featuring: True Life Trio, Drómeno, and Balkan Ensemble Meraklii with Eva Salina!
Doors at 8 PM / Show at 8:30 PM
New Year’s Eve at Ashkenaz is traditionally a night of Balkan music, in honor of the late Ashkenaz founder David Nadel and the music he first featured at his world dance club. It has been known to go into the wee hours.
TICKETS:
(include midnight champagne toast)
GA Presale: $35
GA DoS: $45
(Kids under 12 are welcome for FREE)
DRÓMENO
DRÓMENO pulls from the deep currents of the intertwined traditions of Greece and the Balkans to bring you magnetic harmonies and intoxicating rhythms skipping across the borders of Northern Greece. Headed by Ethnic Heritage Council award-winning couple Christos Govetas and Ruth Hunter on clarinet, accordion, and voices, this group follows the tradition of legacy bands from the Balkans, including their grown children, Eleni and Bobby Govetas on bass, violin, and saxophone. They are joined by Mik Bewsky on guitar, and Nico Sophiea on percussion.
TRUE LIFE TRIO
True Life Trio’s music is all about harmony. The fiery voices of these three women spin and interweave, traveling from Ukrainian village tunes, to Greek polyphony to Louisiana two-steps. Bulgaria to the Bayou. On paper, it’s an unlikely combination but in person, it feels just right. Like the rugged mountains, tangled love and legends about which they sing, TLT shows are full of stories and passion. Interspersed with gorgeous vocal performances are tales of their travels and song collecting that bring immediacy to each tune and envelop their audiences in a knowing, warm embrace. You don’t have to speak all of the myriad languages in which TLT sings to be transported to other worlds with them–they bring you right along.
BALKAN ENSEMBLE MERAKLII with EVA SALINA
Bay Area-based Balkan Ensemble Merkalii & Rumen Sali Shopov pick you up and spin you around with their energetic Balkan and Romani dance tunes! Rumen "Sali" Shopov is a master Turkish-Romani drummer, singer, and tambura player from Goce Delchev, Bulgaria, a crossroads town in the Pirin Mountain region that hosts a rich intersection of Bulgarian, Macedonian, Greek, and Turkish musical influences.