Kef Times

Cherrymae Golston

Location: Albuquerque, N.M.

Occupation: I am a fiber artist and a ceramicist. I also sub in the Albuquerque School System in bilingual elementary schools.

Connection to Balkan music/dance: I folkdance sporadically and I sing Balkan music on a weekly basis with a group of experienced and inexperienced singers in Santa Fe. We are led by Willa Roberts.

Number of times at Balkan camp: I went to camp for the first time in the late ‘70s and this last summer was maybe the fifth time. I think it was 16 years between the last time I got to go to camp and this most recent time.

Studied at camp: I loved Michele Simon’s warm-up class and I loved that it happened first thing in the morning. It warmed up my voice for the other singing classes I took. I got very useful information on how to use my voice, which has made me more confident when I sing. I learned new material from Carol [Silverman] and singing with Brenna [MacCrimmon] made me more comfortable about singing in Turkish.

Memorable moment at camp: I was very happily surprised by how little camp had changed over the years. It was still the welcoming, fun, beautiful place I remembered. I was also touched by the generosity toward the camper who had had her luggage stolen.

Stephen Chelius

Location: Eugene, Ore.

Occupation: Unemployed audiologist 🙁

Connection to Balkan music/dance: I dance with two different folk dance clubs in the area. I participate in workshops held in the Eugene and Portland area (Veselo and Balkanalia). I’ve been the foreman of the floor crew that lays down the wooden floor over cement for several years at Balkanalia. I attend Balkan folk dance parties in Seattle (NW Balkan events and Folklife). I talk about Balkan folk dance with almost anybody that knows me.

This year I taught several Balkan dances at the new Dance Pavilion at The Oregon Country Fair. This enabled willing participants to join in and dance while our local Balkan band, Kef, provided live music. The Oregon Country Fair is a very large and unique annual event that draws attendees from all over the country. This year there were 17,000+ staff workers with over 50,000 fair-goers. I am trying to expand this to have more time to teach Balkan dances before each live Balkan performance next year. This is such a good opportunity to expose many (especially young folks) to Balkan dance and culture—people who might never be exposed otherwise.

I often go to local parks here to practice playing my kaval. In doing so I often get the opportunity to tell people about the kaval and dance and culture. I am not in a Balkan band now. I don’t think that my playing is good enough yet. However I do play the kaval on occasion with other musicians with whom I play others types of music. I’ve been practicing a lot and hope to be able to play some Balkan music for our local dance clubs to dance to as my abilities progress.

Number of times at Balkan camp: I’ve been to Mendocino Balkan Camp three years prior to attending this year. I first attended camp in 2010.

Studied at camp: Kaval. I also took dance classes from Milo Destanovski, Alex Marković and Martin Koenig.

Memorable moment at camp: I’m always so impressed with the how good the musicians are at camp and how hard they work to increase their skill and knowledge of the culture. I’m also impressed with how helpful and willing others are to mentor those of us that are at different skill levels, from beginner to advanced. Valeri Georgiev was the kaval instructor this year. He is so helpful and patient with his students that have such broad range of capabilities and skill levels.

I put in a lot of time practicing in preparation for coming to camp this year. However, I found myself feeling very frustrated as I was struggling with the material at camp. I thought I was further along than I was. Sometimes it seemed painful and hopeless to me. But now the lesson seems clear: seeking to improve in something requires hard work and patience. If it’s worthwhile, then trudging through it with diligence and patience brings rewards later. I came home with much greater knowledge, skill and determination to keep working on playing the kaval. I have continued to practice diligently since camp and feel like I’m moving along quite well. It amazes me how when something seems impossible (such as some of the required fingering changes on the kaval)—if I just slowly work on the those changes that within a few minutes or the next day it becomes natural to do that which seemed impossible not long ago.

Barbara Byers

Location: Oakland, Calif.

Occupation: I sing with Kitka, and I am a caterer, fishmonger, sound designer and composer.

Connection to Balkan music/dance: I play oud and study on my own, and also [sing] with Kitka. For dancing, I go to community dances when they happen, and go to as many Balkan shows as I can to dance the night away.

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

Studied at camp: I took Michele’s [Simon’s] vocal techniques class, Greek singing with Christos [Govetas], Turkish singing with Bob [Beer], and Greek ensemble with Lise Liepman. I ended up for the fifth slot trying something new every day, including Serbian dance, brass band, kemençe, Rhodope singing and beginning tapan.

Memorable moment at camp: I was so touched by the way the community opened its arms to me, both socially and artistically. I had injured my wrist previous to coming to camp and so I wasn’t able to play oud as I had hoped. I was on my way mournfully to an empty second period, when I passed Lise’s Greek ensemble, and it was so glorious I couldn’t help but stick right where I was. I got an idea that perhaps I could join them, learning the tunes just with my voice. I was a little nervous to ask, but when I did, I was met with such enthusiasm and support that all my fear melted away. I was able to sing with the ensemble the whole week, and learn songs which came up later that summer as I was in Greece studying music with the Labyrinth program.

Mik Bewsky

Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Occupation: I guess technically I’m unemployed, but I am often designing t-shirts and logos for people for money.

Connection to Balkan music/dance: I intersect with Balkan music for the rest of the year by playing [guitar] along to recordings usually, or if I’m on the left coast I can play Balkan music with real people!

Number of times at Balkan camp: This was my second year at Balkan Camp and there are sure to be more.

Studied at camp: I was studying mostly rebetika at camp.

Memorable moment at camp: An experience that really stuck out to me this year was watching Vlado [Pupinoski] and Kalin [Kirilov] play casually at the smokers’ table. They were just having musical conversation; changing so often in between new melodies but totally on the same page at all times. Then, after a twenty-minute medley of absolute mind destruction for the audience, they would have a cigarette and leave it between their fingers while they played the next tune like it was nothing. It was something I had never seen before.