could indeed play the flute. We played duets together and both of us agreed that the two flutes sounded really nice together. Valeri was so patient with everyone in his class. Everyone received one-on-one instruction from him. I hope to take his class in again in the future, and I recommend this class to everyone. Cheers, Janet

Mendocino 2013: Morgan Nilsen

By Morgan Nilsen, Spring 2014

Morgan Nilsen

Location: San Francisco, Calif.

Occupation: Performing musician and clarinet teacher

Connection to Balkan music/dance: I play with Inspector Gadje Balkan Brass Band and MWE Band (Turkish/Balkan).

Number of times at Balkan camp: This was my first year.

Experience at camp: On the MUSIC: Never having been to the Balkans I was enveloped by the village lifestyle and the family/community vibe all focused around the music. The diversity of the musical regions was incredible. Hearing a master clarinet player from Macedonia next to Christos [Govetas] playing Greek music.

The amount of personal time that the instructors gave outside of class was very generous. Raif [Hyseni] helped me with my improvisation for Albanian ensemble; Michael Ginsburg helped me with the complex rhythm in a brass band solo, and Christos sent me off with an inspiring talk about Greek clarinet after the final student concert.

On the COMMUNITY: I was warmly welcomed by the community at large, where I only knew a few people. Having biked 200 miles from SF to the camp, I was not prepared for the massive rainstorms! My small bivy tent was drenched through immediately. One fellow tenter gave me a dry Therm-a-Rest [an inflated camping mattress] to sleep on, the kitchen gave me bags and towels, one woman gave me a warm comforter, and another student a hair dryer to dry my sleeping bag. I eventually moved into Danielle's cabin, where they made space for me. Truly a beautiful, caring community! On the last day I spent hours walking from cabin to cabin and returned belongings to folk all over the camp, and was grateful.

Mendocino 2013: Lizzy Pederson

By Lizzy Pederson, Spring 2014

Lizzy Pederson

Location: Half the time Woodinville, Wash.; the other half Boulder, Colo.

Occupation: I’m a music student at University of Colorado - Boulder currently, though I do professional music gigs when I can get them.

Connection to Balkan music/dance: When the stars align, I have been lucky enough to get to play with Kafana Republik and sometimes with Radost. I also dance with the Seattle Balkan Dancers for fun and a performing group in Boulder called Hora Romaneasca.

Number of times at Balkan camp: This was my first time!

Experience at camp: I knew that Mendocino Balkan camp was going to be a great experience, and I hoped I would come back with at least a few new songs under my belt. What I really learned was so much more valuable. Playing and singing together with the faculty, including Baže (Blagoja Smilevski) and Sali (Rumen Shopov) after the kafana closed was my favorite experience of the whole week. Those renditions had soul, and it was so much fun to hear those songs from the source. So much meaning, so much expertise. Definitely impressive! I was surprised that they could sing that passionately after a long day of playing! I would come back to Mendocino just to experience this again.

Mendocino 2013: Danielle Smith (Balkan Night Northwest Scholarship)

By Danielle Smith, Spring 2014

Danielle Smith

Location: Portland, Ore.

Occupation: I work at a dance studio called Datura (doing management and production, as well as teaching and performance) and I'm a professional belly dancer.

Connection to Balkan music/dance: I attend as many Balkan Night gatherings in Portland as possible. I host and perform with many touring Balkan bands (mostly from the Bay Area). I host a monthly dance event and our live band plays a mix of belly dance and Balkan music. I come down to The Bay Area several times a year to visit, and sometimes play with, musicians in the Balkan community here.

Number of times at Balkan camp: Yes, this was my first time at camp.

Experience at camp: The teaching staff was incredible! I loved how they worked together and with the students to weave such a beautiful tapestry of music and dance, friendship and knowledge. I loved the family-friendly atmosphere, and the gorgeous natural settings in which to absorb all the unique and genuine teachings. I learned so much and am eternally grateful.

Aside from that, my ONE moment that surprised/touched me, I suppose, was just seeing the children so welcomed, cared for by everyone, and included in many of the activities, even the evening parties. It really gave me a lot of joy seeing their learning in action, seeing them participate and absorb all of this rich culture in this loving, active, not so “mainstream” community. It's important for the perpetuation of not just this style of music and dance, but also of the love and appreciation for large community gatherings filled with live music played by actual hands and mouths, and group circle dancing with sometimes challenging steps that everyone learns and loves—men and women, old and young, holding hands. I appreciate that this family-oriented atmosphere was directly working on keeping traditions alive outside of our technology-heavy world, making sure we don't get lost from such an important, quintessential human way of celebration. I don't see it much these days . . . true all-ages celebrations where everyone is genuinely thrilled to be there. It was very inspiring.

Iroquois Springs 2013: Dylan Crossen

By Dylan Crossen, Spring 2014

Location: Pittsburgh, Pa.

Occupation: I am a full-time undergraduate student at the University in Pittsburgh majoring in music and anthropology. After earning my bachelor's degree, I hope to enroll in graduate school in order to study Romani music and culture.

Connection to Balkan music/dance: I play the trombone and mandolin in the University of Pittsburgh Carpathian Ensemble, which is not limited to the Carpathian Mountains but also counts pieces from countries all over Eastern Europe (including the Balkans!) in its repertoire. Beyond this, my studies of Romani culture intersect with Balkan music very often.

Number of times at Balkan camp: This was my first time attending the camp, but it will certainly not be my last!

Memorable moment at camp: There were so many unforgettable moments, from performing with Čoček Nation, the Trans-Carpathian Ensemble, and Michael Ginsburg's brass band as part of Carol Silverman's Romani singing class, to simply picking up the Balkan dance styles from following along at each night's event. I don't think I met a single person that was at all unwelcoming and was not obviously passionate about Balkan music and culture. Time and time again, the teaching staff revealed themselves to be some of the greatest teachers I've ever had.

One specific experience that comes to mind took place at the kafana on the final night of camp. I was outside by the grill enjoying the music, when my tambura teacher, Bill Cope, noticed me and handed me a baglama. Although I had never heard of this instrument, Bill insisted that I play along with the group and briefly went over the basics with me. For the next hour or two I followed along while Bill would give me a sporadic tip, and gradually I became comfortable with an instrument I had never even touched prior to that night. It was a great time and I feel as though this experience captures the incredibly friendly and approachable attitude of the camp's teaching staff.

Iroquois Springs 2013: Michelle Tsigaridas Weller (Stefni Agin Scholarship)

By Michelle Tsigaridas Weller, Spring 2014

Location: Astoria (Queens), N.Y.

Occupation: Administrative Director of Clinical Program at New York Law School; clinics provide opportunities for upper-level law students to learn about law by practicing it! Our clients typically are indigent or otherwise cannot afford legal services. The resulting educational experience for our students is priceless. I work closely with our faculty and staff to create a dynamic learning environment for our students while providing quality service to our clients.

Connection to Balkan music/dance: I recently began teaching Greek dance to small groups and in private lessons. I’m still developing my website, but you can visit www.wellermovement.com to dance with me. I am a member of the Greek American Folklore Society performing group and also take classes with Traditional Movement and drop in on occasion at Folk Dance Fridays (Laura [Pannaman] and Emily [Cohen]). Last year was my first Golden Festival, which led me to camp this year, and just as you all said I would be, now I’m hooked!

Number of times at Balkan camp: First time at camp.

Experience at camp: Balkan Camp was the most wonderful string of moments I could ever imagine happening all in one week. I interacted with many wonderful people, so there are many wonderful stories that I could share, from bonding with Cabin 18 (the best cabin ever!), to killing my feet Pontic dancing in flip-flops (big mistake), to an epic Girls with Drums blender band (IzreyalaAaAa), to going cross-eyed figuring out which santouri string I was supposed to hit (there's like a million of them), to finding someone at any time of day to practice violin with on a random front porch (or tree stump). I have rewritten this paragraph so many times; how can I truly express the joy this week brought me?

Maybe it was the moment I realized I needed some time to myself. I decided to take a kayak and paddle out to the middle of the lake. I began to hum some of the songs we learned earlier in the week and then found myself belting them out. In these beautiful open surroundings, breathing in the fresh air, I took some time to reflect and meditate. I remembered how afraid I was at first to come to camp, not knowing anyone, and not knowing what this experience would bring. I realized how welcomed I felt by every camp "veteran" I met, how patient the teachers were with every wrong note I hit, how excited I could make someone else feel, just by helping them catch up and join in a dance. I laughed aloud at myself and decided to go back to all those wonderful people I was so grateful for. Thanks, EEFC, for reminding me that I feel like my truest self while I am back on the dance floor.

In Memoriam

Posted on June 9, 2014 at 6:03 pm. By Julie Lancaster

In this issue we honor three EEFC Workshop staff members who have died since our last issue: Haig Manoukian, a brilliant oud player; Marcus (Holt) Branicheff Moskoff, teacher of Bulgarian dances, gajda player, and gudulka teacher; and Georgi “Bai Georgi” Petrov, master gudulka player.

Haig Manoukian

By Julie Lancaster, Spring 2014

Haig Manoukian (Joan Powers)

Haig Manoukian, a brilliant oud player, master of improvisation, and frequent instructor at the EEFC Balkan Music & Dance Workshops, died on April 2, 2014, at the age of 72.

Haig grew up in Virginia. As a child he heard oud music on 78 rpm recordings of Turkish sanat (“art”) music at the home of his grandparents, who were Armenian immigrants from Anatolia. He went on to listen to many records of traditional music from Istanbul and Anatolia and, in his late teens, moved to New York, where he soon found himself living in the middle of what was then a vibrant Middle Eastern music and dance scene on 8th Avenue between 27th and 30th Streets. He undertook formal music studies and started performing professionally in the 1970s. Over the years his music incorporated elements of jazz and music from Africa, India and Andalusia.

“Considered one of the world’s finest oudists, he has worked with the top musicians of Turkey, Armenia, Egypt and Iran,” states his Circuit Productions bio. “He has performed at Avery Fisher Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House, Town Hall and Carnegie Hall, as well as at major cabarets in Istanbul, Europe and the U.S.A.”

Haig performed with numerous ensembles, including Alba, Orchestra Keyif, and Sounds of Taraab. He was the longtime musical partner of clarinetist Souren Baronian; the two played in a trio, Transition, and a larger group, Taksim, both of which combined elements of jazz with Middle Eastern music. Taksim toured in the U.S. and in Europe for more than three decades.

In addition to performing, Haig repaired and reconditioned ouds at his New York studio. He taught oud and Eastern music theory at various Middle Eastern camps. At EEFC workshops, including Mendocino, East Coast and balkanalia! (formerly an EEFC-produced event), he taught oud, makam theory and taxim.

Thanks to Circuit Productions, Inc., Alwan for the Arts, and The Magic Carpet Ride: My Life So Far, by Souren Baronian and J.P. Harpignies, for some of the facts in this article.

Click here for information on Near East Far West, a reissue of the 1998 recording featuring Haig and Souren.

Georgi Petrov

By Rachel MacFarlane, Spring 2014

Georgi “Bai Georgi” Petrov, master gudulka player and instructor at EEFC Balkan Music & Dance Workshops, died on February 17, 2014, in Vidin, Bulgaria, after a two-year struggle with brain cancer.

Georgi was born in 1962 in the village of Sinagovtsi, near Vidin in Northwestern Bulgaria, near the Danube River. His father, Jordan “Siki” Todorov, is a renowned kaval and duduk player from Sinagovtsi; his mother, Vasilka, met her future husband when he was serving a residency leading a folk ensemble in the village of Osenovo, near Blagoevgrad, in the Pirin Macedonia region of Bulgaria. It seems natural that Georgi would immerse himself in the folk music world, and indeed he had a precocious beginning, winning a gold medal at the age of 7 for playing gudulka at the Koprivštitsa national summer folk festival. His high school years were spent at the Pleven music school, and he went on to college at the Plovdiv conservatory. It was here he began composing and later recording with the Bulgarian National Radio folk orchestra. In 1990 he became concertmaster of the Radio orchestra, which was attached to the Philip Koutev National Ensemble for Folk Song and Dance. In the years following, Georgi played with Ensemble Trakija and the Bisserov Sisters, with whom he toured Europe, Japan and Canada; as well as with the women’s chorus Angelite.

Georgi's father Ivan "Siki" Todorov with the young Georgi and fellow ensemble members, 1970s

A highlight of Georgi’s life came when he was tapped to join the music and dance extravaganza Riverdance in 1996 for a five-year stint. (The author remembers fondly her first meeting with Georgi in 2002, when she observed that his excellent English was tinged charmingly with an Irish brogue.) Riverdance heightened Georgi’s fame and led him to further collaborations and adventures, including several summers at Ross Daly’s Labyrinth Musical Workshop on Crete, where he taught seminars in Bulgarian folk music and improvisation.

Grupa Maistori. L-R: Georgi Petrov, Ivaylo Koutchev, Vassil Bebelekov, Angel Dimitrov, Nedyalko Nedyalkov

Under the patronage of gajda player Vassil Bebelekov, who was his longtime friend and kum (best man at his wedding and godfather to his children), Georgi came to the States in 2002 to attend the balkanalia! workshop in Portland, Ore. He returned in 2003 to tour with Grupa Maistori, which included Georgi, Vassil, Nedyalko Nedyalkov, Nikolay Georgiev, Angel Dimitrov and Ivaylo Koutchev. Along with producing a self-titled CD, the band attended and taught at both Balkan Music & Dance Workshops that summer. Georgi returned to the Workshops in 2005, where he executed masterful performances in the late-night kafanas that people still recall.

In May of 2012, the village of Sinagovtsi celebrated Georgi’s 50^th birthday in grand style. It is unknown how many people knew that he’d found out shortly before that he had cancer. When, sometime later, news of his illness reached across the Atlantic, Georgi’s American friends and admirers rushed to his aid, putting on benefit concerts and collecting money for his medical care and surgery. Similar efforts were carried out in Bulgaria, both by the municipality of Vidin and by friends on Facebook. Despite an optimistic prognosis after a surgery to remove his tumor in June of 2013, Georgi’s health declined drastically at the turn of 2014.

We who were lucky enough to know him remember Bai Georgi for his robust character and for the equally robust, life-affirming music that spun effortlessly from his fingers and bow. As the Bulgarians say, neka e svetla pametta mu (may his memory be bright).

Marcus Moskoff

By Dick Oakes, Spring 2014

Marcus (Holt) Branicheff Moskoff, teacher of Bulgarian dances, gajda player, and gudulka teacher at EEFC Music & Dance Workshops, died on September 10, 2012, in a San Jose, Calif., hospital.

Marcus was born on June 9, 1955, in the small farm town of Avenal (near Fresno), Calif. He was first exposed to Slavic music in the Russian Orthodox Church of Fresno. At the age of 12, after his family relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, Marcus began his interest in folklore through the Bulgarian communities on the West Coast, learning the basic national dances and developing the ability to play village instruments. Four years later, he traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria, as a guest of the Bulgarian government to study folk instrumental music and dance with the Pioneer Dance Ensemble.

After a brief return to the United States, he went back to Bulgaria in 1974, this time basing his dance studies around the National Folk Choreography School in Plovdiv, while enhancing his musicianship by playing for village weddings with kaval master Stoyan Dimov. He began performing with the State Youth Ensemble in Sofia, Bulgaria, and the Yambol Folklore Ensemble in Bulgarian Thrace. He was a gudulka graduate of the state conservatory in Plovdiv and was equally accomplished at playing gajda. Marcus changed his surname from Holt to Moskoff but retained his United States citizenship.

Marcus Moscoff (back) with Vitosha, 1979

In 1978, Marcus traveled through Bulgaria again as a guest of the Bulgarian government, this time carrying out concentrated research in folklore with emphasis on its contemporary aspects. Returning to the U.S., Marcus taught Bulgarian dancing at workshops and festivals/institutes across the country and choreographed suites of dance and music for several folk ensembles. Dances Marcus taught include Graovsko Horo, Plovdivska Rŭčenica, Pravo Severnjaško Horo, Rodopsko Horo, Sitno Pajduško Horo, Trakijska Rŭčenica and Tropanka.

He played for years with Ensemble Trakiya in Santa Barbara, Calif., and directed the Nestinari Bulgarian Folk Orchestra. In the mid-1980s he taught for several years at both the Mendocino and East Coast camps, including at the very first (1983) East Coast camp at Ashokan. He was married to Anastasia (Asya) with whom he had a daughter, Elitsa.

Marcus published a book of Bitov instrumentation, Orchestral Melodies for Gajda, Gadulka, Kaval, and Tambura, in 1977. [Ed. note: Marcus gave EEFC permission to reprint and sell this book; you can order it at this link.]

A longer version of this article appears on Folk Dance Federation of California, South, Inc.'s website.

Photos courtesy Dick Oakes.

New & Notable

Posted on June 9, 2014 at 5:39 pm. By Julie Lancaster

New recordings and books by folks in the EEFC community. Names in bold type indicate EEFC Workshop campers, staff, teachers, and other EEFC supporters.

13th Annual East Coast Camp Photo DVD – 2013

By Kef Times Staff, Spring 2014

n&n_ISphotos_cd This is Margaret Loomis’ 13th year of putting together a large collection of digital photos from East Coast Balkan camp as a fundraiser for EEFC.

The 2013 Iroquois Springs camp was another amazing week, full of fantastic music, dancing, classes, parties, food, kafanas and friends. These photos will bring back memories if you were at camp, or give you a very good idea of the week if you weren't there. The photos make a great slideshow—enjoy the DVD yourself, or use it to convince your friends to come to camp! The collection is a lot of fun, and it also makes a nice gift. “I can pretty much guarantee you that there are a lot more camp photos in this collection than you took on your phone,” Margaret says.

The 2013 DVD contains 1,072 photos, including:

evening parties and kafanas
music and dance classes in action
group sings
Zlatne Uste’s 30-year celebration on Monday night
auction on Tuesday night
classes performing at Friday’s student concert
Friday afternoon soccer game
candid and semi-candid shots throughout the week
lots of kids at camp
scenic views of Iroquois Springs
many spontaneous moments

The DVD is available for $30 plus $2 shipping/handling in the U.S. Please make checks payable to Margaret Loomis and send to Margaret Loomis, 10206 Day Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20910. Phone 301/565-0539; or email for more information. All proceeds go to EEFC. (Photo collections from most past years are also still available.)

Drómeno: Flórina

By Kef Times Staff, Spring 2014

KT-2014_n&n_dromeno_cd

Drómeno, a band based in Seattle and led by Christos Govetas and Ruth Hunter, presents regional music from all over Greece and the Balkans. This recording is a collection of their favorite Macedonian (brass) dance tunes from both sides of the border. Christos Govetas - clarinet, voice; Ruth Hunter - accordion, voice; Eleni Govetas - saxophone; Nick Maroussis - guitar; Peter Lippman - trumpet; Bobby Govetas - drums; and special guest - Benji Rifati: trumpet.

$15 CD or $9.99 digital at cdbaby.com

Fanfare Zambaleta

By Kef Times Staff, Spring 2014

Fanfare Zambaleta was incubated in the Zambaleta Music and Dance School in San Francisco and has since transformed into a full-fledged juggernaut of a band, featuring some of the Bay Area's most exciting young players and seasoned veterans. Emulating the great Balkan brass bands of the past and present, they play Romani, Serbian, Macedonian and Greek brass band music with passion and dedication. FZ's potent musical concoction of wild improvisation, meticulous ensemble coordination, earth-shaking low brass, thunderous drumming and jubilant vocals will move your feet and lift your soul.

Members are: Gregory Jenkins - alto sax, vocals; Noah Levitt - trumpet; Harlow Carpenter - trumpet, truba; Theo Padouvas - trumpet; Corinne Sykes - lead vocals, percussion; Rachel MacFarlane - tenor horn; Larry Leight - euphonium; Peter Bonos - euphonium; Evan Stuart - sousaphone; Ivan Velev - percussion, vocals; and Jake Shandling - percussion.

You can download the 4-track digital album ($4 USD) or order the CD ($5 USD) at bandcamp.com.

Macedonian Postcards

By Kef Times Staff, Spring 2014

David Bilides and Dragi Spasovski have recently released the 35^th podcast in their series, “Macedonian Postcards,” which features the song “Ori Jano, Sokol Jano,” a love song from the Tetovo area of Macedonia. Dragi discusses the background of the song and talks about the differences between singing with kavals and gajdas, and ornamenting melodies.

Since the first podcast in 2007, David and Dragi have discussed and provided samples drawn from the 54 Macedonian folk songs in Dragi's three-CD and songbook project issued by Izvor Music. On each podcast, Dragi tells stories about the recordings and musicians and gives glimpses of his life and Macedonian culture in general. You can download each episode individually, listen to an audio stream of each episode, or subscribe to the entire series. Go to: http://podcasts.izvormusic.com

Near East Far West

By Kef Times Staff, Spring 2014

n&n_neareastfarwest

The AgaRhythm label is re-issuing a newly mastered Near East Far West, a recording made in 1998 that features two fine musicians—Souren Baronian and Haig Manoukian. Souren is still burning the music up, and Haig is never far from our thoughts. This recording was made after being together in Hawaii for a particularly rainy week. Instead of hitting the beaches we hung out inside making music all day, sharing our different musical interests. This musical mix captures that moment in time.

This recording features: Souren Baronian – clarinet, soprano saxophone, riq; Haig Manoukian – oud; George Chittenden – clarinet, alto saxophone; Lise Liepman – santouri, accordion, vocal; Polly Tapia Ferber – doumbek, bendir, Dan Auvil – tupan, defi

$12 or $9.99 digital at cdbaby.com

One Heart, Many Voices: A Biographical History of the American Balkan Scene

By Kef Times Staff, Spring 2014

One Heart, Many Voices: A Biographical History of the American Balkan Scene, by Hasina Cohen. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014. Paperback or Kindle.

This book is a journey through the lives of six individuals who make music and dance as part of a cultural constellation known as the American Balkan scene, and by extension, a journey through the history of the scene itself. The six individuals are Mark Levy, Dena Bjornlie, Rachel MacFarlane, Eva Salina Primack, Peter Jaques and Briget Boyle. The book’s cover art is by Susan Reagel.

Rather than limiting her focus to names, dates, and trends, author Hasina Cohen serves as a conduit for the surrounding stories, creating an intimate, compelling and dynamic portrait rich in human experience.

Hasina Cohen completed her bachelor’s degree in ethnomusicology at the University of Oregon under Mark Levy and Anne Dhu McLucas.

$15 Amazon.com (paperback and Kindle)

OrnâmatiK: Traditional Eastern European Music with a Funky Twist

By Kef Times Staff, Spring 2014

OrnâmatiK is a group from Ann Arbor, Mich., that plays music from all over the Balkans, including regions of Turkey, Armenia, Greece, and Bulgaria.

Members are: Derek Worthington - trumpet; Andy Warren - trumpet; Eric Schweizer - saxophone, clarinet; Bethanni Grecynski - trombone; Matt Endahl - accordion; Darrin James- guitar; Ben Rolston - bass; Xavier Verna - doumbek; and Drew Schmieding - drum set.

You can get the 7-track album for $7 USD in the digital format of your choice at bandcamp.com.

The Swing Riots Quirktette

The initial inspiration for The Swing Riots Quirktette came from the great Rom guitarist Matelo Ferrét, who played for homesick eastern Europeans in the Caberet Russe nightclubs of Paris alongside Romanian, Russian and at least one Bulgarian Rom bandleader. Matelo also played Hot Jazz with Django Reinhardt and others during the ’30s and ’40s and naturally layered jazz chording and swing rhythm into this eastern European repertoire.

With this in mind, The Swing Riots Quirktette perform a mix of early, traditional string-based jazz, as well as swinging eastern European traditional dance melodies.

The Swing Riots Quirktette are Miamon Miller - violin; Pat Mac Swyney - mandolin, tenor resonator, harmonica and voice; Leslie Yeseta (of the famous Yeseta Brothers Tamburitza family) - voice and guitar; Nick Casillas - clarinet and soprano sax; Ben Getting - upright bass; Adam Steinberg - drums and percussion.

To order the 50+ minute CD-R, send a check for $12.50, made payable to Pat Mac Swyney, 25554 Via Jardin, Valencia, CA 91355, and the CD will be promptly mailed to you, same week.

Ženska Klapa Ružmarin

Ženska Klapa Ružmarin of Vancouver, B.C., Canada, has released its first CD. The seven-voice, Croatian women's a cappella singing group specializes in the urban four-part, close harmony folk singing style from the Dalmatian region known as klapa.

Ženska Klapa Ružmarin formed in 2009 and is directed by John Morovich. They have performed regionally for Croatian community events, as well as performances at Seattle's CroatiaFest, Van Dusen Gardens Festival of Lights, the Vancouver Christmas Market and the CKNW Orphans' Fund Radio-thon. The group is one of only a few klapas in North America.

To order a CD, send a check for $18 made out to Klapa Ružmarin c/o Croatian Cultural Centre, 3250 Commercial Drive, Vancouver B.C. Canada V5N 4E4. For more information email or visit the group on Facebook.

Ziyiá: Regional Music of Greece

By Kef Times Staff, Spring 2014

n&n_ziyia_cd Now one of the premier Greek bands in the U.S., the East Coast and West Coast members of Ziyiá met at the Mendocino Balkan camp in 1990 and have been actively playing together ever since. They are excited to finally have another recording—it’s been a while.

George Chittenden – clarinet, gaida, guitar, zourna

Christos Govetas – clarinet, laouto, vocals

Beth Bahia Cohen – violin

Lise Liepman – accordion, santouri

Rumen Sali Shopov – daouli, doumbeleki

$15 or $9.99 digital at cdbaby.com (currently in production; will be available soon)