Dan Auvil (beg. & int.
tupan)
If you’d like to experience the joys and job opportunities available
from playing a dual-cephalic membranophone, this class is for you. No
prerequisites necessary for beginning students. Career guidance and attitude
assistance may be available for intermediate class. Dan currently plays with
the bands Ziyiá, Édessa, Zabava! Izvorno and occasionally with Balkan Cabaret
and Orkestar Sali. His 30-year involvement with the tupan includes numerous
recordings and has taken him to Bulgaria, Greece, Japan and now Mendocino.
David Bilides' (beg.
Macedonian tambura & Macedonian village ensemble)
first encounters with
Balkan folk music were the weddings, picnics and dances of the Asia Minor
community in which he grew up. In 1974 he helped form the Boston group Evo Nas,
one of the first Balkan village music ensembles in the eastern U.S. He was
fortunate to have performed several times with Pece Atanasovski. He now
resides in Seattle, where he plays Greek music with Pangéo, and accompanies
Dragi Spasovski on kaval and tambura. He also plays Macedonian music with
Slavej and other musicians at various folk music and dance events around the
country.
Lefteris Bournias
(int. & adv. clarinet—Tues.-Fri. only) has been playing clarinet since
the age of 11, and has performed extensively in the U.S. and abroad. As a
young man living in Athens, he took lessons from his neighbor, the famous Rom
clarinetist Vasilis Soukas, and attended the Athens Conservatory. Lefteris
holds a degree in Music Education, is studying towards a Ph.D. in
ethnomusicology, and teaches extensively in the New York City area.
Accomplished in diverse styles, he is well acquainted with traditional Greek
folk, Rom and a la Turka genres, and has performed and recorded with many
acclaimed singers and musicians. Among many other groups, he performs with
Kavala Brass Band and Orkestra Keyif in the NYC area.
Paul Brown (house
bassist—non-teaching) has been playing music for 29 years, studying
bass and composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and oud with
Haig Manoukian and Necati Çelik. He was adjunct music faculty in the
Contemporary Music Department at the College of Santa Fe from 2000 to 2003 and
has been house bassist for the Balkan Music & Dance Workshops since 1995.
During a recent stay in New York City he studied and played with Souren
Baronian’s Taksim and the Aegean Macedonian group Kavala. He also performs
with Orkestra Keyif and Édessa, among others. Explorations into the realm of
the bass have drawn him of late into the tuba.
George Chittenden
(beg./int. zurna; int. & adv. clarinet—latter Sun.-Mon. only) has been
playing Balkan and Turkish music since the mid-70s. He has studied music
extensively abroad, focusing primarily on regional dance music of northern
Greece and Anatolian Turkey, including research into playing techniques on
wind instruments such as the zurna, gaida, and clarinet, as well as the
cultural context for music and dance. George performs regularly for ethnic
communities and folk events throughout the country and abroad. He currently
plays with Ziyiá, a traditional Greek music ensemble, and Édessa, a Bay Area
band known for playing high-energy dance music from the Southern Balkans.
Beth Bahia Cohen (int.
& adv. Greek & Turkish violin) plays the violin, various lyras from
Greece and the Turkish yaylı (bowed) tanbur, performing Greek music with Ziyiá,
Demetri Tashie, Panayotis (Paddy) League, Lefteris Bournias and others. She
has studied and played with eminent composers and instrumentalists in Greece,
Turkey and Hungary. She has performed with Libana, The Klezmer Conservatory
Band, EurAsia Ensemble, Sárkány, Sophia Bilides, Karaváni, and Taxími, and
most recently with Orkestra Keyif. Beth is performing her own and traditional
music on various bowed instruments in solo “Art of the Bow” performances. She
has just produced her first solo CD, entitled “Weaving the Worlds.”
Polly Tapia Ferber
(int. doumbek & int./adv. frame drum) is a music educator, performer
and recording artist who specializes in hand percussion from the Middle East,
Turkey, North Africa, the Balkans and Spanish Andalucía. She has traveled to
Egypt, Greece, Spain, Morocco and Israel, seeking out the finest teachers and
performing with some of the world’s most renowned musicians. Polly currently
plays with several New York City-based bands including Orkestra Keyif, Merak
and Transition. She is on the faculty at the College of Santa Fe in the
Contemporary Music Program where she teaches percussion, develops classes in
world music and women in music, and directs the MidEast/Balkan ensemble there.
Valeri Georgiev (beg.
& int. Bulgarian kaval) is from the Bulgarian Danube town of Ruse. He
studied kaval in Kotel and graduated from the Plovdiv Conservatory with a
degree in folk-ensemble conducting. He performed in the Plovdiv-based ensemble
Puldin, then later directed the folk-theatrical group Najden Kirov and
performed with Orkestur “Horo” in Ruse. Valeri was the composer for the
theater piece “Geracite” and has arranged many folk songs and instumental
melodies. He has accompanied many famous singers, including Kalinka Vulcheva,
Yanka Rupkina, Vesela and Lyuben Bojkovi and Kremena Stancheva. He resides in
the DC area where he plays with Lyuti Chushki.
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Michael Ginsburg
(brass band) has been director and lead trumpet player of Zlatne Uste
Balkan Brass Band since 1983. He accompanied Zlatne Uste to brass band
festivals in Guca, Serbia, three times between 1987 and 1990 and again in
2003. During those visits Michael and his band took advantage of many
opportunities to play and party with local brass bands and to experience the
music in its natural setting. He has worked with some of the leading musicians
of Macedonia, including Kurtis Jasarev Kadriev, Zahir Ramadanov, Stevo
Teodosievski, and members of Kocani Orkestar. In August of 2003 Michael and
Zlatne Uste worked closely with Ekrem Sajdic and Zlatni Prsti brass band in
Vranjska Banja, Serbia.
Christos Govetas
(Greek ens.) see Singing
Kalin Kirilov
(int./adv. accordion & Bulgarian melody & ornamentation), born in Vidin, NW
Bulgaria, began singing and playing the accordion at the age of four and
received his first gold medal as a singer in 1981 at the Koprivshtitsa
Festival. He studied music in Vidin and Pleven and graduated from the Academy
of Music and Dance in Plovdiv in 1998 with a specialization in tambura and
music pedagogy. He received a Master’s Degree in folklore last year from the
University of Oregon, where he is now a Ph.D. student in music theory. Kalin
has performed extensively in Bulgaria and abroad, recorded with Bulgarian
National Radio, and toured the U.S. this past fall with the legendary Ivo
Papasov and Yuri Yunakov.
Nikolay Kolev (beg. &
int. gudulka), a native of Karavelovo in Bulgarian Thrace, has been playing
gudulka since age 10. After graduating from the music school in Shiroka Luka,
he has perfomed constantly, first as soloist of the Sliven folk ensemble and
later as orchestra director of the Sopot folk ensemble. In 1985 Nikolay formed
the folk wedding music ensemble Rozova Dolina, and in 1992 founded the
prize-winning ensemble Balkanski Glasove. Nikolay and Donka Koleva produced a
CD featuring recordings of current and former students of the Shiroka Luka
music school, entitled “Shiroka Laka Singing.” The Kolev family performs in
the New York City area.
Haig Manoukian (int.
oud & makam) was introduced to his instrument and to many great musicians
through the Turkish 78 rpm records treasured by his Turkish-Armenian family.
He took up the oud during his college years and soon found himself living in
New York in the middle of 8th Ave., then the center of a thriving Middle
Eastern music and dance scene. Over the years he has played with many great
Turkish, Greek, Armenian and Arabic musicians. Haig has performed at many
prestigious venues in the U.S. and Europe with his longtime musical partner,
clarinetist Souren Baronian. He repairs and reconditions ouds at his studio in
New York and teaches oud and Eastern music theory at specialized music camps
and workshops.
Tobias Roberson (beg.
& adv. doumbek) began his percussion training at age 14 with the UC Santa
Barbara Middle Eastern Ensemble and has studied in Cairo and Istanbul. Now
living in the Bay Area, Tobias works with many belly dance troupes and
performs Balkan music with Hector Bezanis, The Toids and Stellamara.
Rumen “Sali” Shopov
(int. Bulgarian tambura) is a native of Gotse Delchev, in SW Bulgaria. Master
of the tambura, bouzouki, various drums as well as an accomplished singer, he
was concertmaster of the Nevrokop Folk Ensemble, Bulgaria’s first national
folk ensemble, for more than 20 years. He was also a lead member of two of
Pirin region’s hottest bands, Shturo Make and Orkestur Orbita. In 2002, Rumen
toured the U.S. with the Kolevera Folk Ensemble. Now residing in the Bay Area,
he is leader of Orkestar Sali, a band that captures and showcases the soul of
Rumen’s native Turkish-Romani/Bulgarian musical tradition.
Ivan Varimezov (int.
Thracian gajda & Bulgarian village ens.) was born in Sredets, in eastern
Bulgaria. He began his musical education at the knee of his uncle, the
renowned gajda player Kostadin Varimezov. Ivan graduated from the Plovdiv
Conservatory with a major in instrumental performance and conducting. He
performed with the Trakiya Ensemble in Plovdiv and was soloist with the
Pazardzhik Ensemble as well as the prestigious Philip Koutev and Bulgarian
National Radio ensembles. In 1993 he co-founded the group Balkanfolk and
produced a CD with them. Since 2001 he has taught gajda and conducted the
Balkan folk orchestra at UCLA.
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