Balkan Sundays at Ashkenaz!

Ashkenaz (map)

Our East Bay edition of **Balkan Sundays** is officially here—taking over Ashkenaz every 4th Sunday for a night of brass-fueled, dance-heavy Balkan energy.
This month’s lineup is :
Camelia Boutros
Joey Friedman – Saxophone
Paul Marini – Sousaphone
Marco Peris– Tupan
**Plus YOU?**

Musicians, bring your instruments!
Balkan Sundays isn’t just a concert—it’s a community music session. Whether you play brass, woodwinds, percussion, strings, or just love Balkan music, bring your instrument and jump in! Let’s make this a night of spontaneous, high-energy collaborations*

Don’t miss the launch of East Bay’s new Balkan Sunday ritual!
**P.S.** We’re still working on getting Balkan Sundays back in SF, so stay tuned for updates!

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Kafana Balkan

Rickshaw Stop (map)

Opa! We will be back Saturday March 8th at the Rickshaw Stop for our 18th Anniversay! We’ll be featuring bombastic Balkan Brass with Ismail Lumanovski & Inspector Gadje Balkan Brass Band featuring "Briana Di Mara,Diana Gameros, Kata Miletich, Naima Shalhoub" Belly Dance by the fabulous Jill Parker, DJ Željko .
The dance floor will be hopping!
See footage here
https://youtu.be/_Mx2u-RdW5Q?list=RD_Mx2u-RdW5Q where a line formed around the block, incited an all-night sweat soaked dance party, and ecstatic memories still resonating with those lucky enough to have been there.

Virtuoso clarinetist ISMAIL LUMANOVSKI, a star of the Balkan music scene in the U.S. and abroad, and one of the most popular Romani musicians, performs internationally and leads the New York Gypsy Allstars. Ismail is perhaps the first Roma clarinet player to graduate from the Juilliard School of Music in New York. His sui generis mastery of Western classical and Eastern folk music have elevated both musics to new heights, and indeed to new octaves in the clarinet.

INSPECTOR GADJE Balkan Brass Band brings a big sound to the beautiful and bumpin' brass band music of the Balkans. With 14 musicians sharing the stage, Inspector Gadje is an acoustic dance machine that makes the party move! A "... RIP ROARING MAD BALKAN BRASS BEDLAM" (KPFA'S Stephen Kent, “Music of the World”) and an "instant party atmosphere” (The SF Chronicle).
STEPHEN JAY is a three-time Peabody Award winning composer, bassist and multi-instrumentalist, featured on five GRAMMY winning songs.
www.stephenjay.com. He's also been touring the world as a key member of Weird Al Yankovich's band since its inception.

JILL PARKER is an international, award winning belly dancer. She is an instructor, choreographer, and founder of the modern tribal fusion belly dance movement. She's an exceptional belly dance teacher with a gift for demystifying this sensuous form, making its techniques accessible to new dancers, while offering tremendous insight for refinement to advanced dancers. With over two decades of experience, she has trained many of the top dancers in the genre. Jill is an original member of Fat Chance Belly Dance, founder of Ultra Gypsy. She teaches weekly classes at ODC Commons (SF)

About the presenters: Kafana Balkan was the first ongoing Balkan dance party in San Francisco and is the only one of its kind in the Bay Area. Željko hails from Serbia by way of Frankfurt, and, lucky for us, he now calls San Francisco home. DJ Željko has discriminating taste, a seemingly endless collection of great Balkan albums, and love and joy for his music, a crowd-pleasing, danceable Balkan brass sound. Željko promotes Balkan music and culture by producing Kafana Balkan roughly 3 times a year. Since February 2015, he's joined by Marco Peris Coppola, Creative Co Strategist and Co Booker, who is helping Kafana Balkan grow.

There will be Rakija -delectable Serbian plum brandy. Warning: :drink at your own risk:
More on Ismail Lumanovski -
https://www.ismaillumanovski.com
More on Inspector Gadje -
https://www.inspectorgadje.com
More on Kafana Balkan -
www.facebook.com/kafana.balkan
More on Jill Parker -
www.jillparkerbellydance.com See less
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Orchestra Euphonos + Ionela Guzic & Taraf de Akácfa @ Bacchanal

Berkeley Balkan Bacchanal at the Starry Plough presents Taraf de Akácfa (8-10 pm) and Orchestra Euphonos with Ionela Guzic (10pm to midnight).
$20 general/$15 students. Show starts at 8 pm. Doors open at 7 pm. All ages before 10 pm. 21+ after 10 pm. Food, beer and wine available from the bar until 10 pm.

Ionela Guzic is a talented young singer and a rising star in the world of Romanian traditional music. She has performed with many iconic musicians from Romania and Moldova. Born in Targu Jiu, Romania has received numerous awards at national and international folk music competitions. Her albums and music videos have received with widespread acclaim, was featured on many radio and television stations in Romania, and helped launch Guzic’s international career, including tours in the United States.

Orchestra Euphonos is a Bay Area-based Eastern European folk and klezmer band, performing traditional music from Moldova and Romania. Their performances are joyous occasions filled with wild takes on old favorites, group improvisations, and more than a few opportunities to dance. Guzic first met with Orchestra Euphonos in early 2018 and will finally collaborate again after many years!

Ionela Guzic - vocals, Peter Bonos - trumpet, Zina Pozen - accordion, Asaf Ophir - clarinet, Leo Peringer - bass, Ivan Velev - percussion & Marco Ghezzo - violin

Taraf de Akácfa
from Budapest, Hungary

An evening of Romanian and Moldovan folk music performed by Lulu Starr on violin, Ion Curteanu on cimbalom, Dmitri Gaskin on accordion and Ari Munkres on double bass.

Taraf de Akácfa performes the rich repertoire of Romanian folk music with distinctive interpretations and dynamic arrangements. They focus on the complex, southern Romanian style, Lăutarească, and incorporate a variety of traditional music from Moldova, Transylvania and the Balkans.

Taraf de Akácfa was created in 2014 by traveling street musicians who met in Budapest, Hungary, in an international collective house on Akácfa street. The founding members of the group came from the United States, Sweden, Hungary and France, and eventually chose to stay in Budapest, where they experienced constant musical inspiration and could share their common passion for Eastern European and Balkan folk music. Their current musical repertoire is predominantly centered around Romanian lăutarească, Moldovan and Transylvanian folk music, and they also include a variety of folk music from the Balkans. While the formation of the band has changed and now the majority of the current members are native Hungarians, one thing has always remained; the shared curiosity and enthusiasm for this complex and dynamically rich traditional music. Taraf de Akácfa mixes the different musical and cultural backgrounds of its members, while tastefully blending different styles of folk music with innovative ideas and arrangements. They honor the sources and traditions which they draw upon, all while adding their own unique interpretation and style. Over the years, the members traveled throughout Romania, Moldova and Hungary, researching the origins of the songs which they play. They have had the opportunity to learn from the some of the greatest folk musicians, most notably those of Taraf de Haidouks as well as Marcel Râmba, who heavily influenced their current repertoire. In 2016 the band recorded their first self- titled album in Budapest. In 2018 their second full length album “Trei Focuri” was recorded at Pheonix Studio in Diósd, Hungary.

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